Facial expression is the combination of motions or positions of the muscles in the skin that conveys theemotional state of the individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form ofnonverbal communication.
There are a lot ofwords for themessages you get from the face (afraid,terrified,horrified,apprehensive,worried, to mention a few of those related tofear), but few to describe the source of those messages. We do have the termssmile,grin,frown,squint, but there are relatively few that identify particular facial configurations, distinctivewrinkle patterns, or temporary shapes of the facial features. Without terms to refer to the face, we arehandicapped in comparing or correcting our interpretations of facial expression. ~Paul EkmanAs anadult, you may be moresensitive to someemotions than to others. What youlearned aboutreadingemotions in your ownfamily might have great applicability tounderstanding others or relatively little, at least for some emotions. Through watchingtelevision, ormovies, or a closefriend, you may have improved upon and added to your knowledge of facial expressions. Although almost everyone correctly reads some facial expressions, few people realize when they makemistakes or why they make them. ~ Paul EkmanAdrian Veidt: I'veknown John long enough to see he isn't devoid ofemotion. His subtle facial twitches wouldn't have been noticed by thelayman but to me, he might as well have beensobbing. ~David Hayter and Alex TseAnervoustic, anunconscious look ofanxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on yourface (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it inNewspeak: FACECRIME, it was called. ~George Orwell
Previousstudies have shown that exposure totraumatic events that put one’slife atrisk may affect processing of facial expressions. Thus, for example, individuals suffering fromPTSD have difficulties in differentiating betweenfearful andneutral faces (e.g., Felmingham, Bryant, & Gordon, 2003). Developmental studies have found thatneglected ormaltreatedchildren demonstrate heightenedsensitivity toanger and fearful expressions, while displaying difficulties in perceiving other expressions such assadness anddisgust (Masten et al., 2008; Pollak, Cicchetti, Hornung, & Reed, 2000; Pollak & Tolley-Schell, 2003). A recent study, which assessed the long-lasting impact of aterrorist attack, found that children who were held ashostages at theRussiantown ofBeslan on September 2004 byChechen rebels were more accurate than nonexposed children in detectingthreat related information such as anger in faces, which were morphed from two prototypical emotions (Scrimin, Moscardino, Capello, Altoe, & Axia, 2009; Scrimin, Moscardino, Capello, & Axia, 2008). Inmilitaryveterans, however, the long-term consequences of life threatening experience on the perception of facial expressions have not been explored before, to the best of ourknowledge.
Results from the current study suggest that behavioral avoidance to certain emotional expressions, particularly negative emotional expressions, may increase delays in identifying those same emotional expressions, which may jointly serve to increase risk for adult sexual revictimization. This interaction appears to be more influential than overall accuracy in identifying facial expressions in predicting risk for adult sexual revictimization.
Through the principle of associatedhabit, the same movements of theface andeyes are practised, and can, indeed, hardly be avoided, whenever weknow orbelieve that others areblaming, or too stronglypraising, ourmoral conduct.
Two studies investigated genderstereotyping inAmericanmagazinephotos. Study 1 compares cover photos ofmen andwomen on face-ism, an index of the degree to which a photo focuses on the face versus the body.Photos ofwomen are found to focus more on theirbodies and photos of men on theirfaces, a finding consistent with previous research. This finding is strongly mediated by other variables, however, particularly thesocial role of the cover person. Study 2 compares the facial expressions, specifically themouth positions, of men and women in advertisements from several popular magazines. Women are significantly more likely than men to be photographed with their mouths open, presumably portraying lessserious expressions.
"We know this to be a primary autonomic response, the so called 'shame' or 'blushing' reaction to a morally shocking stimulus. It can't be controlled voluntarily, as can skin conductivity, respiration, and cardiac rate." He showed her the other instrument, a pencil-beam light. "This records fluctuations of tension within the eye muscles. Simultaneous with the blush phenomenon there generally can be found a small but detectable movement of...
"And these can't be found in androids," Rachael said.
"They're not engendered by the stimuli-questions; no. Although biologically they exist. Potentially."
As anadult, you may be moresensitive to someemotions than to others. What youlearned aboutreadingemotions in your ownfamily might have great applicability tounderstanding others or relatively little, at least for some emotions. Through watchingtelevision, ormovies, or a closefriend, you may have improved upon and added to your knowledge of facial expressions. Although almost everyone correctly reads some facial expressions, few people realize when they makemistakes or why they make them. The rules for translating a particular set of facial wrinkles into thejudgement that a person isangry,afraid, etc. would be very hard for most people to describe. When you follow these rules you do so automatically, on the basis of habits established long so long ago that usually you don’t know how they operate, or even when they operate. In this sense, understanding facial expressions of emotion is like driving acar. You don’t think about what you are doing when you do it. Unlike driving acar, with facial expression there never was an earlier period in which you were specificallytaught theskills. There is nomanual in which you can check how to correct mistakes. There are no equivalents to the trafficcop telling you when you missed or misinterpreted a signal.
Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen,Unmasking the Face, Cambridge MA, (2003), p. 8.
Sometimes you are puzzled by someone’s facial expression; you can’t figure out what he meant. Or you can figure out what he meant by the look on hisface, but you can’t decide whether or not to trust it. It is hard to check impressions with others, because there just isn’t much of avocabulary for describing the face itself. There are a lot ofwords for themessages you get from the face (afraid,terrified,horrified,apprehensive,worried, to mention a few of those related tofear), but few to describe the source of those messages. We do have the termssmile,grin,frown,squint, but there are relatively few that identify particular facial configurations, distinctivewrinkle patterns, or temporary shapes of the facial features. Without terms to refer to the face, we are handicapped in comparing or correcting our interpretations of facial expression.
Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen,Unmasking the Face, Cambridge MA, (2003), p. 8-9.
At best, it is not easy todescribe facial expression.Pictures are needed, because it is avisual phenomenon.
Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen,Unmasking the Face, Cambridge MA, (2003), p. 8-9.
Adrian Veidt: I'veknown John long enough to see he isn't devoid ofemotion. His subtle facial twitches wouldn't have been noticed by thelayman but to me, he might as well have beensobbing.
Anervoustic, anunconscious look ofanxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on yourface (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it inNewspeak: FACECRIME, it was called.
As texting has become the default discourse for an entire generation, the ability to read real-life facial expressions and body language is alarmingly atrophying.
Camille Paglia,Provocations: Collected Essays on Art, Feminism, Politics, Sex, and Education
In summary, our results showed no sex differences in the rapid detection of emotional compared with emotionally neutral expressions. However, we did observe sex differences in the subjective ratings of facial stimuli and the relationship between ratings and RTs. Females reported a stronger qualitative response to the emotional facial expressions of others than did males. Furthermore, emotional arousal enhanced the detection of facial expressions more strongly in females than in males, whereas negative feelings facilitated the detection of facial expressions more clearly in males than in females. These findings suggest females and males differ in their subjective emotional reactions to facial expressions and that this difference leads to subsequent differences in the ways in which emotion modulates the detection of emotional facial expressions.
Patients withschizophrenia demonstrate abnormalities in early visual encoding of facial features that precedes the ERP response typically associated with facial affect recognition. This suggests that affect recognition deficits, at least forhappy andsad discrimination, are secondary to faulty structural encoding of faces. The association of abnormal face encoding with delusions may denote the physiological basis for clinical misidentification syndromes.
Impairedemotional functioning is a core feature of schizophrenia described by Eugen Bleuler (1911)nearly 100 years ago. Emotional abnormalities in schizophrenia are now receiving more attention by clinicians and investigators and include a variety of symptoms such as flat or constricted affect, inappropriate affect, and depression (Kohler et al., 2000a). In addition to negative symptoms' influence on the experience and expression of emotions, there is evidence that schizophrenia patients are impaired in recognizing and discriminating facial emotions (Morrison et al., 1988; Mandal et al., 1998; Edwards et al., 2001; Kohler et al., 2003). It is unclear whether emotion recognition deficits represent a specific or generalized form of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia (Kerr and Neale, 1993; Whittaker et al., 2001), yet recent studies show that emotion processing deficits are uniquely related to clinical symptoms (Kohler et al., 2000b; Silver et al., 2002; Sachs et al., 2004).
