{"id":18338,"date":"2017-04-14T12:08:52","date_gmt":"2017-04-14T10:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.igmanagement.it\/?p=18338"},"modified":"2023-06-27T10:45:45","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T08:45:45","slug":"facs-an-atlas-for-exploring-emotions-through-the-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.igmanagement.it\/en\/2017\/04\/14\/facs-an-atlas-for-exploring-emotions-through-the-face\/","title":{"rendered":"FACS: an atlas for exploring emotions through the face"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article by Diego Ingrassia – “FACS: an atlas for exploring emotions through the face” – APRIL 2017_ LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT<\/a><\/p>\n

The face is the first thing we look at in others, it is the first expressive channel through which we convey the emotions we feel, our attitude, our propensity to act and communicate.
\nWe can show sadness, anger, fear, or disgust, contempt, sometimes surprise, and as many as 16 different types of emotions related to happiness.<\/p>\n

What happens when we try to hide our emotions from others? Attempting to conceal the onset of an emotion, or to lie openly, allows valuable information to leak out through our faces. These involuntary expressions, which often last only fractions of a second, are called ‘micro-expressions’.<\/p>\n

Emotional expressions do not always manifest themselves entirely on the face, sometimes they affect only a part of it; we speak in these cases of partial or subtle expressions, which can also emerge in the form of micro expressions. In the same way they communicate to us what the interlocutor is really feeling.<\/p>\n

The non-verbal way of communicating feelings plays an important role in our most intimate relationships. John Gottman, in a ten-year longitudinal study, showed that 87% of the couples observed, who displayed micro facial expressions of contempt and disgust towards their partner, divorced within 4 to 6 years.<\/p>\n

Why is the occurrence of these two emotions (and related micro facial expressions) so important in couple relationships? Disgust is an emotion linked to sensory and cognitive repulsion, whereby those who experience it tend to distance themselves from an object (or a person, or a thought expressed by someone) that they consider ‘poisonous’ or contaminating. The manifestation of this emotion, especially in the sexual sphere, defuses any physical attraction towards the partner and thus creates both a physical and mental distance.<\/p>\n

Contempt, on the other hand, communicates a sense of moral superiority over the other, who is thus relegated to an inferior role, less deserving of our time and attention. A relationship set up in this way creates asymmetry and inequality, dehumanises the other person by placing them on a ‘lower step’ than us. Respect for the person next to us in such cases is lost, threatening at the root the possibility of establishing a constructive relationship.<\/p>\n

When contempt manifests itself within the work context, it creates tension and disharmony. In hierarchical relationships it can mean a lack of recognition of the role and disesteem, latent conflicts that can prelude the break-up of a relationship or the onset of serious inefficiencies. For this reason, it would be providential to be able to recognise expressions of contempt in good time and thus be able to manage the relationship effectively.<\/p>\n

The face and its rapid movements are thus the main way to intuit the other’s possible behavioural choices. These valuable indicators, often manifested involuntarily and very quickly, inform us about our interlocutor’s reactions. We can thus understand whether he\/she is in agreement with us, or doubtful or frightened by our proposal; happy or angry at our presence.<\/p>\n

Facial expressions can tell us when someone feels an emotion, but the fact remains that it is difficult to establish, without asking questions, the direct cause of the emotion felt by the interlocutor. Another aspect concerns the peculiar characteristics of each individual, called ‘baselines’. A person may perform habitual behaviours that are not necessarily related to a precise meaning (e.g. certain facial expressions such as: frowning; sucking the lips into the mouth; wrinkling the nose when laughing; lifting the upper lip when verbally pronouncing certain vowels or consonants).<\/p>\n

Learning to identify emotion-related micro-expressions is important for many reasons:<\/p>\n