Accuracy in Judgment of facial expressions

By

AFSHEEN ZEHRA

Department of Psychology,

University of Karachi

Submitted to

Mam AMBREEN RAO

Department of Psychology,

University of Karachi

DATE: 9TH DECEMBER 2020

 INTRODUCTION

Emotions are any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear, etc.,
and usually accompanied by certain physiological changes, as increased heartbeat or respiration,
and often overt manifestation, as crying or shaking. Emotionality is associated with a range
of psychological phenomena, including temperament, personality, mood, and motivation. .
Emotionality is associated with a range of psychological phenomena
including temperament, personality, mood and motivation.According to
author David G. Meyers, human emotion involves "...physiological arousal,
expressive behaviors, and conscious experience."(Meyers.D.G,2011).
Emotions color life experiences and give those experiences meaning and flavor. Emotions
inform us of who we are, what our relationships with others are like, and how to behave in social
interactions. Emotions give meaning to events; without emotions, those events would be mere
facts. Emotions help coordinate interpersonal relationships. And emotions play an important role
in the cultural functioning of keeping human societies together.

Communication is clearly important to effective social interaction. Whereas humans are able to
communicate with one another verbally, they also are able to communicate nonverbally through
body language and facial expressions. Facial expression of emotion is an important aspect of
communication, and our bodies and brains seem wired to engage in such communication.
Humans perceive facial expressions as conveying meaning, but where do they come from and
what exactly do they mean? Based on observations of facial expressions typically associated
with emotions Darwin (1904) hypothesized that they must have had some instrumental purpose
in evolutionary history. Tomkins conducted the first study demonstrating that facial expressions
were reliably associated with certain emotional states (Tomkins & McCarter, 1964).  Reading
facial expressions of emotion, and especially micro expressions, can aid the development of
rapport, trust, and collegiality; they can be useful in making credibility assessments, evaluating
truthfulness and detecting deception; and better information about emotional states provides the
basis for better cooperation, negotiation, or sales.

It can sometimes be difficult to put a name to an emotion. In that way, by classifying primary vs.
secondary emotions, it helps us to more accurately describe how we’re truly feeling. Imagine
something has happened, anything, and suddenly you are feeling an emotion. It is strong; it is the
first reaction to what has happened. That is a primary emotion. Primary emotions are the body's
first response, and they are usually very easy to identify because they are so strong. The most
common primary emotions are fear, happiness, sadness, and anger.  “Some experts, explains
Burton, believe these basic emotions are hard-wired, “innate and universal, automatic, and fast,
and trigger behavior with a high survival value.”(Burton.N, 27 April 2020.]
 The secondary emotions definition helps understand why some emotions are an offshoot of
other emotions and why it’s sometimes difficult for us to understand the underlying secondary
emotions that are deeply connected to our primary emotions.

An experiment was performed to assess whether Ekman and Friesen's Facial Action Coding
System (FACS) could be used to construct facial expressions that portrayed with varying
intensities each of the eight emotions of happiness, fear, disgust, sadness, surprise, shame, anger,
and contempt. Based on detailed instructions from FACS, seven adults posed facial expressions
that presumably varied in the conveyed emotion and emotion intensity. Thirty-nine college
student observers then viewed each of the videotaped facial expressions. Ratings were made of
whether each expression connoted one of the eight emotions or no emotion and of the intensity
of the perceived emotion. Observers' emotion classification and intensity ratings agreed with
FACS-based predictions regarding the facial action units involved in expressing each of the
emotions. Most perceived-predicted emotion discrepancies could be accounted for by facial
action units shared by the different emotions. Moreover, except for disgust, observers' intensity
judgments reflected a reliance on only one or two action units for each emotion. These findings
corroborate the descriptive and predictive utility of FACS for studies on perception of emotions.

 Research has used schematic faces (Nothdurft, 1993; White, 1995) and it has been found that
emotional expressions are readily recognised from simple eyebrow and mouth line drawings
(Magnussen, Sunde, & Dyrnes, 1994). Our own pilot studies with schematic “neutral”, “happy”,
and “angry” faces showed that over 95% of young adults labelled the faces shown in Fig. 1 with
the appropriate emotional expression (see Experiment 4 for details, and also White, 1995). Thus,
these simple schematic faces present a clear emotional expression whereas between-expression
faces differ from each other by only one or two features. 

 PROBLEM:
To study experimentally, the accuracy in judgment of facial expressions. We will basically
experiment about the identification of the facial expressions.

 Hypothesis:
It is hypothesized that primary emotions (Happy, sad, anger) will be judged easily as compared
to the secondary emotions (fear surprise, disgust).
 Methodology

Sample:
The total numbers of participants were 54; among which males were 28 and females were 26.
The age range chosen was between 18 to 25 years.

Convenient sampling methods were used to recruit participants for ideal and best results.

Measures/Material:
 There were six cards showing different emotions (Happy, sad, anger, fear surprise,
disgust)

 A Pencil for recording observations.

 An organized record sheet for tabulating data.
Research Design:
This experiment was conducted in following way:

Participant were approached

Instructions were given to Subject

Results were tabulated

Cards were shown one by one

Procedure:
For conducting the experiment, we chose the participant (sample) on an unbiased and random
basis. They gathered in the lab at the directed time. Labs are the proper rooms where experiment
is conducted under controlled and desired conditions. We had six pictures pasted separately on a
white card sheet for standard and equal conditions. Then we directed them with certain
instructions.

Instructions: I will show you different cards and you have to judge different facial expressions.
Whatever emotion comes to your mind after seeing the picture you can tell us in (any language).

As soon as the participants would answer us about the emotion, we would record it in our record
sheet. No incentive, hints or help was given to the participants at any point.

RESULTS:
The hypothesis of this statement is proved partially correct. Percentages were calculated of the
recorded data and the result was tabulated.

Resut is shown in the table no.1 below and graph is also demonstrated for clear representation.
 S.NO Facial expressions Total % Rank
1 HAPPY 85% 1st
2 SAD 72.20% 4th
3 ANGER 81.48% 2nd
4 FEAR 61.10% 5th
5 DISGUST 53.70% 6th
6 SURPRISE 74.07% 3rd
(Table no.1)

85.00%
90% 81.48%
72.20% 74.07%
80%
70% 61.10%
53.70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
HAPPY SAD ANGER FEAR DISGUST SURPRISE

After tabulation, a mean was calculated of all the responses. Percentages were taken out and
recorded and on the basis of that ranking was done as seen in table no. 1.The next step was
evaluation and construction of a graph for data representation .A bar graph was used for easy and
quick understanding. This way it was easy to comprehend the results.

DISCUSSION
According to our experiment and the results, our hypothesis is proved. Although not in all
categories but in the most of the categories, the result was same as predicted. Thus people judge
and recognize the facial expression of primary emotions, like happy and sad more easily and
correctly than secondary like fear and disgust.  

Primary emotions are the body's first response, and they are usually very easy to identify because
they are so strong. Complex emotions vary greatly in how they appear on a person’s face and
don’t have easily recognizable expressions. Grief looks quite different between cultures and
individuals. Some complex emotions, such as jealousy, may have no accompanying facial
expression at all. (Khan, 2020). More recently, a new study from the Institute of Neuroscience
and Psychology at the University of Glasgow in 2014 found that instead of six, there may only
be four easily recognizable basic emotions. The study discovered that anger and disgust shared
similar facial expressions, as did surprise and fear. This suggests that the differences between
those emotions are sociologically-based and not biologically-based. Despite all the conflicting
research and adaptations, most research acknowledges that there are a set of universal basic
emotions with recognizable facial features.

From a Darwinian perspective, the ability to recognize emotional facial expressions is innate.
Some studies have provided convincing evidence that facial expressions for the basic emotions
are universal (Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Ekman et al., 1987; Ekman, Sorenson, & Friesen,
1969; Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002; Izard, 1971).

The basic emotions are determined in large part by one of the oldest parts of our brain, the limbic
system, including the amygdala, the hypothalamus, and the thalamus. Because they are primarily
evolutionarily determined, the basic emotions are experienced and displayed in much the same
way across cultures (Ekman, 1992; Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002; Fridland, Ekman, & Oster,
1987), and people are quite accurate at judging the facial expressions of people from different
cultures.

Not all of our emotions come from the old parts of our brain; we also interpret our experiences to
create a more complex array of emotional experiences. For instance, the amygdala may sense
fear when it senses that the body is falling, but that fear may be interpreted completely
differently (perhaps even as excitement) when we are falling on a roller-coaster ride than when
we are falling from the sky in an airplane that has lost power. The cognitive interpretations that
accompany emotions — known as cognitive appraisal — allow us to experience a much larger
and more complex set of secondary emotion. The distinction between the primary and the
secondary emotions is paralleled by two brain pathways: a fast pathway and a slow pathway
(Damasio, 2000; LeDoux, 2000; Ochsner, Bunge, Gross, & Gabrieli, 2002). The thalamus acts as
the major gatekeeper in this process .Our response to the basic emotion of fear, for instance, is
primarily determined by the fast pathway through the limbic system. When a car pulls out in
front of us on the highway, the thalamus activates and sends an immediate message to the
amygdala. We quickly move our foot to the brake pedal. Secondary emotions are more
determined by the slow pathway through the frontal lobes in the cortex. When we stew in
jealousy over the loss of a partner to a rival or recollect our win in the big tennis match, the
process is more complex. Information moves from the thalamus to the frontal lobes for cognitive
analysis and integration, and then from there to the amygdala. We experience the arousal of
emotion, but it is accompanied by a more complex cognitive appraisal, producing more refined
emotions and behavioural responses.

The emotions better recognized from the whole face were happiness, anger, and disgust,
followed by fear; while surprise, neutral emotion, and sadness were more difficult to
recognize. Gao and Maurer (2009, 2010) and Mancini et al. (2013) demonstrated that children
are capable of recognizing emotional expressions, but they confuse fear and sadness.

The rapid detection of facial expressions of anger or threat has obvious adaptive value. In this
study, we examined the efficiency of facial processing by means of a visual search task.
Participants searched displays of schematic faces and were required to determine whether the
faces displayed were all the same or whether one was different. Four main results were found:
(1) When displays contained the same faces, people were slower in detecting the absence of a
discrepant face when the faces displayed angry (or sad/angry) rather than happy expressions. (2)
When displays contained a discrepant face people were faster in detecting this when the
discrepant face displayed an angry rather than a happy expression. (3) Neither of these patterns
for same and different displays was apparent when face displays were inverted, or when just the
mouth was presented in isolation. (4) The search slopes for angry targets were significantly
lower than for happy targets. These results suggest that detection of angry facial expressions is
fast and efficient, although does not “pop-out” in the traditional sense.( Cogn Emot. 2000).

Earlier studies.( Ekman P )as well as more recent ones, provide evidence for six basic facial
emotional expressions, referred to as anger, disgust, fear, happy, sad, and surprise. These
emotions can be successfully differentiated between and are identifiable cross culturally at an
above chance level.

In another experiment,production and discrimination of the 8 basic facial expressions were investigated
among 34 3-5-year-old preschool children. The children's productions were elicited and videotaped
under 4 different prompt conditions (imitation of photographs of children's facial expressions, imitation
of those in front of a mirror, imitation of those when given labels for the expressions, and when given
only labels). Adults' "guesses" of the children's productions as well as the children's guesses of their
own expressions on videotape were more accurate for the happy than afraid or angry expressions and
for those expressions elicited during the imitation conditions.( Field, T., & Walden, T, 1982.)

CONCLUSION:
According to the results, happiness was recognized correctly by most of the participants’ i.e.
85%. The least correct answer was about disgust i.e. 53.70%. Happiness is a primary emotion
whereas disgust is a secondary emotion, proving our hypothesis. But the 3rd ranked emotion was
surprise which, is a secondary emotion. Thus our hypothesis is partially proved. Surprise seems
to be a very clear expression on face thus people predict it easily. But disgust and fear were
53.70% and 61.10% respectively which shows that secondary emotions are difficult to identify
easily.
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