It is now generally accepted that certain basic facial expressions of human emotion are
recognized around the world - and that the use and recognition of these expressions is
genetically inherited rather than socially conditioned or learned.
While there have been found to be minor variations and differences among obscurely isolated
tribes-people, the following basic human emotions are generally used, recognized, and part of
humankind's genetic character:
These emotional face expressions are:
• Happiness
• Sadness
• Fear
• Disgust
• Surprise
• Anger
Charles Darwin was first to make these claims in his book The Expressions of the Emotions in
Man and Animals, published in 1872. This book incidentally initially far outsold The Origin of
Species, such was its wide (and controversial) appeal at the time.
Darwin's assertions about genetically inherited facial expressions remained the subject of much
debate for many years.
In the 1960s a Californian psychiatrist and expert in facial expressions, Paul Ekman, (with
Sorenson and Friesen - see references) conducted and published extensive studies with people
of various cultures to explore the validity of Darwin's theory - that certain facial expressions and
man's ability to recognize them are inborn and universal among people. Ekman's work notably
included isolated tribes-people who could not have been influenced by Western media and
images, and essentially proved that Darwin was right - i.e., that the use and recognition of facial
expressions to convey certain basic human emotions is part of human evolved nature,
genetically inherited, and not dependent on social learning or conditioning.
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