Paul Ekman Sroferorat Psjenelony Unwersig¢ot Caloenis Medical School an Francisco USA, 1.Darwinc.Te reno Prulosophical Library NewYork 1955 (originally published 1873. 2 runer|S.and Top Teper ception ofpeople InindseyG.ea Honbook ea peg Adeizon Westy Sending 8se0l, ppese sanuncwi Recent develope mentsin theta temodionin Pyetiogatbtn 19etv0138,pp 24576 Kineberg 0.secalppetaloy Hatt NewYork 1940. Laneiee Stcieroremodon alreactinsi gen fralochavir and facatoxpreston in Jou fem Ine yrlogy 1984 vols ppa4?-s0s, Leacae Thelin enceofesiical verbalcommunies. Hinde Ree Non: "an. cambridge Universi ress,Combridge Alingua franca of facial expressions Think you've gota unique form of facial expression? Thinkagain. ‘Azefacialexpressionsofemotion thesame forall people? When someone isafraid. or happy, will ou see the same facialappearancenomatter what the person's national ‘y.raceorculture?Can we understand foreigner temo- ‘onal expressions without first attending a facial lan ‘Guage school which euros usin what expressions mean Inthelrculeure? II facial expressions of emotion are universal, does that mean they are innately determined? Do we inherit fhe particular facial muscular movements for fear anger. sadness and so forth? Is it our genes that deter ‘ine which facial muscles contract wen we fel one Way or another? And. if facial expressions of emo- ‘*Weottenfellow display cion are universal and rulesinsociallifete | innately determined, are manageanddisguise they the product of eval ‘ouremotional tion? Are human facial expressions,andthese expressions of emotion vorywithage,sex, similar to those shown by sodaldlass and culture’ ‘other primates? Do the Principles that explain ‘why our lips turn down in sadness ather than up, also explain the facial muscular ‘movementsofthe chimpanzee or he wolf? CChaties Darwin said the answer to all ofthese ques: tions was unmistakeably yes, The book in which he did 0, The expression ofthe emetions tn man and animals, pub- lished in 1872, was an immediate besteeller ~ 9,000 ‘opiessoldin London nthe irstfourmonthsafteri¢was published, Byhisown account, mort people in Darwin's ime believed facial expressions to be universal despite litle evidence to that effect. Darwin obtained new ev dence supporting the universality of some expressions by asking thote who travelled indifferent cou answera istof questions he'd devised about the appear. anceofeachemotion, Bur the basis for Darwin'sown espovsal ofthe univer: salityof facil expressions was weak. For example, nthe {questions he set about people in different cultures, he save the answer he was expecting is astonishment ‘expressed by the eyes and mouth being opened wide, and by the eyebrows being raised?" He should have ‘asked simply, whatemotion is shown when the eyesand ‘mouth, For most ofthe twentieth century, Darwin's book on ‘expression was ignored. Instead, most social and behav- ioural scientists came to believe that facial expressions, far from being universal, were unique and specific to ‘ach culture If belie, attitudes, values, personality and psychopathology Were all the product of child 37 Demos 10896 development, which themselves varied with social class and culture, how coulé emotion, a vital part of social Life, notalso be totaly shaped by the same forces?Butthe cultural elatvistshad nobetterevidence for their widely accepted views Only inthe last thir yearshas there been careful. sci entific study about whether or not there ate universals In facial expressions of emotion, This new evidence strongly supports Darwin, but the argument aguinst ‘universls continues unabated. Let us first consider the evidence nd the arguments against it and then why tis stil s0 difficult for many social sientists to accept an ‘evolutionary viewof emotional expression. My colleague Wallace Friesen and 1 used one of Darwin'smethods~ showing photographs ofexpresions to people and asking them to judge what emotion it showed. Darwin did this only in England, Weand, quite independently, Carroll ard, and later ocher scientists, showed photographs to people in more than twenty different countries encompasting Wester and not ‘Westerncultures. In every instance, theemotion selected by che majority in one culture was the same emotion selected by the majority in every other culture. Expressions were labelled with the same emotion word (translated, of course) in every culture, just a8 Darwin had predicted, There was never an instance of disagree rent that would seriously challenge Universality. It sever happened, for example, chat the majority in one culture abelle a photograph a ay, sadness, when the sajoriy inanother labelled itassay. anger. Ray Birdwhistell, an anthropologist who had earlier ‘writen’ about how his awn observation ed im tocom- clude that Darwin was wrong, came up with an inge nious challenge to this very strong evidence, It vwasnotevolution hat was ‘emotionalbehaviouris responsible forourresults, notsimplyaproductof but Charlie Chaplin and ‘ourownlives,andwhat john Wayne, Bitdwhistell “Whatimpels our wehavefoundtobe declared. Allthe people we ‘adaptive, butalso had studied hed been reflectswhathasbeen exposed tothe same mass edoptiveinourancestral media movies, magazines environment” and television. Everyone ————— righe have leered’ the ‘ same expressions from the ‘media. The only way to answer Sizdwhistell's challenge was co study a visually isolated group who had no con: ‘act with the media. di jus that, working with a pre literace culcure in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. ‘And found’ chat these Highlanders sfociated the sameSisarac.Tefaeof Cenuunrcrne, Birdwnisetlae, Universi ot enasyvania Pres Phladeipnia Pennyiania 3970, Universaisandeut. forsldifeencesin ‘acalexpeestions sfemoronin ae) ‘aton Univer of NebrskaPres, UUncoln, Nebraska 5 Ruse Uontromtical view of ros culeurtseeciesin Dycttogilbuln toa, 7 Heide report os [Ekman Pe fares century fresarcan re, eademicPren ‘ealexpeesion in Jouraefcomma ation 9752901 35,pp20913. 0. Ekman ses) [Money facial expressions with fear, anger disgust sadness and enjoyment as the peopte inthe iterate cultures, also asked other members ofthis culture to show us how thet face would look if they found out thet child had died, or they met friends, or were about to ight. They produced virtually che same expressions we see in ‘Westernecultures, James Russell, 2 psychologist interested in the lane suage of emotion who is committed to the view that emotion is socially con —— structed, charged us with, ‘An Dorwin'stime,racists in some way signalling to orguedthatEuropeans our New Guines subjects haddescended roma what response we wanted different;more them to give. The bese way advanced group of to settle such a dispute dncestorsthan Africans. was for another scients Darwinarguedthot "who oppored universality Universalsinemotional to go to New Guinea and expressions showed we repeat my experiment, oreunited,notdivided Fortunately just that hap- asa species’ ened, The anthropologist — Kar Reider and prycholo- Bist Eleanor Rosch were working among the Dani, another vey isolated culture In the western pare of New Guinea (now called West ‘rian. But after applying my research methods, these carefulscietists, committed (oan anti-universals ewe point. ound vey strongevidence of universas? Russell. and the others who reject universal simply ignore the work byHeiderand Rosen, 'm 1973, I pur together a book entitled Darwin and fecal expression reporting all the findings | have sume ‘marized here, plusecher evidence in support of Darwin from sudies of infants and primates. Margaret Mead's review ofthe book” denounced its assault on cultural felativism and her protégé and friend, RLBitdwhistll Maybe everyone incerprets photographs of facial ‘expressions the same way Mead acknowledged. but that does not mean their spontaneous expressions would be fhe same, Her argument seemed illogical to me. How would people know now xo interpret tne photographs, ‘why would they interprec them the same way in every culture, if they had not been seeing these expressions daycoday? ‘ThebestanswertoMead’schallenge came from exper iments with spontaneous benaviout, measuring the essions people show rather shan studying how they ret photographs of expression, Wevideataped the spontaneous facial expressions of Japanese students in Tokyo and American students in Berkeley. while they ‘wacched some gruesome films. The camera was hidden so they did not know we were recording thle reactions none setup they satalone, while in the second a sciea™ Aist dressed in a white laboratory coat sat with ther, When they were alone, we expected the Japanese and Americans oshow thesame facial expressions. But-in a Social situation, weexpected the apanesetofoliow what Wwe term display rules = masking signe of unpleasant temotionsin the presenceofan authority figure Display fules specify who can show which emotion to whom. ‘They ae socially leaned. culturally variable and, { believe. responsible for much ofthe widespread impres- sion chatexpressionsdifferacrosscultures. Our expectations were completely confirmed, When, alone, the expressions were identical, When there was an authority figure presen, chere was an enormous dif ference between the Japanese and Americans, The Japanese masked their negative feelings with smiles, ‘while the Americans continued to show neyative facial 38 Demos 191996 expressions. in this one experiment we had shown dualinfluenceorbiology and culture" ‘Why has there has been such resistance to accepting the evidence of universas in facial expression of emo. tion? The universality ndings contradict the Lockean view of human beings which has dominated social thought in Western countries and i the former Soviet Union. We cannat be biani slates, upon which family cultureand statecan write heiemessagesunimpeded. i Something as central to aur social ifeas emotion is not completely the product ofourenvironment. ‘The nding of universalsin facial expressions of emo- tion is important in a number of ways First, and most fundamentally. it means we must recognize that we ae Diosocal creatures. To understand this vital aspect of ‘our socal lives, we ms consider not just nurture, but nature; not just learning, Du our evolutionary history ‘what impels our emotional behaviour is not simply & productof our own lives, and what we have found to be adaptive, butals reflects what has been adeptivein out ancestral environment. Without an evalutionary per spective we can not understand emotions, and why we act the way we do wien we experience fear anger. sa ness and so forth, 2ny more than we eould understand ‘ouremotional behaviour ifwecould notappreciate how ‘welearn fromexperience, Universlsin facial expression is relevant toa second ‘issue of huge importance. In Darwin’ time. sncists argued that Europeans had descended from different, ‘more advanced group of ancestors than Afticans. Darwin argued that evidence for universals in emotion al expressions was counter tosuch a racist acount, and showed all human beings had common ancestors. That ‘Weare united, not divided asa species. ‘The actthatour universal expressions ofemotion are found in some other animals as well, was import © Darwin, and should be important tous. We are not the ‘only animals to experience fear pleasure, pain. anger ot sadness. This base tenet of evolutionary thinking. the continuity ofthe species. may also make bit uncom: {ortabe in our dealings with other animals fas that we recognise that the an: mals we cage in zoos and experiment upon may not only show some of the ‘Can we understand foreigner’semotional expressions withoutfiest sameexpresions. but may cottending foci also experience some of language schoolwhich the same clings (On a more practia! level evidence of universals has Implications for how we communicate with those who differ from us. If peo- ple are not rying to mask of suppres ther emotions then their expressions will be understandable cous no terwhattherace culture language, ageor sexo the person whoshows:hem. Thatisabig if however forwe ‘often follow display rules in socal life te manage 2nd disguise our emotional expressions, and these do vary ‘withage sex socal lassandeultureo Paul Ekman’s research is supported by a Resch Scientist Award trom the US National Institute vl Menial Health