faces

CMN2132: Week 4 - The Face

Exploring Facial Expressions

  • Discuss personal experiences related to facial expressions:

    • Identify unattractive facial expressions.

    • Identify attractive facial expressions.

    • Consider personal "display rules" regarding facial expressions.

    • Reflect on the facial expression used to mask emotions and the least reliable mask used.

Influence of Family and Audience

  • Investigate inherited facial expressions from family.

  • Analyze key audience influences on personal facial expressions.

  • Examine typical expressions of celebrities.

  • Discuss context-specific facial expressions and their meanings.

Cultural Display Rules

  • Explore cultural rules governing facial expressions in various situations:

    • Funerals

    • Weddings

    • Christmas gift unwrapping

    • Award ceremonies (realizing one hasn't won)

Key Points on Facial Expressions

  • Recognize that audiences impact expressions, not just in social contexts.

  • Understand that communication is different from revelation of true emotion.

  • Facial expressions are fluid and depend on prior and subsequent contexts.

  • Emotions are complex and can be seen as families of emotions; observe their flow.

Trust in Facial Expressions

  • People trust facial expressions over spoken words, even though communication may not have been explicitly taught.

  • Facial expressions convey emotions and critical social information (e.g., moral disgust).

Posed vs. Spontaneous Expressions

  • Distinguish between posed and spontaneous expressions.

  • Recognize that positive expressions benefit social environments, including education and professional sectors.

  • Identify sensitivity to facial expressions, especially smiles and angry faces.

  • Less expressive faces may indicate less expressive upbringing (e.g., from depressed or alcoholic parents).

  • Expressiveness can be influenced by the language available for emotion expression.

Factors Influencing Expressions

  • Consider various contributing factors to expressions:

    • Power distance

    • Individualistic vs. collectivist cultures

    • Gender differences

University of Toronto Study Insights

  • U of T study findings on identifying social class based on facial cues:

    • Respondents correctly identified class 53% of the time.

    • Focus on the effect of a small smile on perception.

    • Attractiveness correlates with perceived wealth.

Universal Facial Expressions

  • Nonverbal cues communicate emotions: smiles, frowns, boredom signs.

  • Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen identified six facial expressions found universally:

    • Anger

    • Disgust

    • Fear

    • Happiness

    • Sadness

    • Surprise

  • Cultural differences exist in the display of these emotions, but all cultures include them per Darwin's insights.

Ekman's Universal Emotions

  • Seven emotions universally expressed:

    • Fear

    • Anger (features: cheeks, mouth, brows, forehead)

    • Surprise

    • Disgust

    • Contempt

    • Sadness

    • Happiness

  • Men typically convey more negative emotions; women smile more frequently.

  • SADFISH mnemonic: Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Fear, Interest, Surprise, Happiness.

Specific Facial Expressions

  • Anger:

    • Furrowed brows, glaring eyes, narrowed lips.

  • Disgust:

    • Wrinkled nose, raised upper lip.

  • Fear:

    • Raised eyebrows, wide eyes, stretched lips.

  • Happiness:

    • Real smile includes crow's feet, lifted cheeks, eye muscle engagement.

  • Sadness:

    • Drooping eyelids, unfocused eyes, downturned lips.

  • Surprise:

    • Brief expression, raised brows, wide eyes, open mouth.

  • Contempt:

    • Tightened lip corner raised on one side.

Display Rules and Types

  • Display rules may involve deintensifying, over-intensifying, or masking emotions; these rules are often shared culturally.

  • Four categories of display rules (Ekman's classification):

    • Vocational

    • Personal

    • Cultural

    • Moment-driven needs.

  • Facial Blends: Two emotions expressed simultaneously.

  • Facial Emblems: Expressions that represent emotional symbols without words.

Personal Display Styles

  • Display styles outlined:

    • Withholder

    • Revealer

    • Unwitting expressor (leakage of genuine expression)

    • Blanked expressor

    • Substitute expressor (showing an unintended expression)

    • Frozen-affect.

  • Expressions can modify or falsify spoken messages.

Authenticity in Facial Expressions

  • Consistency between facial expressions and emotions is crucial for perceived genuineness.

  • To Ekman, the face serves as a clear emotional "readout."

  • Emotional displays may be more accurate among friends.

Micromomentary Facial Expressions

  • Brief expressions indicating repressed emotions (Haggard and Isaacs, 1966).

  • Useful in lie detection; sensitive to subtle gestures.

  • Examples include the cry face, glare, grimace, play face, and pout.

Types of Facial Codes

  • Iconic Codes: Expressions resembling their emotions.

  • Arbitrary Codes: Meaning derived from societal agreement.

  • Intrinsic Codes: Biologically inherited responses.

  • Motor Mimicry: Mimicking another's emotions.

  • Audience Effects: The imagined presence alters expression likelihood.

Social Purpose of Facial Expressions

  • Basic ecology theory (Fridlund, 1994/97) suggests facial expressions serve social purposes, not solely emotional responses.

  • Affect Blends: Expressing two emotions simultaneously.

Typical Expressions and Interpretations

  • Contempt: Slight tightening and raising of one lip corner.

  • Threat: V-shaped brows, wide eyes, downturned mouth.

  • Anxiety: Increased blinking, horizontal mouth stretch, exaggerated movements.

Emotion-Related Expressions

  • Pride: Small smile, head tilted back, expanded posture, hands on hips.

  • Embarrassment: Downcast gaze, shifty eyes, head turning, face touching.

Facial Action Coding System (FACS)

  • FACS distinguishes based on:

    1. Muscle appearance changes

    2. Independent muscle actions

    3. Feedback circuits for self-awareness of facial movements.

  • Research suggests women (especially extroverted) excel in encoding and decoding nonverbal cues.

The Anatomy of Facial Expression

  • Different facial parts serve unique communicative functions:

    • Open/Close communication channels (talking readiness).

    • Complement other behaviors (smiling for appeasement).

    • Replace verbal messages with facial emblems.

  • Key muscles:

    • Zygomatic major: Spreads lips while smiling.

    • Orbicularis oculi: Causes crow's feet around eyes during genuine smiles.

Portfolio Questions

  • Reflect on the following (minimum 200 words each, utilize class content and real-life experiences):

    1. Identifying anxiety through non-verbal cues vs. lying.

    2. Non-verbal behaviors to teach children for social skills.

    3. Criteria for judging emotional authenticity.

    4. Personal essential display rules.

    5. Most challenging facial gestures to manage and reasons.