Innate and universal facial expressions: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research.

Abstract

The idea of innate and universal facial expressions that have links with human emotions was given the status of scientific hypothesis by Darwin (1872/1965). Substantial evidence, old and new, supports his hypothesis. Much of the evidence is independent of language, but Russell's (1994) criticisms of the hypothesis focus on language-dependent data. In this article, it is argued that Russell's critique was off target in that his arguments relate only to a hypothesis of the universality of semantic attributions and overstated in that he used questionable logic in designing studies to support his claims. It is also argued that Russell misinterpreted the relation between the universality hypothesis and differential emotions theory. Finally, new evidence is presented that supports the Darwinian hypothesis of the innateness and universality of the facial expressions of a limited set of emotions and the efficacy of the most commonly used method of testing it.

Worry facilitates corticospinal motor response to transcranial magnetic stimulation

“…Results suggest that worry is accompanied by corticospinal motor excitability that cannot by explained by high cognitive load. These results support theoretical ties between emotion and motor pathways [Ekman and Davidson, 1994;Frijda, 1986;Izard, 1994] as well as specifically between anxiety and motor system recruitment [e.g., Barlow, 2000Barlow, , 2002. …”

“…It is widely accepted that preparation for action is a central function of emotion and anxiety [Barlow, 2000[Barlow, , 2002Ekman and Davidson, 1994;Frijda, 1986;Izard, 1994], despite limited data owing to the difficulty of empirically addressing the issue. TMS was employed in this study to investigate the role of motor preparation in worry.…”

“…2002; Ekman and Davidson, 1994;Frijda, 1986;Hajcak et al, 2007;Izard, 1994]. A promising tool for assessing action preparation is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).…”

Children's identification of graphic symbols representing four basic emotions: Comparison of Afrikaans-speaking and Sepedi-speaking children

“…Some authors regard recognising basic emotions from facial expressions as a universal phenomenon (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2003;Ekman, 1994;Izard, 1994), while others (Boyatizis, Chazan, & Ting, 1993) caution that cultural differences and differences between individuals also play a role and should be taken into account when discussing emotions and the facial expressions linked to such emotions.…”

Design of a Realistic Robotic Head Based on Action Coding System

“…This way, emotions and facial expressions can be linked upon specific patterns of facial movements. Some recognised standars are: EMFACS [23], Monadic Phases [24], the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System [25], and the Facial Action Coding System [26].…”