Non-verbal Communication II

Facial expressions are responsible for a huge proportion of nonverbal communication.

 Consider how much information can be conveyed with a smile or a frown. The look on a person’s face is often the first thing we see, even before we hear what they have to say.

While nonverbal communication and behavior can vary dramatically between cultures, the facial expressions for happiness, sadness, anger, and fear are similar throughout the world.

In his 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, famed naturalist Charles Darwin argued that human expressions of emotion were both innate and universal across cultures. Researcher and emotion expert Paul Ekman has found that, for the most part, the facial expressions used to convey basic emotions tend to be the same across cultures.

Let’s see if you can recognize the following facial expressions conveying different emotions.