“This finding underscores how the origins of reading mental states from the eyes relate in part to how the eyes see,” the researchers write. Thus, relative to the rest of our facial features, the eyes seem to have it when it comes to conveying complex mental states. Two additional clusters included eye features associated with joy, which aligned with positive mental states like admiration, and sadness, which aligned with negative mental states like uneasiness.įindings from a second study showed that the eyes provide equally strong emotional signals when they’re embedded in the context of a whole face, even when the features in the lower face don’t indicate the same expression as the eyes do. narrowing) explained a majority of this complex space in social communication.” “We looked at a subset of this space-just the eye region-and found that one simple physical dimension (widening vs. “Human expressions are highly complex – when enumerating our facial muscles, we computed that there are at least 3.7 x 10 16 different expression combinations, which is about the same probabilistic space as two Powerball jackpots,” says Lee. The fact that these two clusters associated so strongly around eye widening and narrowing surprised the researchers: The eye-widening cluster was associated with mental states related to information sensitivity, including awe, anticipation, cowardice, and interest. The eye-narrowing cluster was associated with mental states related to social discrimination, including hate, suspicion, aggressiveness, and contempt. And these ratings were reliably higher than those for other mental states paired with the same eye expression.Īdditional analyses examining the relationship between specific eye features and mental states revealed four distinct clusters, two of which aligned with eye-narrowing and eye-widening features. People consistently matched the eye expressions with the corresponding basic emotion, rating “fear” as a strong match for the fear eye expression, for example. The researchers then analyzed how these mental state perceptions related to specific eye features: the openness of the eye the distance from the eyebrow to the eye the slope and curve of the eyebrow and wrinkles around the nose, the temple, and below the eye.Ĭombined ratings from the 28 participants showed that the eyes really do provide a strong signal of emotional state. Each participant completed a total of 600 trials. On each trial, participants saw a pair of eyes (one of the six exemplars) and a word representing a specific mental state, and they rated the extent to which the mental-state term described the eye expression. Using photos of faces included in widely-used databases, the researchers created average exemplars of six expressions (i.e., sadness, disgust, anger, joy, fear, surprise). Lee and Anderson hypothesized that these opposing types of expressions, which originated for optical purposes, may have been co-opted for social purposes, operating as signals of conceptually related mental states. Narrowing our eyes to a squint, on the other hand, can increase visual acuity, helping us to discriminate fine details. Opening our eyes wide boosts visual sensitivity by allowing more light in, helping us to see any threats that might lurk nearby. “His theories on how expression appearance evolved to have a sensory function for the sender showed how it also co-evolved to have communication function for the receiver.” Anderson of Cornell University wanted to understand how our expressions came to communicate so many complex emotions and mental states. The idea that our facial expressions communicate emotion isn’t new – but Lee and co-author Adam K. “Narrowing the eyes for visual scrutiny also communicates scrutiny.” “For example, if you’re watching ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and wonder why when Larry David squints his eyes that conveys scrutiny, our work offers a theory that explains it,” Lee explains. “This is a clear demonstration of emotional embodiment, from sender to receiver.” Lee of the University of Colorado Boulder. “Our findings show that how we see directly relates to how others see us, through our facial expressions,” says psychological scientist Daniel H. The research reveals, for example, that people consistently associate narrowed eyes – which can enhance visual discrimination – with discrimination-related emotions including disgust and suspicion. We use others’ eyes – whether they’re widened or narrowed – to infer emotional states, and the inferences we make align with the optical function of those expressions, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science.Psychological Science in the Public Interest.Current Directions in Psychological Science.
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