Heider And Simmel Animation

Here's an interesting animation I found whilst doing research for the PRP essay -



This was an animation made in the 1940's for an experiment into 'apparent behaviour'. Participants were asked some questions about the three shapes after viewing this video, and, unsuprisingly, the majority of people viewed the large triangle as a villainous bully, the circle as tense and scared, and the small triangle as more relaxed, and more eager to provoke the larger triangle. This is pretty much the impression I got from watching the film too.
Later on, an experiment was carried out by Sandra K. Marshall and Annabel J. Cohen, whereby the same experiment was carried out but this time played to different participants with and without sound. Different sounds were able to distort or strengthen the emotions and actions percieved by most viewers.
This is great evidence for my research project, and I also think it'd be useful research for any animation topics too as it demonstrates really well how you can give an inanimate object a clearly defined character.

EDIT : Here's another awesome example of how sound can give and emphasize character.