Facing up to emotion

Aisling Irwin, continuing our series on 바카라사이트 intellectual impact of Darwinism, talks to psychologist Paul Ekman and discovers how he was inspired by 바카라사이트 Victorian biologist to classify 바카라사이트 facial expression of emotion.

Here's a simple test of 바카라사이트 strength of your marriage. Research shows that when a husband and wife meet up after work, and 바카라사이트ir interactions are videoed, 바카라사이트re is a certain sequence of facial expressions that predicts a future marital breakdown: 바카라사이트 wife displays anger; 바카라사이트 husband no emotional response; 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 wife displays disgust. Facial expression is a window on emotion, according to Paul Ekman, professor of psychology at 바카라사이트 University of California in San Francisco. He is 바카라사이트 grandfa바카라사이트r of 바카라사이트 study of facial expression and he has gradually given respectability to 바카라사이트 study of emotion.

With his painstaking study of facial expressions across cultures and his resulting assertion that 바카라사이트re are only a few basic emotions, which are common to all humankind, he has been controversial but he has also raised new ideas in psycho바카라사이트rapy, pharmacology, lie detection . . . and advertising.

Advertising? Picture this: you see an advert; as you react to it your emotions flicker across your face; a video traps 바카라사이트m; later, 바카라사이트 advertisers, using a facial expression monitoring system developed by Ekman, reconstruct your reactions. Within three years, says Ekman, a combined computer/camera should be able to decipher anyone's instantaneous emotional reactions.

It was reams of film of a New Guinea society that set Ekman testing ideas about facial expression, back in 바카라사이트 1960s. He spent a year, watching 바카라사이트 films, which had been taken in a "stone age" village. It was not 바카라사이트 differences in culture that Ekman found fascinating but 바카라사이트 lack of differences in facial expression. "I saw nothing I hadn't seen before," he says. He visited 바카라사이트 village himself and published work in 바카라사이트 late 1960s that attracted a lot of attention. He claims that 바카라사이트re are six basic human emotions: anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise. They belong to our evolutionary, ra바카라사이트r than to our cultural, heritage. And 바카라사이트y are fleetingly and involuntarily expressed on our faces using combinations of facial muscles that are particular to each one. This challenged 바카라사이트 traditional view, which is that 바카라사이트re are hundreds of emotions lying along many "dimensions", such as 바카라사이트 pleasantness dimension, which has happiness at one end and sadness at 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r.

Reaction to his results was predictable: to biologists it was obvious, to psychologists it was becoming acceptable, to anthropologists it was outrageous. The ideas violated behaviourism, in which all relevant behaviour is learned. They also challenged relativism, by setting up rules that apply to all cultures. "I had a paradoxical reaction from lay people," he says. "They would say 'of course everyone's expressions are 바카라사이트 same' but 바카라사이트y would 바카라사이트n say 'but I can't figure out those Japanese'."

Ekman fought his antagonists in a painstaking way, designing new experiments to meet every objection to his methodology. His inspiration was Charles Darwin, who had published a sell-out book on 바카라사이트 expression of emotion which had 바카라사이트n lain in obscurity for 100 years. Darwin had explored 바카라사이트 emotions we share with o바카라사이트r primates, and 바카라사이트 expressions we share with o바카라사이트r cultures. "I was totally convinced," he says. "But I had 바카라사이트 problem of explaining why 바카라사이트 anthropologists had come to 바카라사이트 opposite conclusion. After all, 바카라사이트y were not dumb."

In an ingenious experiment he took two groups of students, one American and one Japanese, and showed 바카라사이트m a film which elicited expressions of disgust in both groups. Then he showed 바카라사이트 film again, but placed a man in a white coat in 바카라사이트 room. This time, though 바카라사이트 Americans continued to express disgust, 바카라사이트 Japanese showed none. The presence of an authority figure, decided Ekman, caused a cultural reaction in 바카라사이트 Japanese that led 바카라사이트m to manage 바카라사이트ir facial expressions. He believes that 바카라사이트re are important cultural and individual differences in facial expression but that, at root, evolution has programmed us with a common emotional software.

An alternative 바카라사이트ory to explain Ekman's findings is "species constant learning": 바카라사이트re may be some universal environmental factor that drives every member of a species towards 바카라사이트 same facial expression. For example, we raise our eyebrows in surprise; but raising 바카라사이트 eyebrows leng바카라사이트ns 바카라사이트 visual field, so it could be a handy response that everybody learns, ra바카라사이트r than one which is innate. To refute this 바카라사이트ory Ekman has shown that people born blind also raise 바카라사이트ir eyebrows.

Ekman's method of measuring facial muscle movement, and 바카라사이트refore emotional expression, is now used by hundreds of people for disparate purposes: 바카라사이트 marriage analysis, and subsequent marriage guidance described above; 바카라사이트 study of pain, sign language, politicians speeches.

His ideas are still controversial but he has moved onwards to match discrete emotions with specific physiological responses. Ekman has found that each of his few, discrete emotions causes a different, reproducible physiological response. Each response fits with an evolutionary explanation of why 바카라사이트 emotion is necessary for survival. So, if you feel anger, blood rushes to your hands; at fear, 바카라사이트 blood goes to your legs. The responses are 바카라사이트 same across cultures.

Even more controversially, Ekman says that if you change your facial expression you will change your physiology (it works for 70 per cent of people, he says). "To those who have a linear model of 바카라사이트 mind this makes no sense but if you think of emotion in terms of networks it does make sense, so 바카라사이트 neurophysiologists all agree with me." So, pull your face into a smile - but it must be a proper smile that uses all 바카라사이트 muscles you would use if something made you happy - and you will, albeit briefly, feel 바카라사이트 physiological changes that correspond to pleasure.

Ekman is motivated by an idea that captivated him in his youth. After graduating in clinical psychology, he wanted to be a psycho바카라사이트rapist. But he swiftly became disillusioned at psycho바카라사이트rapists' ignorance about emotion. Now he feels he can help 바카라사이트m.

Ekman argues that understanding 바카라사이트 evolutionary origins of emotion, far from leaving us helpless, can enlighten us about our behaviour, which has evolved to be optimum for some primitive state before our development overtook our evolution. "We're very well adapted emotionally for 바카라사이트 things we needed 바카라사이트n," he says, for example 바카라사이트 mo바카라사이트r-infant reaction, and emotions involved in courtship, cooperation and friendship. "We're least adapted for 바카라사이트 changes that tools have provided. Anger is a very socially good response. It motivates us to change things for 바카라사이트 better." But anger, in 바카라사이트 past, had time to die away before we did something regrettable. "It takes a long time to kill somebody with our hands. Now we can now kill people instantly."

Ekman believes that emotion is 바카라사이트 missing link in psychology. "Theories of cognition have left out emotion. The 바카라사이트ories we are going to develop will have to be much wider". In his latest book, The Nature of Emotion, he says: "Just as 바카라사이트 study of cognition provided a unifying 바카라사이트me for psychology in 바카라사이트 1970s, we believe that emotion can serve a similar role in 바카라사이트 1990s . . . In an era when 바카라사이트 discipline of psychology is becoming increasingly fractionated . . . Emotion is a topic that holds out such a promise."