ABSTRACT
The empirical research on facial expressions of emotion following Darwin's expression book was quite episodic. A number of trends have contributed to the resurgence of interest in facial expression in the last 20 years. These trends have generated research that indicates there are universals in facial expressions of emotion. Before describing that evidence, this chapter discusses the cultural specificity view of facial expressions of emotion, which dominated the field up until recently. Darwin was primarily concerned with emotional expressions, which he considered innately determined and thereby universal. There are two different approaches for measuring facial expressions in muscular or anatomical terms. In one technique, human coders learn to recognize visually distinct facial actions that can singly or in combination account for all facial movement. The other method is facial electromyography (EMG), in which surface electrodes placed over different regions of the face measure electrical discharge from contracting muscular tissue through the skin.
