Facial Expressions; Introduction Paper

Introduction: Facial expressions are being brought on to the public eye more and more due to media exposure (as psychology is entering public domain interest, this is even more particularly found in facial expressions reading) Authors like Malcolm Gladwell that have wrote for the prestigious journal “The new Yorker” state that some people have an uncanny ability to spot liars or border lining mind reading (such as the title indicates “The naked face: Can you read people’s thoughts just by looking at them?) Or even television shows such as “Lie to Me” that go out to make face reading as an infallible way of knowing what people think. With this paper I purpose in clearing how one could use facial expressions, and how we, in quality of professionals, should be aware of confirmation biases and/or cultural ones, while keeping in mind the possible best way to apply such knowledge. I will also provide a little historical background to the whole ordeal and of the historical significance in this matter, and try to access the possible future applications.

Facial expressions:

The subject of facial expressions, either in regards for veracity and reliability, or being learnt or innate, is thought to be only recent (due to media attention and/or entertainment.) Though in fact it’s a long debate amongst the scientific community, dating as far back to Charles Darwin, specifically in a book called “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” in which it ‘s stated that facial expressions are a learnt behaviour: “The inheritance of most of our expressive actions explains the fact that those born blind display them, as I hear from the Rev. R. H. Blair, equally well with those gifted with eyesight. We can thus also understand the fact that the young and the old of widely different races, both with man and animals, express the same state of mind by the same movements.”

The exhibition of spontaneous facial expression in blind people indicate that