Abstract
Real-world studies show that the facial expressions produced during pain and orgasm-two different and intense affective experiences-are virtually indistinguishable. However, this finding is counterintuitive, because facial expressions are widely considered to be a powerful tool for social interaction. Consequently, debate continues as to whether the facial expressions of these extreme positive and negative affective states serve a communicative function. Here, we address this debate from a novel angle by modeling the mental representations of dynamic facial expressions of pain and orgasm in 40 observers in each of two cultures (Western, East Asian) using a data-driven method. Using a complementary approach of machine learning, an information-theoretic analysis, and a human perceptual discrimination task, we show that mental representations of pain and orgasm are physically and perceptually distinct in each culture. Cross-cultural comparisons also revealed that pain is represented by similar face movements across cultures, whereas orgasm showed distinct cultural accents. Together, our data show that mental representations of the facial expressions of pain and orgasm are distinct, which questions their nondiagnosticity and instead suggests they could be used for communicative purposes. Our results also highlight the potential role of cultural and perceptual factors in shaping the mental representation of these facial expressions. We discuss new research directions to further explore their relationship to the production of facial expressions.
Highlights
Real-world studies show that the facial expressions produced during pain and orgasm—two different and intense affective experiences— are virtually indistinguishable
Using the above data-driven method, we modeled a total of 160 dynamic mental representations of facial expression of pain and orgasm (40 observers × 2 cultures × 2 affective states)
We refer to these as “models.” Each model is represented as a 1 × 42-dimensional binary vector detailing the AUs that are significantly associated with the perception of each affective state plus seven values detailing the temporal dynamics of each significant AU
Summary
Real-world studies show that the facial expressions produced during pain and orgasm—two different and intense affective experiences— are virtually indistinguishable. Debate continues as to whether the facial expressions of these extreme positive and negative affective states serve a communicative function We address this debate from a novel angle by modeling the mental representations of dynamic facial expressions of pain and orgasm in 40 observers in each of two cultures (Western, East Asian) using a data-driven method. Studies of real-world scenarios show that people experiencing intense negative or positive affect—for example, pain or orgasm—spontaneously produce facial expressions that are very similar [1,2,3,4] This finding is counterintuitive, because facial expressions are widely considered to be a powerful tool for human social communication and interaction, including the socially relevant states of extreme positive and negative affect [5,6,7]. To derive these facial expression models, we used a data-driven technique based on reverse correlation [17] that generates face movements agnostically—that is, with minimal assumptions about which face movements represent which messages to whom [15, 18]
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