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Cited by 101Face Recognition and PerceptionEmotion and Mood RecognitionEmotions and Moral Behavior

Do emotions result in their predicted facial expressions? A meta-analysis of studies on the co-occurrence of expression and emotion.

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Durán, Juan I., Fernández-Dols, José-Miguel·2021·Emotion
DOI 10.1037/emo0001015

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Abstract

That basic emotions produce a facial signal would-if true-provide a foundation for a science of emotion. Here, random-effects meta-analyses tested whether happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise each co-occurs with its predicted facial signal. The first meta-analysis examined only those studies that measured full expressions through Facial Actions Coding System (FACS). Average co-occurrence effect size was .13. The second meta-analysis included both full and partial expressions, as measured by FACS or another system. Average co-occurrence effect size rose to .23. A third meta-analysis estimated the Pearson correlation between intensity of the reported emotion and intensity of the predicted facial expression. Average correlation was .30. Overall, co-occurrence and correlation were greatest for disgust, least for surprise. What are commonly known as the six classic basic emotions do not reliably co-occur with their predicted facial signal. Heterogeneity between samples was found, suggesting a more complex account of facial expressions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

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  • The notion that discrete emotion categories can be reliably identified by specific behavioural patterns and/or physiological features has been seriously called into doubt by marked variability within instances of the same category as well as similarities across categories.

    “The notion that discrete emotion categories can be reliably identified by specific behavioural patterns and/or physiological features has been seriously called into doubt by the marked variability within instances of the same category as well as similarities across categories.”

    From A new science of emotion: implications for functional neurological disorder (2022) · cites this paper as [52]

    The Confidence in the Findings section reports heterogeneity within some emotion categories, and Moving Beyond rejects the assumption that basic emotions uniformly produce their predicted facial expressions. Implications for Research also reports other reviews’ findings that classic emotions lack distinct autonomic fingerprints. But this paper does not establish the claimed similarities across categories; it notes that systematic information about unpredicted facial movements is lacking. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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References 153 · Cited by 101

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Authors
Durán, J. I., & Fernández-Dols, J.-M.
Affiliations
Universidad a Distancia de Madrid (ES)
ORCID
Venue
Emotion
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2021-10
Volume
21
Issue
7
Pages
1550-1569
ISSN
  • 1528-3542 (ISSN-L)
  • 1931-1516
DOI
10.1037/emo0001015
OpenAlex
W3214214739
Cited by
101
References
153
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 3 · 2019: 4
FWCI
2.03
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
public-domain
Locations
  • Emotion (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Biblos-e Archivo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) (submittedVersion)
  • Hispana (submittedVersion)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • European Union
  • Spanish Government (PSI2017-88776-P)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Emotion and Mood Recognition
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
Keywords
facial expressions, basic emotions, happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, surprise, facial action coding system, expression intensity, emotional intensity, heterogeneous effects
MeSH terms
Disgust, Emotions, Facial Expression, Fear, Happiness, Humans

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