Evidence for a nonverbal expression of triumph

An expression signaling victory in agonistic encounters may help to establish status and dominance in a hierarchy. We investigated the possibility that an expression of triumph is such a signal. In Study 1, spontaneous expressions of athletes who had just won a medal at the 2004 Olympic Games were shown to three groups of observers who judged the emotion portrayed. All were given a set of common response alternatives that included Anger, Contempt, Disgust, Fear, Joy, Sadness, Surprise, Neutral, and Other. Group 1 was also given Pride, Group 2 Triumph, and Group 3 both Pride and Triumph. Group 1 labeled some expressions as pride, but Group 2 labeled all the expressions as triumph. For Group 3, some expressions were consistently labeled as triumph, and others as pride. Behavioral coding indicated that the expressions labeled triumph were distinct from other expressions. In Study 2, we replicated this finding with a judgment task involving more positive emotion choices to eliminate the possibility that the previous findings occurred because of a limited number of positive emotion labels. In Study 3, we replicated the findings again in two groups of observers from South Korea using two different judgment tasks. These findings suggest that triumph may have a unique nonverbal expression.