Department of Social and Organizational Psychology

Prototypical facial expressions of emotion, also known as universal facial expressions, are the underpinnings of most research concerning recognition of emotions in both adults and children. Data on natural occurrences of these prototypes in natural emotional contexts are rare and difficult to obtain in adults. By recording naturalistic observations targeted at emotional contexts in day-to-day kindergarten activities, we investigated the spontaneous facial behavior of 3-year-old children in order to explore associations between context and facial activity and verify the degree of matching between the well-known adult prototypes and facial configurations actually produced by children. When taken individually, most facial actions matched those that comprise the respective emotion prototypical face, but full facial configurations with all characteristic facial actions were scarce but for joy.

Multiple dimensions of facial expression research are reviewed with emphasis in the study of species’ homology in both facial action single components and patterns or gestalten. Research over the last 30 years has revealed human universal patterns and some cross-species gestalten that appear as homologies. Recently, researchers are looking into the importance of individuality markers in facial behavior, which can play an important role in the fitness of individuals living in complex social systems and thus might be traceable in their evolutionary path. Chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans were in the center of most of this research with research results pointing toward homologies within the Homo–Pan clade.