Darwin's contributions to our understanding of emotional expressions
Open accessAbstract
Darwin charted the field of emotional expressions with five major contributions. Possible explanations of why he was able to make such important and lasting contributions are proposed. A few of the important questions that he did not consider are described. Two of those questions have been answered at least in part; one remains a major gap in our understanding of emotion.
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Fear is a basic universal emotion, as are other negative emotions such as anger, sadness, and disgust.
“Segundo Ekman (2009), medo é uma emoção básica universal, assim como outras emoções de cunho negativo como raiva, tristeza, nojo.”
From Acceptance and commitment therapy as a proposal of treatment for expatriates in soccer (2019) · cites this paper as Ekman, 2009
In “Major contributions” (page unavailable), Ekman treats fear, anger, and disgust as discrete emotions and says cross-cultural evidence supports the universality of facial expressions of emotion. The passage does not name sadness or establish that the emotions themselves, rather than their facial expressions, are universal. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredFear is an inevitable emotion that all human beings feel at some moment in life.
“A questão é que medo é uma emoção inevitável, que todos os seres humanos sentem em algum outro momento da vida.”
From Acceptance and commitment therapy as a proposal of treatment for expatriates in soccer (2019) · cites this paper as Ekman, 2009
In “Major contributions” (page not available), the paper identifies fear as a discrete emotion. It also discusses the universality of facial expressions, but does not say that fear is inevitable or that every human being experiences it at some point. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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References 11 · Cited by 203
- Authors
- Ekman, P.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ekman, Paul
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2009-12-12
- Volume
- 364
- Issue
- 1535
- Pages
- 3449-3451
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC2781895
- OpenAlex
- W2103636325
- Cited by
- 203
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 35 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 64.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › History of Emotions Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › General Psychology › Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology
- Keywords
- Charles Darwin, emotional expression, evolution of emotions, Darwinian theory of emotion, history of psychology, universal emotions
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Emotions, Biological Evolution, Facial Expression, Humans, History, 19th Century
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