Universal Facial Expressions

When it comes to communication, what is said actually says the least. As much as 65% of communication is unspoken[i]. It is so vital that we are born with an understanding of it[ii]. The importance of body language lies in why communication as a whole is indispensable. We need it to survive. As this unspoken communication is so vital for humans, it’s important for the characters we write as well. In the next few posts with FightWrite, we will be looking at the unspoken dialogue our characters bodies can speak. In today’s post we will look at universal facial expressions.

The Limbic System Doesn’t Lie

The drive to survive is a function of our limbic brain. The limbic portion of our brain is responsible for emotions, behavior and motivation that are connected to keeping us alive. It encourages us to eat, drink, procreate, care for young and run from bears.

As communication is a function of survival, the limbic system has a hand in our communication. The thing is, the limbic brain doesn’t think so much as much as it reacts. Those reactions are drawn from “files” the limbic brain creates as we experience life.

Here’s what I mean.  Let’s say you show a child a picture of a cookie. That child will likely smile. The child will smile because the first time that child had a cookie, the limbic portion of the child’s brain created a file folder labeled, “cookie” and put all the emotions related to the moment the child ate the cookie inside that folder.

One of the emotions listed in the file folder is “joy” because the child felt joy when it ate the cookie. So, the limbic brain knows that “cookie” is connected to “joy.” Because of that connection, the limbic brain then opens the folder labeled “joy” and lo and behold, inside that folder is the facial expression “smile.”

Cookie – memory of cookie – joy – smile.  All of that happens in time quicker than we can measure. And, it has to be incredibly fast because some of the files in the limbic brain relate to dangerous things. We need to respond immediately.

Because the limbic brain exists to keep us going individually as a person and collectively as a society, it is not meant to lie. It is meant to express truth, let us know what will hurt us, heal us, keep us going or take out down. Lies work against survival. If I take a drink of something, wince, then hand the drink to you, you will be hesitant to drink it because of the facial expression I made when I tasted it.

Now, let’s say I tell you it tastes great. All the while, my brow are knit, the edges of my eyes are down and my lips are pulled into a tight smile. What should you believe? The words I’m saying, or the expression created by the survival portion of my brain?

Predicting Assault

Timing and Clusters

Body language, like words, conveys meaning with its speed and grouping of behaviors. A quick scream of help, in its speed alone, communicates the importance of the need for assistance. But, to understand the manner of assistance required, we need more words than just the one. The act of the scream is not enough to convey the scope of the emergency.

The same is true of body language. No one piece is enough for us to have a full understanding of what someone’s brain is saying. However, that one bit can tell us to pay attention to any behaviors that follow.

Let’s go back to the face I made when I tasted the drink. If you only looked at my smile, you might think the drink was delicious. But when you combine it with the tightness of my lips, the edges of my eyes that don’t agree with the smile and my brows being together and not up, you see a fuller picture how that drink really tastes.

Writing Body Language

If you want to show how your character really feels with their body language, you need to show a cluster of behaviors. One expression/behavior needs to come with another that also expresses the same feeling. And that cluster doesn’t have to happen all at once. They may be several moments or minutes apart, especially if the person is trying very hard to conceal their feelings or simply needs to think to decide how they feel.

Genuine responses can require genuine thought and that can take anywhere from five to ten seconds. Think about it, haven’t you ever tasted something and had to give it a few seconds to decide if you liked it? Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t and yeah you think you might but nope, you do not. But, here’s the thing, the entire time you were deciding, your face and body were showing that you were trying to decide as well as the train of emotions you were on to make the final decision.

Universal Expressions

Over the next few posts, FightWrite will look at body language that shows how a character feels regardless of what the character’s mouth is saying. But first, we need to look at a few that are universal, all of which are expressions of the face. Which, ironically, as we will see in future posts, is the least trustworthy source of information from our body. From the time we are very young, we are taught to “not make that face.”

Regardless of culture or geographical location, all humans have seven universal facial expressions. Happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, and contempt are universally recognized[iii]. These universal expressions allow communities to thrive regardless of cultural background.

All of those expressions are symmetrical except the last, contempt, which is asymmetrical. The use of cosmetic injections that immobilize muscles in the face can modify the facial expression of these emotions. Be sure to note that in your work.

 

Here are how the seven universal expressions present on the face:

• Happiness pulls up the cheeks and edges of the mouth. As well, the edges of the eyes squint. That eye squint is key in showing a genuine smile.
• Sadness causes the eyelids to droop, eyes to be downcast, lip edges to lower and the eyebrows to slant down from the middle[iv].
• Surprise is the emotional response from a sudden, unexpected occurrence. Surprise shows on the face with raised brows, wide eyes and a dropped chin. It is sometimes confused with the startle response. Startle is a physical reflex. Surprise is an expression.
• Fear raises and pulls the eyebrows together. It also raises the upper eye lids, tenses the lower lids, and drops the jaw while pulling the lips backward horizontallyix.
• Disgust lowers the eyebrows, causes the nose to wrinkle, raises the top lip into a “U” shape and causes the lower lip to jut out slightly.ix
• Anger pulls the eyebrows down and together, opens the eyes wide to stare hard and purses the lips together tightly[v].
• Contempt causes differing expressions on each side of the face. One side tends to be squinched up while the other is relaxed

The next time you are in a crowded room, look at the expressions on the faces around you. Without hearing the conversations, see if you can tell how the person feels by the expression on their face. Remember, that expression is a product of their limbic system. Regardless of the words coming out of their mouth, that expression is a product of the part of their brain that hates lying.

That said, sometimes people go to great efforts to make their face look honest. Even in those cases, the limbic brain will win by communicating the truth with other portions of the body. We will look at that more closely in the coming months.

Until the next round with FightWrite, get blood on your pages.

[i] Navarro, Joe and Marvin Karlins. What Every Body Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-reading People. New York, William Morrow, 2008.

[ii]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5854345/#:~:text=Experiment%202%20has%20confirmed%20that,of%20an%20emotional%20facial%20expression.

[iii] What every BODY is saying: an ex-FBI agent’s guide to speed-reading people

Navarro and Karlins – Harper Collins – 2015

[iv] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/halo-effecthttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10367458/#:~:text=Drooping%20eyelids%2C%20downcast%20eyes%2C%20lowered,to%20have%20suffered%20a%20loss.

[v] https://www.paulekman.com/universal-emotions/what-is-anger/