Facial Expressions and Emotional Awareness
When a facial expression is seen out of context – isolated from other cues like speech, gestures, posture, and environmental details -the expression still conveys emotional information, but not as much information as when it is viewed within its full social context. When the observer has no ongoing relationship with the person who shows the expression, no past experience, no current knowledge or intended future, then the facial cues provided cannot be interpreted with the same level of accuracy.
In everyday life, we rarely see facial emotional expressions totally out of social context, unless we glance at a magazine. Even when we see an expression on the face of a stranger who walks by in the street, we have contextual information–the person’s dress, gait, what we know about the types of people who at that time of day are in that location, and so on. Stripping an expression of all this context and asking what it “means” places us in an unusual position—without the usual emotional communication signals we rely on to read intent, emotional state, or authenticity.
Yet, standing alone, facial expressions of emotion do have some standalone meaning. They provide information about various domains, even if imperfectly. Whether the information is accurate or not is a different matter. My research has shown that most people can quite successfully lie with their facial expressions, but careful observation and training in microexpression recognition can reveal inconsistencies. These brief, involuntary expressions—known as microexpressions—can expose hidden emotions or attempts at deception.
Learn more about what your facial expressions of emotions communicate to others, and how to accurately interpret micro and subtle facial expressions can enhance your ability to connect with others, recognize emotional signals, build trust and detect deception.
