February 12, 2004
Facial expression
I just love it when a New Yorker reporter gets hold of a subject that I have never been able to understand and spoon feeds it to me with chocolate syrup on top. And so it was that they did a wonderful piece on facial expression and affect. I saved it (are you surprised?) but I don't think I can put my hands on it right now (are you surprised?)
Nonetheless, I will proceed merrily ahead with a vague, inaccurate description of the work of Ekman and Izard (I hope these are the guys), as reported by the New Yorker and remembered by Dakota (whose fact-checking staff is on sabbatical).
So, as Izard and Eckman studied facial expression, they began to notice that there are many tiny muscles in the face that supply nuance to a look. For example, the genuine smile involves the corners of the eyes as well as the lips. An exclusively lip smile seems inauthentic to the observer.
Bill Clinton happened to be running for President at the time, and they noticed that the particular muscles he was using in his face indicated that he was a mischievious boy, getting away with something. Good Democrats that they were, they notified Clinton's campaign of their findings. Alas, Clinton was unable to change his expressions.
Eckman and Izard next interviewed people who were very good at reading facial expression. They chose law enforcement officials who were faced with a person pointing a gun at them, and were able to read the assailant's facial expression accurately enough to stay alive. They have developed a training tape for those of us who would like to improve our skills in this area.
Most interestingly, they themselves did a lot of work in front of the mirror flexing their own facial muscles, so that they could accurately produce specific expressions. We are talking over a hundred muscles here, and an expression will always include several muscles working together. They became the first facial athletes.
When they got to depression, they spent a week or so perfecting the puss. As they checked with each other, they realized that they were both getting depressed. This lead them to wonder if facial muscles could actually influence mood. Guess what, when they then did blood tests for cortisol while they were pouting, (just throwing cortisol around, tests for some secretion or other seen in depression), sure enough, it was elevated. To reach a hasty conclusion, because I am off to Mexico, I am not packed, and will not be blogging next week and I wouldn't want to leave anyone hanging, facial expression does influence mood.
That brings a whole new meaning to the instruction, "Smile". So smile, and you may be able to change your body chemistry for the better. (: You must be sure, when you're doing it, to throw in the eye muscles as well as the lips, in order to get a full effect.
Posted by Dakota at February 12, 2004 06:17 AM