by Dr Trish Riddell

When we look at the people around us, we unconsciously read a lot about their emotional states from their faces. Thus, I might recognise that one of the family has just noticed the spider in the corner and is now terrified, or that another family member is disgusted with themselves because they were beaten at golf.
When Paul Eckman first researched the basic emotions that are recognised through facial expression, he identified five basic emotional states. Of these, four were negative emotions: sadness, anger, fear and disgust. Thus, only one of the basic emotions that we can identify from facial expressions is positive. Eckman called this emotion “happy”.I am sure you can think of lots of positive emotional states for which the term “happy” just does not suffice. So why are there not facial expressions to describe the awe felt when looking at a beautiful sunrise or the glee felt when laughing with a child or the sensual pleasure of great chocolate?
One possible explanation for this lies in the term “basic” emotions. These emotions are probably defined by the role they played in survival of the species. Displays of negative emotions act as warning signals for groups so that they can act appropriately in dangerous situations. One emotional state that indicates a lack of danger is therefore sufficient for this. However, we also have secondary emotional states that have less importance to our survival but have evolved as means to communicate within social groups. Secondary emotions would include jealousy, shame and pride. Each of these requires a comparison between our own actions and those of others (or at least a perfect self). Thus, they each require that we are self aware – more recent evolutionary development.
If these secondary emotions are not indicated purely as facial expressions, what other means do we have to communicate them? Research by Disa Sauter suggests that we use vocalisations, body language and touch to communicate this wider range of emotions. In one study, photographs of Olympic Judo participants were studied to look at the body language of those competitors that won their match. Across cultures, winners were found to raise their arms, and expand their chests – usually while smiling. Thus, the happiness that we would recognise as pride is differentiated from other sorts of happiness in this case by additional postural changes in our bodies.
Similarly, we can use vocalisations – a sigh of relief, a giggle or a belly laugh – to indicate different levels of happiness. The way we touch people can also discriminate happiness – imagine touching someone you love, someone to whom you feel grateful, or of whom you are proud.
Thus, over evolution of our social networks, the signalling systems for emotions have extended to include more than just our faces. Remember when you want to communicate a particular emotion the power of these additional means of communication and the increased subtlety they can bring!