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Spontaneous Facial Expressions Are Different from Posed Facial Expressions: Morphological Properties and Dynamic Sequences

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Abstract

The correspondence between facial expressions and emotions has been widely examined in psychology. However, studies have yet to record spontaneous facial expressions under well-controlled circumstances, thus the characteristics of these expressions remain unclear. Therefore, we compared the morphological and dynamic properties of spontaneous and posed facial expressions related to four different emotions: surprise, amusement, disgust, and sadness. First, we secretly recorded participants’ spontaneous facial expressions as they watched films chosen to elicit these four target emotions. We then recorded posed facial expressions of participants when asked to intentionally express each emotion. Subsequently, we conducted detailed analysis of both the spontaneous and posed expressions by using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). We found different dynamic sequences between spontaneous and posed expressions for surprise and amusement. Moreover, we confirmed specific morphological aspects for disgust (the prevailing expressions of which encompassed other emotions) and posed negative emotions. This study provides new evidence of the characteristics for genuinely spontaneous and posed facial expressions corresponding to these emotions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University, 1-1-1, Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-0046, Japan

    Shushi Namba, Shoko Makihara & Russell S. Kabir

  2. Department of Psychology, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

    Makoto Miyatani & Takashi Nakao

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  1. Shushi Namba
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  2. Shoko Makihara
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Correspondence to Shushi Namba.

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This research was supported by the Center of Innovation Program of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grants 26285168 and 25870467.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedure performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the Ethical Committee of the Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants before and after the investigation.

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Namba, S., Makihara, S., Kabir, R.S. et al. Spontaneous Facial Expressions Are Different from Posed Facial Expressions: Morphological Properties and Dynamic Sequences. Curr Psychol 36, 593–605 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9448-9

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