Humans have very complex, deep, and nuanced emotions. Bummer our face doesn't show them at all
[Music]
Anthony Carboni here for DNews and you can usually tell how someone is feeling by their
facial expression. Or at least it seems that way- but really we take in tons of other emotional
clues when we're trying to find out how someone feels. There's a commonly held theory that
across all cultures, humans actually only have six different emotional facial expressions:
happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust.
All this is based on some research by a psychologist named Paul Ekman based on a theory by Charles
Darwin- Darwin thought people worldwide must manifest emotions in the same way, and Ekman
traveled around the world asking people from all types of cultures to show him those emotions-
and the expressions matched. He called it the Basic Emotion model, and he said that
he could even use it to recognize a liar by the difference between an actual expression
and the microexpressions made by someone attempting to mimic them without the actual feeling behind
them. He even consulted with the CIA about it in the 70s to help their interrogators.
The research has been pretty widely accepted since it debuted in 1969, but certain studies
have shown otherwise. One showed people pictures of two scowling faces and asked "Hey, do these
people feel the same way?" The answer wasn't always yes. Another showed people an angry
face, but didn't give them "angry" as a choice. Those people were perfectly happy to choose
"disgust" or "contempt" instead.
Sounds like we might be too complex to fit into a model. But what if the model is actually
too complex for our faces. New research by the University of Glasgow says we've actually
got four emotions that we universally express. Happiness and sadness are two of them. But
fear and surprise are the same, and anger and disgust are the same.
The study says that all humans begin with the same simple expressions of biologically-rooted
signals. All the other details are added depending on the culture and society we live in. Smiling
is always happy, frowning is always sad. Scrunching our nose is the beginning of anger and disgust,
and comes from a basic need to show something displeasing or dangerous is happening. It
also stops us from inhaling harmful particles.
Fear and surprise start the same, with widening eyes- take in more visual information, assess
your situation, look for a potential escape.
After those four basic reactions, everything else actually is cultural. As we spread out
across the world, we created much more nuanced expressions to fit our societies. Studies
show that Asian cultures use the eyes much more to identify emotion, while Europeans
use their mouths much more.
I went to Russia last year and people told me I was smiling too much, that it looked
fake. I don't know if that's because I'm American or because they see what a sham I am. Have
you ever visited somewhere and had your emotions misread?