The DOI matches its Crossref record; 32 of the 32 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
What Are Emotion Expressions For?
Abstract
Although research on the nonverbal expression of emotion has played a prominent role throughout psychology during the past two decades—including an instrumental role in the development of contemporary evolutionary psychology—little research has focused on the evolutionary origins and functions of the emotional expressions themselves. However, recent findings from psychophysical, comparative, social, and cross-cultural psychology are converging to produce a compelling functionalist account, suggesting that emotional expressions serve critical adaptive purposes. Most of these studies have narrowly focused on single emotions—an approach that has been very useful for providing new insights about specific expressions but not for developing a broader understanding of why humans universally display and recognize distinct emotions. Here we unify these disparate findings in order to illuminate this fundamental form of social communication.
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Emotional expressions reconsidered: Challenges to inferring emotion from human facial movements
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Emotional Expression: Advances in Basic Emotion Theory
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Metadata
- Authors
- Shariff, A. F., & Tracy, J. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Oregon (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Venue
- Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-12
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 395-399
- ISSN
- 0963-7214 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8721
- OpenAlex
- W2096186423
- Cited by
- 322
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 16.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Directions in Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Keywords
- emotional expression, nonverbal communication, evolutionary origins of emotion, adaptive function of emotions, emotion recognition, social communication
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