Abstract
The physical properties of genuine and deliberate facial expressions remain elusive. This study focuses on observable dynamic differences between genuine and deliberate expressions of surprise based on the temporal structure of facial parts during emotional expression. Facial expressions of surprise were elicited using multiple methods and video recorded: senders were filmed as they experienced genuine surprise in response to a jack-in-the-box (Genuine), other senders were asked to produce deliberate surprise with no preparation (Improvised), by mimicking the expression of another (External), or by reproducing the surprised face after having first experienced genuine surprise (Rehearsed). A total of 127 videos were analyzed, and moment-to-moment movements of eyelids and eyebrows were annotated with deep learning-based tracking software. Results showed that all surprise displays were mainly composed of raising eyebrows and eyelids movements. Genuine displays included horizontal movement in the left part of the face, but also showed the weakest movement coupling of all conditions. External displays had faster eyebrow and eyelid movement, while Improvised displays showed the strongest coupling of movements. The findings demonstrate the importance of dynamic information in the encoding of genuine and deliberate expressions of surprise and the importance of the production method employed in research.
Highlights
Research considering expression dynamics has employed a data-driven approach, rooted in perceptual emotion categorization of o bservers[14,15]
The current study investigated whether genuine surprise displays differ from deliberate displays produced using varying methods and the differences in their temporal features
The results indicated three key findings for the spatio-temporal features of surprise displays
Summary
Research considering expression dynamics has employed a data-driven approach, rooted in perceptual emotion categorization of o bservers[14,15]. Zloteanu et al.[8,19] have already recorded four different deliberate surprise displays as well as spontaneous surprise displays: Spontaneous surprise display in response to a jack-in-the-box, which can be described as the unexpected and schema-discrepant eliciting event, was filmed (Genuine condition) This manipulation is justified as Ekman et al.[36] suggest that the surprised expressions are produced by the unexpectedness of such an event. This research showed that genuine surprise showed the raising eyelid movement (AU5) occurred earlier than the raising eyebrow movement (AU1 + 2), while deliberate surprise showed both eyebrow and eye movements simultaneously (AU1 + 2 + 5) This finding has been investigated using manual facial action coding, and an automatic sampling of the configuration of points (landmarks) from facial expressions might be better for uncovering fine-grained dynamic features of facial expression including follow-follower relationship between eyebrow and eyelid movements
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