1 - What does a facial expression mean?

Summary

The human face – in repose and in movement, at the moment of death as in life, in silence and in speech, when seen or sensed from within, in actuality or as represented in art or recorded by the camera – is a commanding, complicated, and at times confusing source of information.

P. Ekman, W. Friesen, and P. Ellsworth, 1972, p. 1

Tradition, common sense, and science converge in seeing the face as a window with a view opening onto our emotions. The Bible quotes God as saying, “My fury shall come up in my face” (Ezekiel 39:18). Aristotle (nd/1913, p. 808) wrote, “There are characteristic facial expressions which are observed to accompany anger, fear, erotic excitement, and all the other passions.” When we turn our eyes to the face of another human being, we often seek and usually find a meaning in all that it does or fails to do. Grins, sneers, grimaces, and frowns, fleeting smiles and lingering stares, animated faces and poker faces are not merely utilitarian contractions and relaxations of the muscles, but glimpses into the heart of the other – or so it seems.

Do such ideas contain a truth in plain sight, or are they just another in a line of myths that will ultimately fall before scientific analysis? Common sense has been wrong before. And Aristotle believed that the coarseness of one's hair revealed one's courage.