"Hiyori, are you angry?"
Kaito asked nervously. In the club room, Hiyori was silently looking out the window.
"I'm not angry," Hiyori answered quietly.
"But you haven't said anything for a while."
"I'm just tired."
Kaito looked at Sora with a confused face. "Sora, is Hiyori really not angry?"
Sora observed. "Her expression looks calm, but... she is talking less than usual."
Hiyori sighed. "I'm really not angry. Why do you think so?"
"Because you're different from usual," Kaito answered.
Sora intervened. "This might be an interesting case. The difficulty of emotion recognition."
"Emotion recognition?"
"Reading someone's emotions. But it's not always accurate."
Hiyori sat up straight. "Kaito interpreted my signs of tiredness as anger."
"It's a misreading of nonverbal communication," Sora explained. "We infer emotions from facial expressions, tone of voice, posture, etc., but those interpretations are influenced by the observer's experience and biases."
Kaito apologized. "Sorry, Hiyori. I jumped to conclusions."
"It's okay. But it is complex," Hiyori thought. "I might not have been accurately conveying my emotions either."
Sora opened her notebook. "Emotions have temperature and intensity. But expressing them accurately in words is difficult."
"Temperature?" Kaito asked.
"Even anger has stages, from irritation to rage. Sadness too, from loneliness to despair."
Hiyori added. "And the same expression can mean different things depending on context."
"For example?"
"A smile can be from joy, or to hide tension. Tears can be from happiness or sadness."
Kaito understood. "So you can't tell just from the surface."
Sora continued. "Furthermore, emotional expression differs by culture. Some cultures express directly, while others express modestly."
"Is Japan modest?"
"Relatively yes," Hiyori answered. "So we need to read subtle nuances."
Sora asked. "Hiyori, are you really just tired? Is there anything else on your mind?"
After thinking a bit, Hiyori answered. "Actually... I had a research presentation today, and it didn't go well."
"That must have been difficult."
"But I wasn't angry. Just down."
Kaito reflected. "I completely misread it. I mistook depression for anger."
"Why did you think it was anger?" Sora asked.
"Well... I'm always making people angry, so I might have assumed that."
Hiyori laughed. "Kaito's past experiences influenced this interpretation."
"Like confirmation bias?"
"Close," Sora explained. "It's also called expectation effects. You make predictions based on past experiences and interpret information to match those predictions."
Hiyori said gently, "But I'm glad you checked. You asked 'Are you angry?'"
"But maybe I was being nosy."
"No. What's important in communication is confirmation. Not deciding based on assumptions alone."
Sora added. "In psychology, it's called 'metacommunication.' Communication about communication."
"Sounds difficult," Kaito said.
"Simply put, it's confirming 'What did you mean by that?' 'How do you feel?'"
Hiyori nodded. "That reduces misunderstandings."
Kaito became serious. "From now on, I'll confirm more. I won't just assume."
"That's a good attitude," Sora acknowledged.
Hiyori stood up. "Actually, that earlier silence was me thinking about how to talk about it. I needed time to sort out my emotions."
"Silence has meaning too."
"Yes. Not all silence means anger or rejection."
Sora summarized. "Reading emotional temperature accurately is difficult. So both observation and confirmation are important."
The three began cleaning up the club room.
"We learned something good today," Kaito said.
"Emotions are complex, so we make mistakes. But if you have the attitude to correct them, it's okay," Hiyori smiled.
Afternoon light illuminated the club room. The journey of reading emotional temperature continues.