Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Study concludes that Facial Expressions are inate

I read a book just over a year ago with a discussion about an expert who could read faces with great accuracy. (I think it was Blink, but I can't find my copy.) The man was shown pictures from two different tribes, I think from Indonesia. Just from looking at the pictures the man was able to give great details about the natures of the two tribes. One was friendly, the other was cannibalistic. The expert picked up on this, and much more, from the pictures.

Study: Facial expressions of emotion are innate, not learned reminded me of this expert. The article started with:

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Facial expressions of emotion are hardwired into our genes, according to a study published today in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The research suggests that facial expressions of emotion are innate rather than a product of cultural learning. The study is the first of its kind to demonstrate that sighted and blind individuals use the same facial expressions, producing the same facial muscle movements in response to specific emotional stimuli.
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As Spock would say: fascinating!


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Technorati tags: facial, expressions

4 comments:

Luke Holzmann said...

That is fascinating!

~Luke

Henry Cate said...

Yeah, I've wondred if it would be worth spending some time lerning how to read faces better.

How to make money said...

Really, this is interesting. So if a child frowns at stuff like the mother, it means that the frowning attitude is in their gene. The child's child would also frown like her.

Henry Cate said...

I think what the study is saying is that frowning in basic to being human. The way we frown is in all our DNA.