The Detection of Emotions within Facial Expressions
The ability to read and interpret facial expressions is very important, because it can help to „anticipate other people’s most likely next action“ (Julle-Daniere, 2019). By showing photographs of Western faces posing one of the six primary emotions to an isolated tribe from Papa, New Guinea, Paul Ekman and his colleagues confirmed in the 1970ies that the most essential facial expressions are correctly identified cross-culturally. While the recognition of the six primary emotions anger, fear, happiness, disgust, sadness and surprise is „innate and universal“ to all people, secondary emotions „are more likely to be culturally influenced“ and don’t have „prototypical, universal facial expressions“. Unlike in the detection of primary emotions where researchers can rely on „physiological changes“ such as an elevated heart beat, the only method to asses secondary emotions of a subject is to rely on self-report.
Some impressive research about the general perception of facial expression was done in 1938 by Brunswik, E. and Reiter, L. who created a „graphic, schematised normal human face“ (American Psychology Association, 2023). Its proportions could be changed systematically by „changing eye width, height of forehead, position of the mouth and length of the nose.“ After showing 189 different variations to 10 subjects who „gave their rank order preferences“, seven pairs of opposite judgements could be defined by the researchers. They were the following:
„happy-sad“
„young-old“,
„good-bad“,
„symmetric-unsymmetric“,
„beautiful-ugly“,
„intelligent-unintelligent“
Those impressions seem to be the most common ones in the general perception of faces and show a first approach to categorise emotions by assigning them to specific arrangements of facial features.
The even more detailed method of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) was created in the year 1978 by Ekman with his colleague Friesen. It was derived from „an analysis of the anatomical basis of facial movement“ (American Psychological Association, 2023) and can be used to „describe any facial movement (…) in terms of anatomically based action units“. A method to measure „subtle differences in appearance which result from different muscle actions“ was developed. This „comprehensive, anatomically based system“ (PaulElkmanGroup, 2023) helps to describe all „visually discernible facial movement“ by categorising the individual components and finally breaking them down into „Action Units (AUs)“.
Nowadays, there is a lot of research about facial microexpressions, which are defined as „very brief, involuntary facial expressions humans make when experiencing an emotion. They usually last 0.5 – 4.0 seconds and cannot be faked“ (Van Edwards, 2023). After they were first discovered by the researchers Isaac Haggard and Dr. Paul Ekman a lot of microexpression training programs have emerged. They claim that decoding faces is „one of the best people skills you can have“. In total, Ekman has designated the seven facial expressions surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness sadness and contempt. They are the most widely used and „learning to read them is incredibly helpful for understanding the people in our lives.“
The example of surprise
- The eyebrows are raised and curved.
- Skin below the brow is streched.
- Horizontal wrinkles show across the forehead.
- Eyelids are opened, white of the eye showing above and below.
- Jaw drops open and teeth are parted but there is no tension or stretching of the mouth.
Those indicators can be useful when you are looking for a partner, because „when someone is attracted to you, you might notice them giving a brief eyebrow raise called the eyebrow flash“. On the other hand, you might be able to avoid a divorce or work termination, if you are able to detect the expression of contempt in which one side on the mouth is slightly raised. To sum up, learning how to read microexpressions is „an easy skill to learn and extremely useful in both professional and social life“.
Sofie Neudecker, 27.11.2023
Sources.
The Faces of Emotions. Are they universally or culturally varied? Psychology Today. Julle Daniere Eglantine, 2019.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-emotion/201909/the-faces-emotions
Facial Action Coding System. Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1978), American Psychology Association, 2023.
https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Ft27734-000
Facial Action Coding System. PaulEkmanGroup, 2023.
https://www.paulekman.com/facial-action-coding-
http://system/#:~:text=The%20Facial%20Action%20Coding%20System%20%28FACS%29%20is%20a,components%20of%20muscle%20movement%2C%20called%20Action%20Units%20%28AUs%29.
Brunswik, E., & Reiter, L. (1938). Eindrucks-charaktere schematischer Gesichter (Impression characteristics of schematized faces). Zeitschrift für angewandte Psychologie und Charakterkunde, 142, 67-134. American Psychological Association, 2023.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1939-02434-001
The Definite Guide to Reading Microexpressions (Facial Expressions). Body Language. Science of People. Vanessa Van Edwards, 2023.
https://www.scienceofpeople.com/microexpressions/
