Science Today: Facial Expressions | California Academy of Sciences

Are facial expressions learned or innate? Dr. David Matsumoto of San Francisco State researched this issue by studying photos of blind and sighted athletes at the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic games.

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[GemBob]

i find it so fascinating how we are all programmed to respond the same way facially to any situation. its just amazing.

[howmathematicianscreatemat]

From my life experience I can tell that they are both learned AND innate.

[TheRealAxelFury]

@fryred Note really, Ekman found that we all use facial expressions with the same meaning and to exoress the same emotions, regadless race and culture.

This study is to discover if we are born with this use of facial expressions or we learn them from our parents and other people.
all has become by obsservation of babyes: they don't express fear, contempt disgust or other expressions, besides development.
so it is interesting to see if we develop them naturally or not

[chickenpoodle]

You can also observe babies. If their mother smiles or laughs the baby will often follow suit, and they smile on their own accord when presented with something desirable. Newborns are no exception.

[SearchingforSage]

This is really interesting, thank you for sharing!

[babybirdhome]

@spiderman1321 I can't tell if your comment is directed at this study or not, but in case it is, it's important when doing scientifically valid research that you start with a solid foundation and don't take "the obvious" for granted. Otherwise you end up with things like phrenology being accepted as valid. Previous studies have used indigenous tribes of people who we believe had no contact with the outside world, but that couldn't be known for 100% certain, so these results are important.

[wbljskr]

In my autistic son everything is a bit different. His happiness will shows up as jumping, his sadness will be crying right away, his angry - will be crashing all around.. So his emotions is not "face expressions" it gets to the level of action right away. And I am not sure if he will be able to learn just face expressions...

[sniperace]

A blind Person has a highten sense of touch & along their childhood/interaction years with the experience of life, growing up they would of at some point felt (via touch) the face expressions of others. Therefore Knowing how to mimic what they feel via touch can be reproduce as a facial expression. Perhaps - perhaps not you decide?

[snakehands]

The simple experiments are always the best

[keira]

It's faccial expression analysis in the context of emotion analysis.

[lakshmipriya]

Really Excellent Video!

Emotions are really powerful guys!

I was more of a fear person which i came to know when I used an iPhone app called "emotional" by hanumappa which shows your prominent emotions. Since, I know it now, I took corrective actions and then I am more happier now and a lot more relaxed

[vernonsteinkamp]

I'll have to disagree with Mr. Matsumoto. When my wife talks to people (waiters, etc.), she has a certain facial expression of anguish or disgust when she is asked a question like, " Do you want extra cheese?" Or, "Would you like some water?" Her eyes squint, almost as if she has a bad headache. It is very unbecoming of her and to the point where I prefer not to even look at her when she shows this expression. She has several siblings, and I've noticed they all use that same expression when asked a question, even if the answer is in the negative or the positive.
I can remember her father using that same expression during the same circumstances. So, my conclusion is that this was a learned behavior from her father. It is NOT a normal expression for that situation.

[billyouknow]

I disliked for the fact even though it was mentioned and it is clearly a problem, the music has still not been turned down. I'll find my videos elsewhere.

[MegabyteYou]

Hmm... sure, blind people can't see the expressions, but usually blind people are allowed to "touch" a person's face to "read" their feelings.

[mariacremona]

are they blind from birth? cz if they arent its a totally different story.

[ronliebermann]

I’ll tell you something funny about facial expressions. All of them are copyrighted. Perhaps ten thousand different expressions.

In the future, if you smile during a video call, that will cost you a dime.

If you smile while you’re being recorded by a security camera, that will also cost you a dime.

So your coffee at Starbucks will cost five dollars, plus ten cents for the smile.

It’s true.

[cinemastereo]

whoever edited this please turn the music down a bit when he speaks. Then re-upload to youtube. Thanks.

[bakhirun]

Yeah, what's with the gift-shop Muzak? Talk about distracting. Evidently some "creative" (ahem) videomaker convinced the backers that the tape would be, somehow less exciting without a background of "needle-droppings", generic supermarket BG production music. Note to all concerned: stow it! It is not only unnecessary, it is more than unnecessary, it is annoying. End of rant. And no Mantovani in the bucking fackground.

[spiderman]

the point is? we dont learn facial expressions from practicing in the its natural, use your research money somewhere else

[Chanffara]

Mister matsurbato,
We dont need the study to know if they are inner or learned . Surch other thing may be