Facial expression determines the meaning and character of your life. You've probably seen gloomy and anxious people walking down the street more than once. You've seen them in the subway, on public transport. They are tense, sad and unhappy. And it seems that all the sorrow of the world is reflected in their gaze. But, for sure, you would be surprised to find that in their life not everything is as bad as it is written on their face. They're just not used to watching their facial expressions.
You have noticed more than once that for some reason you are repulsed by beautiful people, with regular facial features and even regular smiles. And, on the contrary, some unpresentable person is attracted. With large ears, a hooked nose, irregular proportions of face and body. But there is something about him, elusive, charismatic, as if flowing from within and clearly reflected in the expression of his face.
Why don't we like tragic faces?
Here comes a woman. All hunched over, frowning, looking from under her brows. It seems to pierce you with his gaze, like a sword or knitting needle. And you involuntarily feel guilty for what is happening to her, although you have nothing to do with her. The feeling of guilt that we experience towards someone latently forms our hostility towards this person. Although on the external plane we can express sympathy and even cry together. But we subconsciously fence ourselves off. Our psyche protects itself from negativity.Those who think that being constantly preoccupied or guaranteeing sympathy, attention and additional bonuses in communication are deeply mistaken. Everything is exactly the opposite. Everyone tries to avoid such sad people. Including those closest to you.
Well, tell me, how long can you sympathize with a person who does absolutely nothing to improve his condition? Once, twice, three times you sympathize... And then a legitimate thought appears: “Why should I always take on part of his problems? Why doesn't he lift a finger to save himself? But isn’t he stealing my good mood, energy, sympathy from me? Is he cheating? After these questions, a completely logical thought appears that it’s enough to sponsor a mental lazy person, because all his misfortunes are just a screen for receiving some preferences, a convenient position for doing nothing, a deception with the help of which he feeds off other people psychologically, mentally and sometimes financially. You want to stay away from such a person.
On the contrary, we are drawn to those who are joyful and cheerful, smiling and open. We read in their facial expressions a healthy acceptance of life. We are charged with optimism from them, especially since they give it disinterestedly and completely harmlessly to themselves. This optimism has a peculiarity; it seems to overflow over the edge of a full cup and imperceptibly spread around, filling the life of this person and all the people around him with warm, joyful light.
But if you tried to ask this merry fellow about his life, you would be surprised to discover that there are a huge number of problems in his life. Maybe even bigger and more serious than yours. But the expression on his face with which he wakes up and goes on through life does not allow him to become despondent. Facial expression controls him. Takes you to the right places at the right time. Connects with the right people. Opens the necessary doors.
It seems to you that it’s all about abilities, talents and outlook on life. Yes, sure. But the most important thing, what we sometimes are not aware of and what imperceptibly straightens or distorts, is the expression of our face. Literally and figuratively.
Watch your facial expressions
Do you feel like you don't need to work on your facial expression? “What’s more, I already have enough reasons for stress: work, home, children, husband, neighbor with her claims, mother-in-law with her advice... - am I really going to put another problem on myself: watching my facial expression?” If you don’t want to, don’t decide who your doctor is. But here's the paradox: solving this one problem can save you from all of the above problems in one fell swoop. With just one facial expression.We often wonder why ours have become so dull and uninteresting, why we are always in a bad mood and tired. It's all about facial expression! Many people, instead of working on their own and other people's facial expressions, simply change their faces. If we don’t like the expression on the wife’s (husband’s) face, we change the wife (husband). Since she (he) does not want to work on her facial expression.
A person's facial muscles are constantly tense. We do not control the expression of our face, we do not see it every minute, and it sometimes takes on a very undesirable and even repulsive appearance, which frightens those around us.
What to do? Shouldn't you carry a mirror with you and stare at it all the time?
Wear and stare! At least for the first time, until you feel when and how your facial expression changes and learn to control it. Otherwise, they may think of you that with such a face it is most convenient to listen to you on the radio and on the phone. And you won’t even know about it, you’ll just wonder why no one wants to communicate with you live. Record for yourself the facial expression in which you are most happy, relaxed, inspired, and joyful. Remember this state. Remember what your facial expression is when you do this. No matter how stupid it may sound, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to you. Do it! And call, remember, build when you walk down the street or ride on a tram.
No need to wear a mask! Just remember that state! Tune your harp to that state. And the facial expression will automatically adapt to its sound.
Perhaps we should remember that at twenty years old our face is what nature gave us, and at fifty it is what we did to ourselves with the help of our facial expression, which is most often inherent in us.
“Fate is written on the face” (F. Fellini)
Remember!
“You are the light of the world. A city standing on top of a mountain cannot hide. And having lit a candle, they do not put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. So let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)
Know a liar by his facial expression
Preface to the Russian edition
The book “Know a Liar by Their Facial Expression” was written by the famous American psychologist Paul Ekman in collaboration with Wallace Friesen. Paul Ekman is one of the largest researchers of human facial expressions. In all modern psychology textbooks, his name is mentioned in sections devoted to the problems of expressing emotions. This publication reflects the results of numerous experimental studies by P. Ekman and his colleagues, conducted on hundreds of people in different countries of the world.
The human face is an amazingly organized screen, where the subtlest movements of the soul are reflected through the movements of facial muscles. The most interesting thing is that, despite individual and cultural differences between people, we all have common, genetically determined programs for how exactly our emotions (joy, anger, fear, surprise, etc.) are expressed in the form of abbreviations of very specific ensembles facial muscles: forehead, eyebrows, eyelids, cheeks, lips, chin. If you belong to the species Homo Sapiens, then, by and large, it doesn’t matter who you are: an Australian aborigine, an African pygmy, a white European or an American Indian - the general patterns of facial movements when experiencing a particular emotion will be fundamentally similar. And on top of this similarity, cultural differences are superimposed in the process of socialization, which Paul Ekman also studied. So, for example, joy in all people is expressed by a smile, but it will be different for a Russian, an American and a Japanese.
When communicating with a person, we look at his face, because we feel that the changeability of the face reflects changes in the state of the interlocutor and his attitude towards us. But it is one thing to look, and another to see. Ekman's research has shown that people vary dramatically in their ability to read and understand human faces. It turns out that a sophisticated professional is able to notice movements of a partner’s face that pass in hundredths of a second (this is the limit for our vision). Usually, observant people can recognize facial mines that last tenths of a second. It’s like in novels: the hero “saw a shadow of slight displeasure run across the guest’s face.” But there are also people who notice that their partner is upset only when he cries.
The ability to read human faces is necessary for everyone, but especially for psychologists, teachers, diplomats, lawyers, doctors, actors, police officers, salesmen, that is, those who work with people. It was for these groups of professionals that Paul Ekman created training programs that taught how to quickly and accurately distinguish a person’s emotions by his facial expressions. These trainings and the practical work of Ekman and his colleagues later formed the basis of the famous American television series “Fool Me If You Can,” which is now familiar to Russian viewers.
The book you hold in your hands is a practical guide for those who want to learn how to read people's faces like an open book. Actually, Ekman’s research showed that the face itself is designed by nature to notify others about a person’s mood, and therefore gives us the opportunity to correctly navigate relationships with him.
We learn the art of understanding facial expressions from infancy, but not everyone is good at it. The book by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen provides the reader with a unique opportunity to gradually, step by step, master all the intricacies of this skill necessary for life. This book has no analogues in world psychological literature.
The publication is equipped with excellent illustrative material and very clear, accessible explanations. Perhaps some topics will be of particular interest to you. But those who want to achieve a highly professional level of reading human facial expressions, according to Paul Ekman, will need about 120 hours to work through all the tasks in detail. However, it's worth it - because the ability to read people's faces is the basis of the art of communication.
M. V. Osorina, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor, Faculty of Psychology, St. Petersburg State University
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for the opportunity to conduct research on facial expressions and body movements for eighteen years. Paul Ekman was able to start them after receiving NIMH fellowship and research privileges 1955–1957 as part of a doctoral dissertation program. During their military service from 1958 to 1960, Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen became research assistants at NIMH, and Friesen officially joined the institute's research project in 1965. Receiving a postdoctoral fellowship allowed Ekman to conduct research from 1960 to 1963. Later, when his teaching activities began to limit his research opportunities, the award NIMH The Advancement Award allowed Paul Ekman's team to continue the work they had begun from 1966 to 1972. Throughout these years, whenever critical situations arose, the late Bert Boote, Director of the Office of Research Fellows, provided effective assistance and invaluable advice. adviсe. From 1963 to the present Clinical Research Department NIMH has consistently supported and continues to support research into body movements and facial expressions of emotion. This support allowed the study of psychiatric patients and made joint work possible starting in 1965.
Problems in understanding facial expressions arise because people don't look at each other enough. Because most emotional expressions are short-lived, you often miss important messages. Some facial expressions are particularly short-lived, lasting only a split second. We call them microexpressions. Most people don't notice them or they fail to recognize their importance. Even macro expressions that are more familiar to the eye last only 2–3 seconds. It is extremely rare that facial expressions of emotion last for 5–10 seconds. In such cases, the feeling must be strong, so much so that it may simultaneously be expressed vocally through crying, laughter, roaring or a stream of words. However, more often than not, the longest facial expressions of emotion are not sincere, but feigned, when the person being observed exaggerates the emotion. This becomes obvious when you watch a person performing a role on stage. Sometimes a person does not play a role, but uses a false expression to show emotion without taking responsibility for it.
Controlling facial expressions is not easy. Most people manipulate expressions, but they do it less than perfectly. People are more accustomed to lying with words than with their faces (and with their faces more common than with body movements). This is probably due to the fact that people are more responsible for their words than for their facial expressions. More often than not, comments are made on what you say rather than on what you express with your facial expressions. It is easier for you to watch your words when you speak than to watch your face. Facial expressions can be very transient, meaning they appear and disappear in a fraction of a second. When using words, you can easily put yourself in the shoes of the person receiving your message and hear everything that he hears. With facial expressions everything turns out to be much more complicated. You can hear your speech, control every word you say, but you cannot see the expression on your face, since this is simply not given to you. Instead, you have to rely on a less accurate source of information about what's happening on your face - feedback provided by your facial muscles. Since people have less control over their facial expressions and have less ability to observe, falsify or suppress them than their words, it is the analysis of facial expressions that can provide a correct determination of a person's real feelings. But because people are taught to control their facial expressions, because people can suppress involuntary facial reactions or act out what they don't actually feel, facial expressions can deceive you. What to do? Most people use the following simple rules for this:
The eyes most often “tell the truth.”
If a person says that he is experiencing some emotion, but does not show any emotion, then you should not believe the words. For example, a person may say that he feels angry or happy, but at the same time he appears completely emotionless.
If a person states that he is experiencing a negative emotion, but at the same time shows a smile on his face, then you can believe either his words or his smile. Everything will depend on the situation. For example, if a person says that he is afraid of the dentist, but smiles, then you interpret the smile not as a denial of the words, but as a social commentary and believe the words. If a woman deceives a man’s hopes, does it easily and naturally, and he declares with a smile that he is terribly angry about this, then such words should not inspire confidence.
If a person does not express his feelings in words, but shows them on his face, then you believe what his face says, especially if he verbally denies the emotions he is experiencing. For example, if a person says, “I'm not surprised at all,” but looks surprised, then you believe that he is surprised.
These rules are probably not always true. If you do not want to be misled, and unless you are dealing with someone who is a professional liar with their face, then you need to recognize the signs of information leaks and the symptoms of deception. A leak can be defined as an unintentional "treasonable" display of an emotion that a person is trying to hide. With the symptom of deception, you understand that facial control is indeed happening, but you do not understand the true emotion - you simply learn that you are receiving inadequate information. When a person tries to neutralize the anger that he really feels, but does not do it very well, then you can notice traces of his anger (leakage). Or he may successfully neutralize the expression of anger by putting on a poker face; however, it looks unnatural, and you understand that the person is not reflecting the feeling that he really experiences (a symptom of deception).
Four aspects of facial expression that will tell you that a person controls the expression of various emotions. The first such aspect is morphology - the specific configuration of elements of appearance: short-term changes in the shape of facial elements and wrinkles expressing emotions. It is important that one part of the face is more often masked than others, but where to look for a false and where a true feeling depends on the specific emotion. The second aspect is the temporal characteristics of the expression of emotion on the face: how quickly it appears, how long it lasts and how quickly it disappears. The third aspect is related to the place of manifestation of emotion during the conversation. The fourth aspect relates to microfacial expressions that occur as a result of interruptions in facial expressions.
Preface to the Russian edition
The book “Know a Liar by Their Facial Expression” was written by the famous American psychologist Paul Ekman in collaboration with Wallace Friesen. Paul Ekman is one of the largest researchers of human facial expressions. In all modern psychology textbooks, his name is mentioned in sections devoted to the problems of expressing emotions. This publication reflects the results of numerous experimental studies by P. Ekman and his colleagues, conducted on hundreds of people in different countries of the world.
The human face is an amazingly organized screen, where the subtlest movements of the soul are reflected through the movements of facial muscles. The most interesting thing is that, despite individual and cultural differences between people, we all have common, genetically determined programs for how exactly our emotions (joy, anger, fear, surprise, etc.) are expressed in the form of abbreviations of very specific ensembles facial muscles: forehead, eyebrows, eyelids, cheeks, lips, chin. If you belong to the species Homo Sapiens, then, by and large, it doesn’t matter who you are: an Australian aborigine, an African pygmy, a white European or an American Indian - the general patterns of facial movements when experiencing a particular emotion will be fundamentally similar. And on top of this similarity, cultural differences are superimposed in the process of socialization, which Paul Ekman also studied. So, for example, joy in all people is expressed by a smile, but it will be different for a Russian, an American and a Japanese.
When communicating with a person, we look at his face, because we feel that the changeability of the face reflects changes in the state of the interlocutor and his attitude towards us. But it is one thing to look, and another to see. Ekman's research has shown that people vary dramatically in their ability to read and understand human faces. It turns out that a sophisticated professional is able to notice movements of a partner’s face that pass in hundredths of a second (this is the limit for our vision). Usually, observant people can recognize facial mines that last tenths of a second. It’s like in novels: the hero “saw a shadow of slight displeasure run across the guest’s face.” But there are also people who notice that their partner is upset only when he cries.
The ability to read human faces is necessary for everyone, but especially for psychologists, teachers, diplomats, lawyers, doctors, actors, police officers, salesmen, that is, those who work with people. It was for these groups of professionals that Paul Ekman created training programs that taught how to quickly and accurately distinguish a person’s emotions by his facial expressions. These trainings and the practical work of Ekman and his colleagues later formed the basis of the famous American television series “Fool Me If You Can,” which is now familiar to Russian viewers.
The book you hold in your hands is a practical guide for those who want to learn how to read people's faces like an open book. Actually, Ekman’s research showed that the face itself is designed by nature to notify others about a person’s mood, and therefore gives us the opportunity to correctly navigate relationships with him.
We learn the art of understanding facial expressions from infancy, but not everyone is good at it. The book by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen provides the reader with a unique opportunity to gradually, step by step, master all the intricacies of this skill necessary for life. This book has no analogues in world psychological literature.
The publication is equipped with excellent illustrative material and very clear, accessible explanations. Perhaps some topics will be of particular interest to you. But those who want to achieve a highly professional level of reading human facial expressions, according to Paul Ekman, will need about 120 hours to work through all the tasks in detail. However, it's worth it - because the ability to read people's faces is the basis of the art of communication.
M. V. Osorina, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor, Faculty of Psychology, St. Petersburg State University
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for the opportunity to conduct research on facial expressions and body movements for eighteen years. Paul Ekman was able to start them after receiving NIMH fellowship and research privileges 1955–1957 as part of a doctoral dissertation program. During their military service from 1958 to 1960, Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen became research assistants at NIMH, and Friesen officially joined the institute's research project in 1965. Receiving a postdoctoral fellowship allowed Ekman to conduct research from 1960 to 1963. Later, when his teaching activities began to limit his research opportunities, the award NIMH The Professional Advancement Award allowed Paul Ekman's team to continue the work they had begun between 1966 and 1972. Throughout these years, whenever critical situations arose, the late Bert Boote, Director of the Office of Research Fellows, provided effective assistance and invaluable advice. adviсe. From 1963 to the present Clinical Research Department NIMH has consistently supported and continues to support research into body movements and facial expressions of emotion. This support allowed the study of psychiatric patients and made joint work possible starting in 1965.
We are also grateful to the Advanced Research Projects Agency ( ARPA) at the US Department of Defense for supporting our research from 1966 to 1970. Lee Hogue, former director of ARPA, convinced us of the importance of studying facial expressions and gestures across cultures. He helped us overcome our reluctance to resolve the debate about the possible universality of facial expressions and gestures. As we began our research in an abandoned corner of New Guinea, Rowena Swanson, who supervised the expenditure of our grant funds, skillfully helped us overcome various administrative and bureaucratic barriers.
We are extremely grateful to Sylvan Tomkins for his infectious enthusiasm for studying facial expressions. He encouraged us to learn to read human faces and teach others to do the same. Over the past ten years, Patsy Garlan has provided us with invaluable assistance as we approached the point in each experiment at which we had to share the results of our work with other people. She always understood us subtly, worked hard to give our reports the necessary shine, critically assessed ideas, looked for ambiguities and contradictions. We are also grateful to the friends, colleagues, and collaborators who have been enthusiastic about our research into the human face and our efforts to teach others what we have learned ourselves. Randall Harrison, John Wear, Allen Ditman, and Stuart Miller made many helpful suggestions on how to present this material in an easy-to-understand way. Harriet Luecke not only retyped our manuscript, but also became its first reader. Nina Hongbo always kept us on track and encouraged us to complete the processing of materials. We cannot name all the people who participated in the research described in this book, but we are grateful for their dedicated work and their extra effort in providing us with the time to write this book.
Book fragment P. Ekman, U. Friesen. Recognize a liar by his facial expression. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2010.
Paul Ekman's new book can be called the second volume of the acclaimed bestseller “The Psychology of Lying.” It is filled with a huge number of carefully selected photographs and special exercises.
Science knows hundreds of experiments devoted to studying the expression of emotions on the face. In our previous books we analyzed these studies in detail, but here we will briefly describe only those that are directly related to the topic of this publication. The information provided in this chapter should help resolve doubts among skeptics about the scientific basis of what is said and shown in subsequent chapters. This chapter is also intended for those who have an interest in ways to study facial expressions of emotion.
What emotions really show on the face?
Does a face only indicate that a person is feeling something pleasant or unpleasant, or does it provide more precise information, such as what unpleasant emotion a person is experiencing? If the latter is true, then how many of these specific emotions does the face show - six, eight, twelve or more? A typical method used to determine what emotions can be read on a face is to show photographs of different facial expressions to observers who are asked to say which emotion they see in each photograph. Observers may be given a pre-constructed list of emotion words from which to choose, or they may choose any words that come to mind to represent the emotions. The researcher analyzes the responses of different observers to determine the emotions on certain faces about which observers agree. A researcher might find, for example, that 80% of observers used the word “scared” to describe a particular person. There may be less consensus about the choice of word to describe another person; for example, a face described by half of the observers as “indifferent” may be described by the remaining observers as expressing different emotions. Based on such results, the researcher makes a conclusion about what emotions a face can convey.
The six emotions discussed in this book—joy, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, and disgust—have been discovered over the past thirty years by every researcher who has attempted to compile a dictionary of emotion labels associated with different facial expressions. There are other emotions that are displayed on the face, such as shame and arousal, but they have not yet been thoroughly studied. Since we will show how not only these six emotions appear on the face, but also thirty-three different combinations of them, our book will cover a fairly large part of the spectrum of expression of emotions on the human face.
How accurate are judgments of emotions?
Determining what emotions are expressed on a given face is not enough. It is also important to find out whether the observers' interpretations are correct or not. When people look at someone's face and decide that person is scared, are they right or wrong? Are facial expressions accurate reflections of emotional experience? Are the impressions obtained by examining facial expressions ordinary stereotypes - unanimously chosen, but not always correct? To study these questions, the researcher needs to find a number of people who are known to have specific emotional experiences. He must take photographs or videos of these people and show them to the observers. If observers' judgments about facial expressions correspond to the researcher's knowledge of the emotional experience of the individual being assessed, then the accuracy of the assessment is beyond doubt.
Most studies of the accuracy of facial expressions have somehow failed to provide conclusive evidence of the validity of their results, usually because the researcher's knowledge of the emotional experiences of the people being rated was imperfect. In our analysis of experiments conducted over the past fifty years, we have indeed found logical and compelling evidence that it is possible to obtain accurate estimates of facial expression. Some of these studies were performed directly in our laboratory. In one experiment, photographs were taken of people with mental illness while they were being admitted to a mental hospital, and then again when they were calm and preparing to be discharged. These photographs were shown to observers who had not undergone special training, and they were asked when the photographs of each facial expression were taken - upon admission to the hospital or at discharge. The estimates turned out to be accurate. The same photographs were then shown to another group of observers, who were not warned that they were seeing photographs of patients in a psychiatric hospital, and they were asked to rate whether the patients' emotions were pleasant or unpleasant. Once again, we were able to obtain accurate ratings because the patients' facial expressions upon admission to the hospital were rated as more unpleasant than the expressions on the same faces upon discharge. In a subsequent study, other observers were asked to rate how pleasant or unpleasant facial expressions were, but the faces shown were those of trainee psychiatrists being interviewed under conditions of emotional distress. Without knowing who was who, observers rated facial expressions during stress as more unpleasant than expressions on faces photographed during the non-stressful phase of the interview. In a completely different experiment, observers were shown two films about college students. One film was filmed while students were watching an unpleasant film about surgery, and the other was filmed while they were watching a pleasant film about travel. Observers were able to accurately determine from the students' facial expressions which movie they were watching.
All of these studies were devoted to the study of spontaneous facial expressions that occur naturally when a person is not intentionally trying to show some kind of emotion on his face. But what can be said about those situations in which a person deliberately tries to portray some kind of emotion on his face in order to look joyful, angry, etc.? Many studies note that observers can accurately determine what emotion is intended when a person deliberately tries to convey an emotion through their facial expression.
Are there universal facial expressions of emotion?
Are facial expressions the same in all people, regardless of their background? When a person experiences anger, will we see this expression on the face regardless of the person's race, culture or language? Or are facial expressions a special language that we have to learn anew in every culture, just like we have to learn a spoken language? Just over a hundred years ago, Charles Darwin wrote that facial expressions of emotion are universal, not learned differently across cultures; that they are biologically determined and are the result of human evolution. Since Darwin, many authors have persistently disagreed with this statement. More recently, however, scientific research has finally settled this question by showing that facial expressions of at least a few emotions (the ones discussed in this book) are certainly universal, although some cultural differences can be observed when examining them.
Research carried out in our laboratory has played a decisive role in resolving the debate about whether facial expressions are universal or specific to each culture. In one experiment, American and Japanese students were shown a stress-inducing film. Each student spent part of the time watching the film alone, and part of the time talking about their experiences to a research assistant who belonged to the same culture as the student. Measurements of actual facial muscle movements captured on video showed that when students watched the film alone, Americans and Japanese had virtually identical facial expressions (Figure 1). However, in the presence of another person, when the culture's rules of facial control (display rules) came into play, there was little correspondence between Japanese and American facial expressions. The Japanese masked facial expressions of unpleasant feelings to a greater extent than the Americans. This research was especially important in demonstrating what is universal in facial expression and what is culture-specific. A universal characteristic is the special appearance of the face for each of the basic emotions. But different cultures have different ideas about how to manage and control facial expressions.
Rice. 1. Example of spontaneous facial expressions of a Japanese man (left) and an American man (right) while watching a stress-inducing movie
In another experiment, we showed photographs of faces with different emotional expressions to observers in the United States, Japan, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. Observers from these different cultures had to choose one word describing one of six basic emotions for each of the photographs they were shown. If facial expressions were a special language, different in different cultures, then the facial expressions called by Americans angry, might be called surprised or scared by Brazilians, or might mean nothing to them at all. However, the results obtained were completely opposite. The same facial expressions were rated as representing the same emotions by representatives of all these countries, regardless of their language and culture (Figure 2). Essentially the same experiment was conducted independently at the same time by Carol Izard, using observers from eight different cultures, and yielding results that also support the assumption that facial expressions of emotion are universal.
Although we wanted to interpret our results as evidence that some facial expressions are universal, there was one weakness in our experiment. All the people we examined had some kind of common visual contact, usually not directly, but through the media. It is possible that typical facial expressions may actually differ across cultures studied, but through movies, television, and illustrated magazines, people have been able to learn what other people's facial expressions look like. Or facial expressions could be the same across all the cultures we surveyed precisely because people all learned how to express facial emotions by watching the same actors in movies or TV shows and imitating their facial expressions. We have not eliminated the possibility that among people who did not have the opportunity to see how emotions were expressed on the faces of film and television stars, emotions would begin to be expressed using completely different movements of the facial muscles. The only way to deal with this problem was to study visually isolated people who had no contact with the mass media and minimal contact with the outside world.
Percentage of identical photo ratings in each culture
Rice. 2. Examples of photographs used in a study of how emotions are assessed by educated members of different cultures
| USA (J=99) | Brazil (J=40) | Chile (J=119) | Argentina (J=168) | Japan (J=29) | |
| Fear | 85% | 67% | 60% | 54% | 65% |
| Disgust | 92% | 97% | 92% | 92% | 90% |
| Joy | 97% | 95% | 95% | 98% | 100% |
| Anger | 67% | 90% | 94% | 90% | 90% |
We conducted a series of experiments in the highlands of southeastern New Guinea, where we could find people who met our criteria. Because these people had never taken psychological tests or participated in experiments, and because we did not know their language and worked through translators, we were forced to modify the experimental procedure. In other countries, we simply showed a photograph of one or another expression of an emotion and gave the observer the opportunity to choose the name of the emotion from a ready-made list. In New Guinea, we showed the observer three photographs at once, and the interpreter read a fictitious story associated with that emotion (for example, “This man's mother died”) and asked the observer to show the photograph that corresponded to that story. We found that all of these people chose the same face for the same emotion, just as people did in all the other cultures we surveyed. There was one exception: the people of New Guinea did not distinguish between facial expressions of fear and surprise.
In a similar experiment, other Guineans were told a story associated with an emotion and each of them was asked to show how the emotion was expressed on their face. We made video recordings of these intentional expressions of emotion, four examples of which are shown in Fig. 3. The analysis again showed that the same facial expressions were used to display the same emotions, which was consistent with results obtained in other cultures, with the exception of fear and surprise, emotions that Guineans consistently confused. Further evidence for the universality of facial expressions came from a study conducted in another culture in the western part of the island of New Guinea. Carl and Eleanor Heider, skeptical of our evidence for the universality of emotional expression, conducted the same experiments with people who were even more visually isolated from the world than those we studied, and also found evidence of universality.
As a result, our research, Izard's research, the Heider couple's research and the results obtained by Eibl-Eibesfeldt (an ethnologist who used completely different methods) convincingly showed that Darwin was right about the existence of universal facial expressions of emotion.
Figure 3. Video footage taken during our attempts to capture the emotions of the people of New Guinea. Each photograph had its own “legend”: the top left - “Your friend came to you and you are glad to see him”; top right - “Your child has died”; lower left - “You are angry and ready to fight”; lower right - “You see a dead pig that has been lying here for many days”
Although the facial appearance for each basic emotion is common to all people, immediate facial expressions may vary across cultures in at least two ways. What in itself causes emotions usually turns out to be different; In different cultures, people may experience disgust or fear in response to different stimuli. In addition, cultures differ in the conventions that people try to adhere to when trying to control or manage their facial appearance in specific social situations. People in two different cultures may feel sadness when a loved one dies, but one culture may dictate that the main mourners mask their sadness with expressions of mild joy on their faces.
How does each emotion appear on the face?
We began to look for evidence of the existence of universal facial expressions, and before all the research was completed, we began to figure out what these universal expressions looked like. We tried to compile an “Atlas” of the face that, using photographs, would display each of the universal expressions of emotions. It is this Atlas that provides the scientific basis for explaining the photographs shown in subsequent chapters of this book. Our first step in compiling the Atlas of Facial Expressions was to study what others said about facial appearance for each of the basic emotions. Some authors described which muscles contracted when displaying certain emotions, while others focused only on the appearance of the face. But no one has systematically studied all the muscles or all the subsequent changes in facial appearance when displaying the six basic emotions.
Summing up everything that was described by Darwin, Duchenne, Huber, Pluchik, we saw part of the emerging picture. We compiled a table that listed all the facial muscles and six emotions, and included in it everything that these authors wrote about each of the muscles involved in displaying each of the emotions. However, there were many gaps in the table due to the complete lack of information about the work of specific muscles that ensure the display of specific emotions on our face. Working together with Sylvan Tomkins, we were able to fill these gaps with information provided by our cross-cultural research and our shared experiences.
The next step was to photograph the models, who were instructed how they should move their facial muscles. We separately photographed three areas of the face that can move independently of the rest: eyebrows - forehead; eyes - eyelids and bridge of the nose; and the lower part of the face, including the cheeks, mouth, most of the nose, and chin. The completed Atlas contains photographs of these three different areas of the face, with each photograph representing one of six emotions. It is not difficult to understand that for each emotion in the Atlas there is more than one photograph of at least one part of the face. For example, for surprise, there is one photo of the eyebrows - forehead, one photo of the eyes - eyelids - bridge of the nose and four photos of the lower part of the face.
The next obvious question concerned the correctness of the Atlas itself. Can the six emotions - joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise - really be compiled from the external facial expressions listed in the Atlas? Does the outward expression of disgust shown in the Atlas always occur together with an expression of fear, etc.? We conducted four experiments to test this. In two experiments, we attempted to establish validity by demonstrating that Atlas facial measurements were consistent with other evidence of the subjective emotional experience of the individuals whose faces we measured. These experiments examined the empirical validity of the Atlas.
Two other experiments were devoted to studying the social validity of the Atlas. Without attempting to prove that Atlas measurements correspond to an individual's experience, we were investigating whether Atlas measurements can actually predict what observers think a person is feeling when they look at his face. Although empirical and social validity should be correlated, a relationship between them is not required. We may not show other people (at least not all the time) how we really feel. Thus, we needed to examine both empirical and social validity.
The empirical validity studies were based on materials collected from one of the previously described cross-cultural studies of facial expressions. Students from the United States and Japan watched pleasant and unpleasant films alone while their facial expressions were recorded on video. From their responses to the post-experiment questionnaire, it was clear that they experienced very different emotions while watching the two films. When describing their reactions to the travelogue, they said that it was interesting, enjoyable and made them feel moderately happy. When describing reactions to a film about surgical operations, they reported that they experienced feelings such as disgust, pain, fear, despondency and surprise. If the Facial Atlas is valid, then the measurements taken with it should show differences between the facial expressions produced by students experiencing these two different sets of emotions.
All movements of the facial muscles on the videotape were highlighted in a special way, their durations were measured, and they themselves were classified in terms used in the Atlas. This measurement procedure was performed in time-lapse mode, with measurements taken separately for three facial regions by three technicians. Conducting such an accurate measurement required approximately five hours of time per minute of videotaped facial changes. The results were very clear. Measurements using the Facial Atlas clearly showed differences between two emotional states: that which arose when watching a travel film and that which arose when watching a film that caused stress. Additionally, using the Atlas was equally successful with the facial expressions of both Japanese and American students - as it should have been, because the Atlas was designed to show universal facial expressions of emotion. However, the disadvantage of the experiment was that it did not allow us to determine whether the Atlas correctly depicted the state of the face for each of the six emotions. The experiment only showed that Atlas allows one to distinguish between unpleasant and pleasant emotional experiences.
Our second study of empirical validity partially addressed this shortcoming. We took advantage of one study in the psychology of emotion that showed that there are very different patterns of heart rate acceleration and deceleration for the emotions of surprise and disgust. We took measurements of heart rate and skin conductance in American and Japanese students while they watched two different films: one pleasant and one stress-inducing. If the Atlas correctly describes the faces of people experiencing surprise and disgust, then when the Atlas indicates that such expressions do occur, different patterns of change in heart rate should be observed in each case. When examining patterns of heart rate changes that corresponded to facial expressions that Atlas presented as being caused by either surprise or disgust, the results closely mirrored the predicted differences.
While the second study does provide evidence of the Atlas's validity for the emotions of surprise and disgust, it does not show that the Atlas necessarily maintains its validity for the other emotions of anger, joy, sadness, and fear. It would be logical to assume that if the Atlas demonstrates its validity for surprise and disgust, then it should be equally reliable for the other emotions, because it was compiled using the same method for all six emotions. But we needed real evidence and so we conducted a third study of the Atlas - this time to assess its social reliability. Can the Atlas predict how observers will interpret facial expressions?
We collected photographs taken by different researchers of facial expressions. These photographs were then shown to observers who were asked to identify which of the six emotions was represented in each photograph. For further research, only those photographs were retained in whose assessment the observers showed complete unanimity. But if the Atlas correctly described the external manifestations of each of the six emotions, then the measurements taken with its help should have predicted the emotions that observers saw in each of these photographs. Measurements using the Atlas were carried out separately for each of the three parts of the face by three independent specialists, and on their basis the predictions we were interested in were made. It turned out that Atlas successfully predicted the emotions that observers saw in photographs of various human facial expressions.
The fourth study was very similar to one of the studies we described above, except that it analyzed the facial expressions of medical students who were asked to display six basic emotions on their faces. For each photograph, Atlas had to determine what emotion the student was going to express on his face. Measurements made using the Atlas made it possible to successfully solve this problem.
While we were carrying out these experiments, independently of us, the Swedish anatomist Karl-Herman Hjortso, using completely different methods, was working on the same problem. He photographed his face at the moments of contraction of each of the facial muscles. Hjortso then analyzed each of these photographs and determined what emotion was depicted in it. Then, based on his assessments, he described facial expressions for each emotion in his own atlas. When Hjortso and I recently met, we discovered, to our mutual delight, that our atlases were almost exactly the same.
How is the expression of emotions on the face controlled?
How can we distinguish a real facial expression from a simulated one? When a person does not feel what he is portraying and tries to mislead us about his experiences? Is there a way to reveal his real feelings by his facial expression? In other words, is it possible for a person to “leak information”?
We have been dealing with this problem for many years. We started with video recordings of the facial expressions of psychiatric patients while they were being interviewed. Sometimes subsequent events indicated that patients had misled the interviewer about their feelings. The study of such videos laid the foundation for the theory of nonverbal leaks information that allows one to judge by the facial expression or body movements of a person about the feelings that he is trying to hide. We've been testing this theory over the past years by studying interviews in which one person deliberately withheld from another the negative emotions they experienced while watching highly unpleasant, stress-inducing movies. In this type of experiment, subjects try to convince the interviewer that the movie they watched was very enjoyable and that they enjoyed it.
The study of these interviews, of course, cannot be considered complete; Many of our hypotheses remain to be tested. However, the current results are consistent with earlier findings from interviews with psychiatric patients.
The material in the Deceptive Facial Expressions chapter is based on research into our theory and analysis of the facial expressions of people trying to lie.
How are emotions experienced?
We did not directly study this issue ourselves, but when planning the compilation of this book, we believed that we could take advantage of the results presented in the scientific literature. To our disappointment, we discovered that despite the existence of a large number of theories of emotion and research on emotion, some fundamental issues have not received sufficient attention. For example, what events trigger each emotion? What are the possible variations in the intensity of each emotion? How do each emotion feel different? What are the likely actions of people experiencing anger, disgust, fear, etc.?
There were some answers or ideas in the literature that related to at least some emotions. The most useful were the works of Darwin and Tomkins. Much of what we wrote inevitably had to be an extrapolation of the results of our own experiments and many years of thinking about the six emotions whose expression we studied. In each of the following chapters, we talk about the experience of experiencing each emotion, what science knows and what remains to be studied. Many of our friends and colleagues, having read these chapters, have found that the facts presented in them are in good agreement with what they have observed in their own lives and in the lives of people they know. You can determine the value of these arguments by comparing them with your personal experience and the experience of your friends. If anything we say here (about anger, for example) contradicts your experience or the experience of your friends, then perhaps we are wrong. If this contradicts your experience, but makes sense to your friends, then you will find out what is specific about the experience of this emotion by you personally (or your friends).
© P. Ekman. W. Friesen. Recognize a liar by his facial expression. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2010.
© Published with permission from the publisher