The study of the spontaneous expressions of blind individuals offers a unique opportunity to understand basic processes concerning the emergence and source of facial expressions of emotion. In this study, the authors compared the expressions of congenitally and noncongenitally blind athletes in the 2004 Paralympic Games with each other and with those produced by sighted athletes in the 2004 Olympic Games. The authors also examined how expressions change from 1 context to another. There were no differences between congenitally blind, noncongenitally blind, and sighted athletes, either on the level of individual facial actions or in facial emotion configurations. Blind athletes did produce more overall facial activity, but these were isolated to head and eye movements. The blind athletes' expressions differentiated whether they had won or lost a medal match at 3 different points in time, and there were no cultural differences in expression. These findings provide compelling evidence that the production of spontaneous facial expressions of emotion is not dependent on observational learning but simultaneously demonstrates a learned component to the social management of expressions, even among blind individuals.
Facial behaviors of medal winners of the judo competition at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games were coded with P. Ekman and W. V. Friesen's (1978) Facial Affect Coding System (FACS) and interpreted using their Emotion FACS dictionary. Winners' spontaneous expressions were captured immediately when they completed medal matches, when they received their medal from a dignitary, and when they posed on the podium. The 84 athletes who contributed expressions came from 35 countries. The findings strongly supported the notion that expressions occur in relation to emotionally evocative contexts in people of all cultures, that these expressions correspond to the facial expressions of emotion considered to be universal, that expressions provide information that can reliably differentiate the antecedent situations that produced them, and that expressions that occur without inhibition are different than those that occur in social and interactive settings.Keywords: emotion, facial expressions, Olympic Games, universality, FACS Since Darwin's (1872/1998) classic work, the nature and function of facial expressions of emotion have long been a topic of interest and debate. They are universally recognized (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002;; but see critiques by Russell, 1991, and rejoinders by Ekman, 1994Izard, 1994), are displayed by congenitally blind infants and children (Charlesworth & Kreutzer, 1973) and nonhuman primates (Chevalier-Skolnikoff, 1973;Geen, 1992;Hauser, 1993;Snowdon, 2003), are associated with distinct physiological signatures (Davidson, 2003;Ekman, Levenson, & Friesen, 1983;Levenson, Ekman, & Friesen, 1990, Levenson, Ekman, Heider, & Friesen, 1992Tsai & Levenson, 1997), and correspond to emotion taxonomies around the world (Romney, Moore, & Rusch, 1997;Shaver, Murdaya, & Fraley, 2001;Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, & O'Connor, 1987). However, questions exist concerning whether or not spontaneous expressions of emotion occur in real-life, naturalistic settings. We contribute to this literature by reporting on our examination of emotional expressions of athletes at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in three very different but highly charged emotional contexts to address basic questions about the nature of spontaneous facial expressions of emotion. The Link Between Emotionally Evocative Contexts and Facial Expressions of EmotionLaboratory studies have demonstrated that emotionally evocative stimuli reliably elicit discrete facial expressions of emotion when there is no reason for participants to manage or modify their expressions (Berenbaum & Oltmanns, 1992;Bonanno & Keltner, 2004;Camras, Oster, Campos, Miyake, & Bradshaw, 1992;Chesney, Ekman, Friesen, Black, & Hecker, 1990;Ekman, Davidson, & Friesen, 1990;Ekman, Friesen, & Ancoli, 1980;Ekman, Friesen, & O'Sullivan, 1988;Ekman, Matsumoto, & Friesen, 1997;Ellgring, 1986;Frank, Ekman, & Friesen, 1993;Gosselin, Kirouac, & Dore, 1995;Heller & Haynal, 1994;Keltner, Moffitt, & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1995;Keltner & Bonanno, 1997;Rosenberg & Ekman, 1994;Ruch, 1993Ruch, , 1995. Field studies, howe...
There is consensus that when emotions are aroused, the displays of those emotions are either universal or culture-specific. We investigated the idea that an individual's emotional displays in a given context can be both universal and culturally variable, as they change over time. We examined the emotional displays of Olympic athletes across time, classified their expressive styles, and tested the association between those styles and a number of characteristics associated with the countries the athletes represented. Athletes from relatively urban, individualistic cultures expressed their emotions more, whereas athletes from less urban, collectivistic cultures masked their emotions more. These culturally influenced expressions occurred within a few seconds after initial, immediate, and universal emotional displays. Thus, universal and culture-specific emotional displays can unfold across time in an individual in a single context.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.