Visiting Scholar
School of Engineering and Computer Science
Victoria University of Wellington
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
Address: Maru 103, Kelburn Campus
Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington 6012, New Zealand
Victoria University of Wellington
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
Address: Maru 103, Kelburn Campus
Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington 6012, New Zealand
- What is the common view of emotion?
The common view is the belief that certain emotions can be revealed by certain facial muscles configuration. It is the belief that people frown their faces when sad, scowl when anger and smile/laugh when happy etc. irrespective of their age, culture, and ethnicity.
Does emotion have fingerprints?
The classical view assumes that certain categories of emotion have a certain autonomic nervous system (ANS) “fingerprint” that is distinct from others. It assumed that emotions are like a switch that can be turned on/off from the ANS which are believed to be their fingerprints.
This is not the case in real life. An example is when scientists thought that amygdalae are the part of the brain that has an emotional fingerprint for fear after their initial experiment with SM. However, they later realize that SM could hear fear in voices and see fear in body postures. And so it was understood that SM could feel and perceive fear under some circumstances even without her amygdalae. Emotions are made, not triggered, they are highly variable, and without fingerprints.
The classical view assumes that certain categories of emotion have a certain autonomic nervous system (ANS) “fingerprint” that is distinct from others. It assumed that emotions are like a switch that can be turned on/off from the ANS which are believed to be their fingerprints.
This is not the case in real life. An example is when scientists thought that amygdalae are the part of the brain that has an emotional fingerprint for fear after their initial experiment with SM. However, they later realize that SM could hear fear in voices and see fear in body postures. And so it was understood that SM could feel and perceive fear under some circumstances even without her amygdalae. Emotions are made, not triggered, they are highly variable, and without fingerprints.
Is facial expression necessary for emotion?
The common view assumes that people display certain facial expressions when they are experiencing a particular emotion. We may believe the assumption of the common view if four criteria such as reliability, specificity, generalizability, and validity are all met to justify a reverse inference that a particular facial configuration expresses and therefore reveals a specific emotional state. Only when the pattern of facial expression satisfy all the four criteria can we justify calling it emotion expression otherwise we will avoid using misleading terms and call it facial configuration without making unwarranted inferences, simply calling it a frown rather than the expression of sadness, a smile rather than the expression of anger and so on.
When you are angry, you might scowl, frown, or shout, your heart rate and blood pressure might increase, decrease, or stay the same. Certain people frown their faces when concentrating or paying too much attention to a task. For certain individuals, expressing their feelings has never been easy. In fact, research has shown that people scowl their faces when anger only 30% of the time. We cannot rely on a system that works only 30% of the time and therefore reach the conclusion that facial expression is not necessary for emotion. They sometimes do contribute to emotion but they are not necessary.
References
[1] Barret Feldman Lisa, (2018). How Emotions are Made – The Secret Life of the Brain.
[2] Erika H. Siegel, Molly K. Sands, Wim Van den Noortgate, Paul Condon, Yale Chang, Jennifer Dy, Karen S. Quigley, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Emotion Fingerprints or Emotion Populations? A Meta-Analytic Investigation of Autonomic Features of Emotion Categories. Psychological Bullutin Journal. 144(4): 343-393. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000128.
[3] Barrett, L. F., Adolphs, R., Marsella, S., Martinez, A. M., & Pollak, S. D. (2019). Emotional Expressions Reconsidered: Challenges to Inferring Emotion From Human Facial Movements. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 20(1), 1–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100619832930
[4] Justin S. Feinstei,, Ralph Adolphs, Antonio R. Damasio, and Daniel Tranel, (2011). The human amygdala and the induction and experience of fear, Curr Biol. available in PMC January 11; 21(1): 3438.
https://doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.11.042.
[5] Ohio State University. (2020, February 16). Facial expressions don't tell the whole story of emotion: Researchers warn of drawing too-quick conclusions about people's feelings. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 20, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200216184520.htm
[1] Barret Feldman Lisa, (2018). How Emotions are Made – The Secret Life of the Brain.
[2] Erika H. Siegel, Molly K. Sands, Wim Van den Noortgate, Paul Condon, Yale Chang, Jennifer Dy, Karen S. Quigley, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Emotion Fingerprints or Emotion Populations? A Meta-Analytic Investigation of Autonomic Features of Emotion Categories. Psychological Bullutin Journal. 144(4): 343-393. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000128.
[3] Barrett, L. F., Adolphs, R., Marsella, S., Martinez, A. M., & Pollak, S. D. (2019). Emotional Expressions Reconsidered: Challenges to Inferring Emotion From Human Facial Movements. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 20(1), 1–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100619832930
[4] Justin S. Feinstei,, Ralph Adolphs, Antonio R. Damasio, and Daniel Tranel, (2011). The human amygdala and the induction and experience of fear, Curr Biol. available in PMC January 11; 21(1): 3438.
https://doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.11.042.
[5] Ohio State University. (2020, February 16). Facial expressions don't tell the whole story of emotion: Researchers warn of drawing too-quick conclusions about people's feelings. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 20, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200216184520.htm