Facial Expressions in our communication

Our facial expressions make up an essential part of our communication. Facial expressions are universal. When we are not face-to-face, we use emojis to convey the same facial expressions.

Accessibility icon Facial Expressions in our communication

What are facial expressions?

It was probably easy to see if you felt happy when you went to school today. It tends to be quite easy to understand the facial expressions people have when they are happy, sad or angry.

Over the years, Charles Darwin and other researchers have written a lot of articles on the way people communicate using different facial expressions. Ever since the 17th century, it has been generally accepted that people only have six basic facial expressions: happiness/joy, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust.

Universal facial expressions

Over the last ten years, some researchers have begun to challenge this belief. Today many researchers have concluded that people have many more than just six basic facial expressions.

It has also been established that smiles do not necessarily mean joy. A smile can spring from desire, love, admiration, and interest. Variations in the way a person smiles can also express feelings of embarrassment, amusement, or being happily disgusted.

Intentions, not feelings

But why do you smile at the people around you? Is it because you feel the need to share your emotions, or do you sometimes smile because you want to have a certain effect on the people around you?

What about when you frown at your brother? Are you simply expressing spontaneous aggression, or are you trying to tell him that you are unhappy about something? Maybe you are frowning at him to hide that you are feeling disappointed?

Alan Fridlund, a researcher and psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, believes that it is mostly our intentions and not our feelings that control our facial expressions. In other words, we use our facial expressions to regulate our social relationships, not only to make ourselves understood but also to steer things in the direction we want.

Forrige avsnitt

1 / 2

Neste avsnitt

Real or fake?

Of course this does not  mean that our smiles are not real. When you scored a goal in last weekend’s championship or got a nice message from someone you have a crush on, you probably had a huge smile on your face because of the joy you felt bubbling inside.

But when a good friend in class speaks up, you smile to show your support rather than smile of joy. And you would probably laugh to stay on your teacher’s good side when he or she tells a bad joke – not because it was funny, right?

According to Fridlund, we learn over time to tell the difference between real smiles and those that are fake or socially forced.

Forrige avsnitt

1 / 2

Neste avsnitt

Interpreting feelings

Knowing if a facial expression shows what we really feel or not might not always be that important. Sometimes we force ourselves to smile so that those around us will think that we are happy. If this is interpreted as a genuine smile, the effect on our surroundings will be the same as if it were really expressing that feeling.

However, if an expression is misunderstood, it could have serious consequences. 

Imagine going to see your favorite film at the movie theater with a friend. You have been looking forward to seeing the movie and hope that your friend has too. But, when you enter the movie theater, he just sits there looking angry and makes faces every once in a while. 

That makes you think that he doesn’t like the movie and you are disappointed. What you didn’t know, though, was that your friend had a stomach ache, and the pain in his stomach caused him to make faces that you misunderstood. This type of communication mistake can be the basis for many bigger misunderstandings.

Forrige avsnitt

1 / 3

Neste avsnitt

Emojis

When we are not facing those we are talking to, we often send messages by SMS or on social media.

There are approximately 20 billion messages sent every day, and expression icons, aka “emojis”, were created to make text messages easier to understand. When you speak, your tone of voice can show if you are angry or sad, and a facial expression can show how you feel. Words on a screen are not as easy to understand, so an emoji can be used to show feelings when you write, or it can represent an idea or object.

The First Emojis

People have been drawing faces when they write for hundreds of years. Back in the 1980s, when computers and cell phones were new, people started using signs to create symbols for feelings. : – ) meant happy and : – ( sad.

In 1999, the Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita created 176 symbols to represent basic ideas like the weather, sports, or food. These were the first emojis. Over time, messaging programs around the world started to use these symbols. In 2010, the expressions icons were included in Unicode (the global code for letters, numbers, and other characters used by all messaging programs).

Forrige avsnitt

1 / 2

Neste avsnitt

Replacing facial expressions

Is using emojis absolutely trouble-free? How is a message sent with emojis understood compared to the same message without any?

One of the challenges we face when communicating with emojis is that people have different expectations for what should be used and when. Some believe that all messages should end with a smiley face, while others think that is overkill.

Misunderstood emojis

Some emojis look different depending on the platform used, and this can lead to unfortunate misunderstandings if you don’t know which operating system the person getting the message uses.

Visit the online encyclopedia of emojis here

When and where?

We still use smiley faces a lot, mainly in informal settings, so it isn’t a very good idea to use them in school assignments or other official settings. There are no definitive rules for the use of emojis in sentences at this time, most likely because they are not often used in official communication. Their use in social media is also unregulated, but it is always a good idea to use reason and common sense.

One common practice that fits in well with writing is to look at what appears the tidiest visually. This generally means inserting the appropriate punctuation at the end of the sentence, adding space, and then inserting an emoji.

World Emoji Day

Emojis have jumped off cell phone screens into games, ads, and even calendars. July 17th is now World Emoji Day because that is the date shown on the calendar emoji.

Whether they appear in the real world or are shared in virtual messages, it is clear that our facial expressions play an important role when we communicate. 

We like to use picture and activity books to teach young children about facial expressions. We are drilled on this knowledge throughout our lives as we face different parts of life like age, culture, and digital development.

Forrige avsnitt

1 / 2

Neste avsnitt

Sources:

  • Slik funker verden (2019)
    Orage Forlag AS
  • Språkrådet 

Media Rights:

    1. Getty Images
    2. Getty Images
    3. Getty Images
    4. Getty Images
    5. Getty Images
    6. Shutterstock
    7. Getty Images
    8. Getty Images
    9. Emojipedia.org
    10. Getty Images
    11. Getty Images