Facial Feedback Response Theory: The Origin Of The Species

Science released an article entitled “Facial Expressions—Including Fear—May Not Be as Universal as We Thought”, written by Michael Pierce on October 17, 2016. In this article Pierce discusses how 50 years ago it was assumed that facial expressions were universal. However, it has been found that in the present day, this may not be the case. Expressions such as happiness, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, or hunger, were all assumed to be expressed the same way as well as interpreted the same way. A study was conducted in the Trobriand Islands, were Trobrianders were shown as series of photos with facial expressions. They were asked to describe the emotions they interpreted from the photos, the results were intriguing. Pierce (2016) describes how

In the article, Cunningham brings up many compelling points that help drive her argument on the reasons as to why women smile. One of the main points she touches on is the biological aspect of it. She relates it to monkeys and how they use a smile in their environment to show that they are not going to cause harm to anyone around them and that they are passive. This helps

Another conscious process that Fredrickson discusses is how oxytocin is used in social relationships. This hormone makes people “attend more to eyes and become specifically more attuned to their smiles, especially subtle ones. Perhaps because of the closer attention you pay to people’s smiles and eyes, you become a better judge of their feelings” (Fredrickson 115). Although Fredrickson makes it seem that this is essential for happiness, she is

The overall results collected by 257 students for each of the expression is roughly 2.8 for frown, 3.2 for neutral, and 3.9 for smile, each data at a statistically significant p-value of 0.001. This result disproves the norm of reciprocity theory in the hypothesis since a frown received a response closer to neutral.

There was a seven year old child named Kiki who was found and dug out of rubble in Haiti after being stuck buried in there for 7 days. At first he was scared to leave the hole but when he got out he wasn't scared anymore, he didn't cry, he did quite the opposite in fact he stretched out his arms like a star and had a huge smile on his face. All the people around couldn't help but smile aswell because Kiki’s smile was infectious! Now a show of hands how many times a day you think that you smile? 4000? 20? 150? 60? On average a child smiles approximately 400 times per day but adults only smile 20 times per day teens like us are anywhere within the middle because of the fluctuating hormones. Out of the thousands of smiles we have shared by this

Results of the experiment overwhelmingly supported the hypothesis. Particularly in the measurements of smiling. Male-female dyads showed extraordinarily higher frequencies of smiling during conversation than the other dyads. Both same gender dyads showed relatively marginal to moderate frequencies for smiling. Eye contact frequencies were also higher for male-female dyads, though not as overwhelmingly as smiling. In contrast, both same gender dyads showed relatively low frequencies for eye contact.

At first, I think the reason that Cunningham used monkeys to be as an example is to make the connection between two closely species. As the monkeys, they use their smiles to show that they are passive and not going to harm anyone around them; this detail makes us think about women use the smiles just like monkeys by a biological trait to show that they are non-threatening. The act of smiling is seen as non-threatening because of how it has been perceived by other people. This facial expression of smiling has actually gone through an evolutionary history much like any living species, following the rules of survival of the fittest. It has been seen as a happy expression, used when someone laughs or hears good news. Because of this, it is popularly seen as the stereotypical expression of happiness.

Cunningham believes that a smile does not only contains a positive emotion. She was being informative when she states that people from different cultures also smiles when they are frighten, miserable, or embarrassed. Emphasizing her point further, she provided an example from Japan. Correspondingly, Cunningham used research and facts as she addressed “Psychologist Paul Ekman, the head of the University of California’s Human Interaction Lab in San Francisco, has identified 18 distinct types of smiles, including those that shows misery, compliance, fear and contempt.” (263). Aside from using logos to enhance her argument, Cunningham also uses ethos in considered to make the audience feels more certain when reading her article. Notwithstanding, her point of view, she after then states a sentence that is considered to be a fallacy. Introduction to her next paragraph, she wrote “Evidently, a woman’s happy, willing deference, is something the world wants visibly.”, and example of hasty generalization. Though it was said evidently, there was no follow up reasons to support that the worlds wants it clearly. A woman’s happiness is something that not everyone to embrace. Therefore, it is yet another stereotyped that the authors support but did not established through

As human beings, we can trace our smiling roots to monkeys. Monkeys use their “smiles” to show dominance, whereas humans use it to make ourselves seem nonthreatening. We begin smiling as early as two-and-a-half-months and are laughing by six-months. Psychologists and psychiatrists have noted that kids not only smile at happy things, but they also smile when they realize that non-scary things are okay. For example, being tossed in the air or having a parent chase them. Mrs. Cunningham gave an excellent background history to this topic and included information from Psychiatrist Paul Ekman, head of the University of California Human Interaction Lab located in San Francisco. He believes that there are 18 distinct types of smiles that can range from misery to happiness. Cunningham was wise in adding this to

Something so simple as a smile is way more complex than what actually meets the eye. In America’s culture we view smiling as a positive or friendly feeling, but in many other cultures it is actually the opposite. We view smiling as a form of respect and use it as a tool to help us either build or to repair relationships. One example of a “non-smiling” culture is Japan. In Japanese culture, they place extreme value on humility and so they tend to suppress their emotions. This is one of there ways that they use to help build relationships with people. Another “non-smiling” country is Russia. In Russia, smiling is reserved for close friends and so smiling at strangers is viewed as being insincere. (No wonder why we had so many communication issues in the cold war.) Therefore, the question at hand is why is smiling

Neal & Chartrand (2011) supported the claims of Niedenthal (2207) by exploring how dampening and amplifying facial feedback signals affect perceptions of others’ emotions. They found participants with botox injections, who could not properly mimic facial expression, found it more difficult to perceive others’ emotions than participants who received a cosmetic procedure that did

Now that we’ve covered a few of the positive biological effects relating to smiling, let’s look at some of the ways that a smile can affect those around you.

The article shows how women’s emotions can and cannot be related to when they smile. The author gives detailed examples on how woman are perceived as always smiling and in no way in a terrible mood. Cunningham shows how in the past women is not always having happy facial expressions because of the need to seem harmless. Despite the evidence given to us by the author, Cunningham still explains that she wants women to smile in the future whether or not it’s a smirk or a

Thesis Statement: Facial expressions and the way the human brain perceives them is an instrumental piece in the concept of human communication that effects the way all humans interact with each other.

I smile so that people know I’m friendly and some days I forget to smile, but now I’m smiling every time I come in contact with someone or even if I’m sitting in class and the professor looks at me I give a little smile so that they know I’m paying attention and that I’m showing my interest.