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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Cites
The expression of the emotions in man and animals.
Darwin, C. D. (1872) · J. Murray eBooks · doi:10.1037/10001-000 · Cited by 12,120
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Öhman, A., & Mineka, S. (2001) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.108.3.483 · Cited by 3,147 · cited 2×
“Conditioning studies have shown that anger and fear expressions are more easily paired with aversive stimuli than are happiness expressions—suggesting an evolved preparedness to form cognitive associations between threat-signaling expressions and threatening concepts (see Ohman & Mineka, 2001).”
BackgroundTARGET ARTICLE: "Putting the Self Into Self-Conscious Emotions: A Theoretical Model"
Tracy, J. L., & Robins, R. W. (2004) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1207/s15327965pli1502_01 · Cited by 1,462
Self-citationThe Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
Darwin, C. D. (2013) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139833813 · Cited by 1,351
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Keltner, D. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.68.3.441 · Cited by 718 · cited 1×
“Second, humans across disparate cultures (including the congenitally blind) have been found to spontaneously display these expressions in status-relevant situations (i.e., success and failure; e.g., Keltner, 1995; Lewis, Alessandri, & Sullivan, 1992; Tracy & Matsumoto, 2008).”
BackgroundIn bad taste: evidence for the oral origins of moral disgust
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The spontaneous expression of pride and shame: Evidence for biologically innate nonverbal displays
Tracy, J. L., & Matsumoto, D. (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0802686105 · Cited by 637
Self-citation
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Eibl-Eibesfeldt I., 1989, Human ethology
- Keltner D., 1998, Interpersonal approaches to shame, 78
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Emotional expressions reconsidered: Challenges to inferring emotion from human facial movements
Barrett, L. F., Adolphs, R., Marsella, S., Martinez, A. M., & Pollak, S. D. (2019) · Psychological Science in the Public Interest · doi:10.1177/1529100619832930 · Cited by 1,748
Corneanu, C. A., Simon, M. O., Cohn, J. F., & Guerrero, S. E. (2016) · IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence · doi:10.1109/tpami.2016.2515606 · Cited by 527
Emotional Expression: Advances in Basic Emotion Theory
Keltner, D. J., Sauter, D. A., Tracy, J. L., & Cowen, A. (2019) · Journal of Nonverbal Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10919-019-00293-3 · Cited by 604
Self-citationBarrett, L. F. (2012) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/a0027555 · Cited by 503
Gendron, M., Roberson, D., van der Vyver, J. M., & Barrett, L. F. (2014) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/a0036052 · Cited by 463
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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