Facial Expression Of Emotion

Abstract

Abstract The study of facial expression of emotion has long been the focus of theoretical controversy and empirical research (e.g., Allport, 1924; Birdwhistell, 1963; Coleman, 1949; Darwin, 1872/1998; Ekman, 1973, 1994; Fridlund, 1991; Hunt, 1941; Landis, 1924; Mead, 1975; Munn, 1940; Osgood, 1966; Russell, 1994; Schlosberg, 1954; Woodworth, 1938). In studies of facial expression, researchers have addressed how emotions develop, to what extent the information they convey is best captured verbally by discrete categories or scalar dimensions, whether emotions have distinct biological substrates, and the extent to which facial expressions of emotion are universal and how they vary across cultures. In this chapter, we first briefly review the history of the study of facial expression, highlighting the ebb and flow of theory on the aforementioned issues. We then review evidence relevant to three long-standing questions in the field: Are facial expressions accurate indicators of emotion? In which respects are facial expressions of emotion universal and in which ways are they culturally specific? And are the states signaled or represented by facial expressions of emotion best viewed as discrete systems or dimension-based entities? We conclude by highlighting more recent developments in the study of facial expression, focusing on how facial expressions shape social interaction and how individual variations in facial expression relate to personality and psychopathology. The contemporary study of facial expression was profoundly shaped by Darwin’s Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872/1998). In this book, Darwin described distinct facial expressions of different emotions, thus setting the stage for discrete theories of emotion (e.g., Ekman, 1993). He also described the likely meaning of individual muscle actions (e.g., the furrowed brow), an intellectual foray that in part inspired componential theories of facial expression (Smith & Scott, 1997). He described similarities between human expressions and those of other species—an emphasis that guides research to this day (see chapter 24, this volume). And he argued that facial expressions were universal, and even obtained data from informants in different countries and within England, and analyzed observers’ responses to different expressions. Although Darwin’s influence is clear today, it would be almost 100 years before psychologists would conduct research to explore Darwin’s insights.