A microexpression is a facial expression with very short duration. It is the innate result of a voluntary and an involuntary emotional response occurring simultaneously and conflicting with one another. It occurs when the amygdala responds appropriately to the stimuli that the individual experiences and wishes to conceal this specific emotion. This results in briefly displaying their true emotions followed by a false emotional reaction.
Human emotions are an unconscious biopsychosocial reaction that derives from the amygdala, and they typically last 0.5–4.0 seconds, although a microexpression will typically last less than 1/2 of a second. It is either very difficult or virtually impossible to hide microexpression reactions. Microexpressions cannot be controlled, but it is possible to capture someone's expressions with a high-speed camera and replay them at much slower speeds. Microexpressions express the seven universal emotions: disgust, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, contempt, and surprise. In the 1990s, Paul Ekman expanded his list of emotions, including a range of positive and negative emotions not all of which are encoded in facial muscles. These emotions are amusement, embarrassment, anxiety, guilt, pride, relief, contentment, pleasure, and shame.
History Microexpressions were first discovered by Haggard and Isaacs. In their 1966 study, Haggard and Isaacs outlined how they discovered these "micromomentary" expressions while "scanning motion picture films of psychotherapy for hours, searching for indications of non-verbal communication between therapist and patient".Haggard, E. A., & Isaacs, K. S. (1966). Micro-momentary facial expressions as indicators of ego mechanisms in psychotherapy. In L. A. Gottschalk & A. H. Auerbach (Eds.), Methods of Research in Psychotherapy (pp. 154–165). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Through a series of studies, Paul Ekman found a high agreement across members of diverse Western and Eastern literate cultures on selecting emotional labels that fit facial expressions. Expressions he found to be universal included those indicating anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. Findings on contempt are less clear, though there is at least some preliminary evidence that this emotion and its expression are universally recognized. Working with his long-time friend Wallace V. Friesen, Ekman demonstrated that the findings extended to preliterate Fore tribesmen in Papua New Guinea, whose members could not have learned the meaning of expressions from exposure to media depictions of emotion. Ekman and Friesen then demonstrated that certain emotions were exhibited with very specific display rules, culture-specific prescriptions about who can show which emotions to whom and when. These display rules could explain how cultural differences may conceal the universal effect of expression. Chapter: The argument and evidence about universals in facial expressions of emotion.
In the 1960s, William S. Condon pioneered the study of interactions at the fraction-of-a-second level. In his famous research project, he scrutinized a four-and-a-half-second film segment frame by frame, where each frame represented 1/25th second. After studying this film segment for a year and a half, he discerned interactional micromovements, such as the wife moving her shoulder exactly as the husband's hands came up, which combined yielded rhythms at the micro level.Sound Film Analysis of Normal and Pathological Behavior Patterns, Condon, W.S.; Ogston, W.D., Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease. 143(4):338–347, October 1966.
Years after Condon's study, American psychologist John Gottman began video-recording living relationships to study how couples interact. By studying participants' facial expressions, Gottman was able to correlate expressions with which relationships would last and which would not. Gottman's 2002 paper makes no claims to accuracy in terms of binary classification, and is instead a regression analysis of a two factor model where skin conductance levels and oral history narratives encodings are the only two statistically significant variables. Facial expressions using Ekman's encoding scheme were not statistically significant. In Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink, Gottman states that there are four major emotional reactions that are destructive to a marriage: defensiveness which is described as a reaction toward a stimulus as if you were being attacked, stonewalling which is the behavior where a person refuses to communicate or cooperate with another,Webber, Elizabeth; Feinsilber, Mike (1999). Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions. Merriam-Webster. pp. 519–. . Retrieved 10 December 2012. criticism which is the practice of judging the merits and faults of a person, and contempt which is a general attitude that is a mixture of the primary emotions disgust and anger.TenHouten, W.D. (2007). General Theory of Emotions and Social Life. Routledge. Among these four, Gottman considers contempt the most important of them all.Gladwell, Malcolm (2005). Blink, Chapter 1, Section 3, The Importance of Contempt
Types Microexpressions are typically classified based on how an expression is modified. They exist in three groups: Simulated expressions: when a microexpression is not accompanied by a genuine emotion. This is the most commonly studied form of microexpression because of its nature. It occurs when there is a brief flash of an expression and then returns to a neutral state. Neutralized expressions: when a genuine expression is suppressed and the face remains neutral. This type of microexpression is not observable due to the successful suppression of it by a person. Masked expressions: when a genuine expression is completely masked by a falsified expression. Masked expressions are microexpressions that are intended to be hidden, either subconsciously or consciously.
In photographs and films Microexpressions can be difficult to recognize, but still images and video can make them easier to perceive. In order to learn how to recognize the way that various emotions register across parts of the face, Ekman and Friesen recommend the study of what they call "facial blueprint photographs", photographic studies of "the same person showing all the emotions" under consistent photographic conditions.Ekman, P. & Friesen, W.V. (2003). Unmasking the Face. Cambridge: Malor Books. p. 169 However, because of their extremely short duration, by definition, microexpressions can happen too quickly to capture with traditional photography. Both Condon and Gottman compiled their seminal research by intensively reviewing film footage. Frame rate manipulation also allows the viewer to distinguish distinct emotions, as well as their stages and progressions, which would otherwise be too subtle to identify. This technique is demonstrated in the short film Thought Moments by Michael Simon Toon and a film in Malayalam Pretham 2016Prof. Ragodí. "Trabajo Psicología de 1er Trimestre." El Bigote de Bernays. Blogspot. Updated 11-19-2009. Accessed 8-5-13. http://elbigotedebernays.blogspot.com/2009/11/trabajo-psicologia-1er-trimestre.htmlBraun, Roman. "Eye Catcher." Trinergy-NLP-Blog. Posted 10-27-2009. Accessed 8-5-13. "Thought Moments." British Films Directory. British Council. Updated 12-1-2009. http://film.britishcouncil.org/thought-moments Paul Ekman also has materials he has created on his website that teach people how to identify microexpressions using various photographs, including photos he took during his research period in New Guinea.
Moods vs emotions Moods differ from emotions in that the feelings involved last over a longer period. For example, a feeling of anger lasting for just a few minutes, or even for an hour, is called an emotion. But if the person remains angry all day, or becomes angry a dozen times during that day, or is angry for days, then it is a mood.Ekman, P. & Friesen, W.V. (2003). Unmasking the Face. Cambridge: Malor Books. p. 12. Many people describe this as a person being irritable, or that the person is in an angry mood. As Paul Ekman described, it is possible but unlikely for a person in this mood to show a complete anger facial expression. More often just a trace of that angry facial expression may be held over a considerable period: a tightened jaw or tensed lower eyelid, or a lip pressed against a lip, or brows drawn down and together.Ekman, P. & Friesen, W..V. (2003). Unmasking the Face. Cambridge: Malor Books. pp. 12–13. Emotions are defined as a complex pattern of changes, including physiological arousal, feelings, cognitive processes, and behavioral reactions, made in response to a situation perceived to be personally significant.
Controlled microexpressions Facial expressions are not just automatic reflexes. Some may be voluntary and others involuntary, and thus some may be truthful and others false or misleading.Ekman, P. & Friesen, W.V. (2003). Unmasking the Face. Cambridge: Malor Books. p. 19. Some people are born able to control their expressions, while others are trained, such as actors. "Natural liars" may be aware of their ability to control microexpressions, and so may those who know them well; they may have been able to "get away" with things since childhood due to greater ease in fooling their parents, teachers, and friends.Ekman, P. (1991). Telling Lies Clues to deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., p. 56. People can simulate emotion expressions, attempting to create the impression that they feel an emotion when they are not experiencing it at all. A person may show an expression that looks like fear when in fact they feel nothing, or perhaps some other emotion.Ekman, P. & Friesen, W.V. (2003). Unmasking the Face. Cambridge: Malor Books. p. 20. Facial expressions of emotion are controlled for various reasons, whether cultural or by social conventions. For example, in the United States many young men learn the cultural display rule, "Boys do not cry or look afraid". There are also more personal display rules, not learned by most people within a culture but the product of the idiosyncrasies of a particular family. A child may be taught never to look angrily at his father or never to show sadness when disappointed. These display rules, whether cultural ones shared by most people or personal, individual ones, are usually so well-learned, and learned so early, that the control of the facial expression they dictate is done automatically without thinking or awareness.Ekman, P. & Friesen, W.V. (2003). Unmasking the Face. Cambridge: Malor Books. pp. 20–21.
Emotional intelligence Involuntary facial expressions can be hard to pick up and understand explicitly, and they are more of an implicit competence of the unconscious mind. Daniel Goleman created a conclusion on the capacity of an individual to recognize their own, as well as others', emotions, and to discriminate emotions based on introspection of those feelings. This is part of Goleman's emotional intelligence. In E.I, attunement is an unconscious synchrony that guides empathy. Attunement relies heavily on nonverbal communication. Looping is where facial expressions can elicit involuntary behavior. In the research on motor mimicry there are neurons that pick up on facial expressions and communicate with motor neurons responsible for muscles in the face to display the same facial expression. Thus, displaying a smile may elicit a microexpression of a smile on someone who is trying to remain neutral in their expression.