Compound facial expressions of emotion: from basic research to clinical applications

Emotions are sometimes revealed through facial expressions. When these natural facial articulations involve the contraction of the same muscle groups in people of distinct cultural upbringings, this is taken as evidence of a biological origin of these emotions. While past research had identified facial expressions associated with a single internally felt category (eg, the facial expression of happiness when we feel joyful), we have recently studied facial expressions observed when people experience compound emotions (eg, the facial expression of happy surprise when we feel joyful in a surprised way, as, for example, at a surprise birthday party). Our research has identified 17 compound expressions consistently produced across cultures, suggesting that the number of facial expressions of emotion of biological origin is much larger than previously believed. The present paper provides an overview of these findings and shows evidence supporting the view that spontaneous expressions are produced using the same facial articulations previously identified in laboratory experiments. We also discuss the implications of our results in the study of psychopathologies, and consider several open research questions.