Are there universal expressions of emotion? - Sophie Zadeh
The 40 or so muscles in the human face
can be activated in different combinations
to create thousands of expressions.
But do these expressions look the same
and communicate the same
meaning around the world,
regardless of culture?
Is one person’s smile another’s grimace?
Charles Darwin theorized that emotional
expression was a common human feature.
But he was in the minority.
Until the mid-20th century,
many researchers believed
that the specific ways we show emotion
were learned behaviors
that varied across cultures.
Personality theorist Silvan Tomkins
was one of the few to insist otherwise.
Tomkins claimed that certain affects—
emotional states and their associated
facial expressions—
were universal.
In the 1960s, psychologist Paul Ekman
set about testing this theory
by examining hundreds
of hours of film footage
of remote tribes isolated
from the modern world.
Ekman found the native peoples’
expressions to be not only familiar,
but occurring in precisely
the situations he would expect.
Conversely, he ran tests with tribes who
had no prior exposure to Western culture.
They were able to correctly match photos
of different facial expressions
with stories designed
to trigger particular feelings.
Over the next few decades,
further research has
corroborated Darwin’s idea
that some of our most important emotional
expressions are in fact universal.
The degrees of expression appropriate
to a given situation can, however,
vary greatly across cultures.
For instance, researchers
have studied facial expression
in people who are born blind,
hypothesizing that
if expressions are universal,
they would be displayed
in the same way as sighted people.
In one study, both blind
and sighted athletes
displayed the same expressions of emotion
when winning or losing their matches.
Further evidence can be found
in our evolutionary relatives.
Comparisons of facial expression
between humans and non-human mammals
have found similarities in the structure
and movement of facial muscles.
Chimpanzee laughter
looks different from ours,
but uses some of the same
muscle movements.
Back in the 60s, Ekman identified
six core expressions.
Anger is accompanied by lowered
eyebrows drawn together,
tense and narrowed eyes,
and tight lips;
disgust, by the lips pulled up
and the nose crinkling.
In fear, the upper white of the eyes
are revealed as the eyebrows raise
and the mouth stretches open,
while surprise looks similar,
but with rounded eyebrows
and relaxed lips.
Sadness is indicated by the inner corners
of the eyebrows
being drawn inwards and upwards,
drooping eyes,
and a downturned mouth.
And of course there’s happiness:
lips drawn up and back,
and raised cheeks causing wrinkling
around the eyes.
More recently, researchers
have proposed additional entries
such as contempt,
shame,
and disapproval,
but opinions vary
on how distinct boundaries
between these categories can be drawn.
So if Ekman and other researchers
are correct,
what makes certain expressions universal?
And why are they expressed
in these particular ways?
Scientists have a lot of theories rooted
in our evolutionary history.
One is that certain expressions
are important for survival.
Fear and surprise could signal
to others an immediate danger.
Studies of humans and some other primates
have found that we pay more attention
to faces that signal threats
over neutral faces,
particularly when we’re already
on high alert.
Expressions also could
help improve group fitness
by communicating our internal states
to those around us.
Sadness, for example, signals to the group
that something’s wrong.
There’s some evidence that expressions
might be even more directly linked
to our physiology.
The fear expression, for instance,
could directly improve survival
in potentially dangerous situations
by letting our eyes absorb more light
and our lungs take in more air,
preparing us to fight or flee.
There’s still much research to be done
in understanding emotional expression,
particularly as we learn more about
the inner workings of the brain.
But if you ever find yourself
among strangers in a strange land,
a friendly smile could go a long way.
