Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Facial feedback hypotheses: Evidence, implications, and directions

  • Published:
Motivation and Emotion Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This review evaluates four facial feedback hypotheses, each proposing a certain relation between the face and emotions. It addresses criticisms of the data, considers implications for emotional and social processes, and advises directions for future research. The current data support the following: Facial actions are sensitive to social context, yet correspond to the affective dimension of emotions; matches with specific emotions are unlikely. They modulate ongoing emotions, and initiate them. These two claims have received substantially improved support, in part due to studies controlling for effects of experimental demand and task difficulty. Facial action may influence the occurrence of specific emotions, not simply their valence and intensity. Facial action is not necessary for emotions. There are multiple and nonmutually exclusive plausible mechanisms for facial effects on emotions. Future work must focus on determining the relative contributions of these mechanisms, and the parameters of their effects on emotions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adelmann, P. K., & Zajonc, R. B. (1989). Facial efference and the experience of emotion.Annual Review of Psychology, 40, 249–280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bem, D. J. (1967). Self-perception: An alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena.Psychological Review, 74, 183–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkowitz, L., & Devine, P. G. (1995). Has social psychology always been cognitive? What is “cognitive” anyhow?Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 696–703.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bermond, B., Nieuwenhuyse, B., Fasotti, L., & Schuerman, J. (1991). Spinal cord lesions, peripheral feedback, and intensities of emotional feelings.Cognition and Emotion, 5, 201–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berridge, K. C., & Zajonc, R. B. (1991). Hypothalamic cooling elicits eating: Differential effects on motivation and pleasure.Psychological Science, 2, 184–189.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S., & Schwartz, G. E. (1980). Relationships between facial electromyography and subjective experience during affective imagery.Biological Psychology, 11, 49–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck, R. (1980). Nonverbal behavior and the theory of emotion: The facial feedback hypothesis.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 811–824.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck, R. (1984).The communication of emotion. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck, R. (1994). Social and emotional functions in facial expression and communication: the readout hypothesis.Biological Psychology, 38, 95–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck, R., Savin, V. J., Miller, R. E., & Caul, W. F. (1972). Nonverbal communication of affect in humans.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 23, 362–371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bush, L. K., Barr, C. L., McHugo, G. J., & Lanzetta, J. T. (1989). The effects of facial control and facial mimicry on subjective reactions to comedy routines.Motivation and Emotion, 13, 31–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cacioppo, J. T., Bush, L. K., & Tassinary, L. G. (1992). Microexpressive facial actions as a function of affective stimuli: Replication and extension.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 515–526.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cacioppo, J. T., Klein, D. J., Berntson, G. G., & Hatfield, E. (1993). The psychophysiology of emotion. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.),Handbook of emotions (pp. 119–142). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cacioppo, J. T., Martzke, J. S., Petty, R. E., & Tassinary, L. G. (1988). Specific forms of facial EMG response index emotions during an interview: From Darwin to the continuous flow hypothesis of affect-laden information processing.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 592–604.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., Losch, M. E., & Kim, H. S. (1986). Electromyographic activity over facial muscle regions can differentiate the valence and intensity of affective reactions.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 260–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Camras, L. A., Holland, E. A., & Patterson, M. J. (1993). Facial expression. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.),Handbook of emotions (pp. 199–208). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cannon, W. B. (1927). The James-Lange theory of emotions: A critical examination and an alternative theory.American Journal of Psychology, 39, 106–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capella, J. H. (1993). The facial feedback hypothesis in human interaction: Review and speculation.Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 12, 13–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chovil, N. (1991). Social determinants of facial displays.Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 5, 141–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colby, C. A., Lanzetta, J. T., & Kleck, R. E. (1977). Effects of the expression of pain on autonomic and pain tolerance responses to subject-controlled pain.Psychophysiology, 14, 537–540.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damasio, A. R. (1994).Descartes' error: Emotion, reason and the human brain. New York: Putnam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1955).The expression of the emotions in man and animals. New York: Philosophical Library (original work published 1872).

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, R. J. (1992). Anterior cerebral asymmetry and the nature of emotion.Brain and Cognition, 6, 245–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimberg, U. (1988). Facial electromyography and the experience of emotion.Journal of Psychophysiology, 2, 277–282.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duclos, S. E., Laird, J. D., Schneider, E., Sexter, M., Stern, L., & Van Lighten, O. (1989). Emotion-specific effects of facial expressions and postures on emotional experience.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 100–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, J., & Laird, J. D. (1977). Cross-modality consistencies in individual differences in self-attribution.Journal of Personality, 45, 191–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, J., & Laird, J. D. (1980). Positive and reverse placebo effects as a function of differences in cues used in self-perception.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1024–1036.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (1992). Facial expressions of emotion: New findings, new questions.Psychological Science, 3, 34–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (1994). Strong evidence for universals in facial expression: A reply to Russell's mistaken critique.Psychological Bulletin, 115, 268–287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. Friesen, W. V., & Ancoli, S. (1980). Facial signs of emotional experience.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1125–1134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Levenson, R. W., & Friesen, W. V. (1983). Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes between emotions.Science, 221, 1208–1210.

    Google Scholar 

Facial Feedback Hypotheses

  • Ellsworth, P. C., & Tourangeau, R. (1981). On our failure to disconfirm what nobody ever said.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 363–369.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fridlund, A. J. (1994).Human facial expression: An evolutionary view. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fridlund, A. J., Schwartz, G. E., & Fowler, S. C. (1984). Pattern recognition of self-reported emotional state from multiple-site facial EMG activity during affective imagery.Psychophysiology, 21, 622–637.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gellhorn, E. (1964). Motion and emotion: the role of proprioception in the physiology and pathology of the emotions.Psychological Review, 71, 457–472.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hager, J. C. & Ekman, P. (1981). Methodological problems in Tourangeau and Ellsworth's study of facial expression and the experience of emotion.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 358–362.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1994).Emotional contagion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hess, U., Banse, R., & Kappas, A. (1995). The intensity of facial expression is determined by underlying affective state and social situation.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 280–288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hess, U., Kappas, A., McHugo, G. J., Lanzetta, J. T., & Kleck, R. E. (1992). The facilitative effect of facial expression on the self-generation of emotion.International Journal of Psychophysiology, 12, 251–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, A. R. (1983).The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ianni, P., Stettner, L., & Freedman, R. R. (1986). Voluntary facial actions modulate cardiovascular responses during angry emotion.Psychophysiology, 23, 443.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izard, C. E. (1971).The face of emotion. New York: Appleton-Centruy-Crofts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izard, C. E. (1977).Human emotions. New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izard, C. E. (1981). Differential emotions theory and the facial feedback hypothesis of emotion activation: Comments on Tourangeau and Ellsworth's “The role of facial response in the experience of emotion.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 350–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izard, C. E. (1990). Facial expressions and the regulation of emotions.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 487–498.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, W. (1950).The principles of psychology. New York: Holt (original work published 1890).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, S. S., Collins, K., & Hong, H. (1991). An audience effect on smile production in 10-month old infants.Psychological Science, 2, 45–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katkin, E. S. (1985). Blood, sweat, and tears: Individual differences in autonomic self-perception.Psychophysiology, 22, 125–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, A. E., & Stinus, L. (1984). Neuroanatomical and neurochemical substrates of affective behavior. In N. A. Fox & R. J. Davidson (Eds.),The psychobiology of affective development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleck, R. E., Vaughan, R. C., Cartwright-Smith, J., Vaughan, K. B., Colby, C. Z., & Lanzetta, J. T. (1976). Effects of being observed on expressive, subjective, and physiological responses to painful stimuli.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 1211–1218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kluger, M. J., & D'Alecy, L. B. (1975). Brain temperature during reversible upper respiratory bypass.Journal of Applied Physiology, 38, 268–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraut, R. E. (1982). Social presence, facial feedback, and emotion.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 853–863.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraut, R. E., & Johnston, R. E. (1979). Social and emotional messages of smiling: An ethological approach.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1539–1553.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laird, J. D. (1974). Self-attribution of emotion: the effects of expressive behavior on the quality of emotional experience.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 475–486.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laird, J. D. (1984) The real role of facial response in the experience of emotion: A reply to Tourangeau and Ellsworth, and others.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 909–917.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laird, J. D., Cuniff, M., Sheehan, K., Shulman, D., & Strum, G. (1989). Emotion specific effects of facial expressions on memory for life events. In D. Kuiken (Ed.), Mood and memory: Theory, research and applications (Special Issue).Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 4, 87–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lanzetta, J. T., Cartwright-Smith, J., & Kleck, R. E. (1976). Effects of nonverbal dissimulation on emotional experience and autonomic arousal.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 354–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lanzetta, J. T., & Kleck, R. (1970). Encoding and decoding of nonverbal affect in humans.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 354–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, R. J., Kasimatis, M., & Frey, K. (1992). Facilitating the furrowed brow: An unobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis applied to unpleasant affect.Cognition and Emotion, 6, 321–338.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). Voluntary facial action generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity.Psychophysiology, 27, 363–384.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manstead, A. S. R. (1988). The role of facial movement in emotion. In H. L. Wagner (Ed.),Social Psychophysiology: Theory and Clinical Applications (pp. 105–129). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsumoto, D. (1987). The role of facial response in the experience of emotion: More methodological problems and a meta-analysis.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 769–774.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsumoto, D., & Lee, M. (1993). Consciousness, volition, and the neuropsychology of facial expressions of emotion.Consciousness and Cognition, 2, 237–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCanne, T. R., & Anderson, J. A. (1987). Emotional responding following experimental manipulation of facial electromyographic activity.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 759–768.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, D. N., Druckman, D., & Zajonc, R. B. (1994). Socially-Induced Affect. In D. Druckman & R. A. Bjork (Eds.),Learning, remembering, believing: Enhancing human performance (pp. 251–276, 364–371). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, D. N., Zajonc, R. B., Vig, P. S., & Emerick, S. W. (in press). Facial movement, breathing, temperature, and affect: Implications of the vascular theory of emotional efference.Cognition and Emotion.

  • Ohira, H., & Kurono, K. (1993). Facial feedback effects on impression formation.Perceptual and Motor Skills, 77, 1251–1258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pasquarelli, B., & Bull N. (1951). Experimental investigation of the mind-body continuum in affective states.Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 113, 512–521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennebaker, J. W., & Roberts, T. (1992). Toward a his and hers theory of emotion: Gender differences in visceral perception.Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 11, 199–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, S. J., & Pennington, B. F. (1991). A theoretical approach to the deficits in infantile autism.Development and Psychopathology, 3, 137–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutledge, L. L., & Hupka, R. B. (1985). The facial feedback hypothesis: methodological concerns and new supporting evidence.Motivation and Emotion, 9, 219–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schachter, S., & Singer, J. E. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state.Psychological Review, 69, 379–399.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiff, B. B., Esses, V. M., & Lamon, M. (1992). Unilateral facial contractions produce mood effects on social cognitive judgments.Cognition and Emotion, 6, 357–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiff, B. B., & Lamon, M. (1989). Inducing emotions by unilateral contraction of facial muscles: A new look at hemispheric specialization and the experience of emotion.Neuropsychologia, 27, 923–935.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiff, B. B., & Lamon, M. (1994). Inducing emotions by unilateral contraction of hand muscles.Cortex, 30, 247–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shortt, J. W., Bush, L. K., McCabe, J. L. R., Gottman, J. M., & Katz, L. F. (1994). Children's physiological responses while producing facial expressions of emotions.Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 40, 40–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. A. (1989). Dimensions of appraisal and physiological response in emotion.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 339–353.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. A., McHugo, G. J., & Lanzetta, J. T. (1986). The facial muscle patterning of posed and imagery-induced expressions of emotion by expressive and nonexpressive posers.Motivation and Emotion, 10, 133–157.

    Google Scholar 

Facial Feedback Hypotheses

  • Strack, R., Martin, L. L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of facial expressions: A non-obtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 768–777.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tassinary, L. G., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1992). Unobservable facial actions and emotion.Psychological Science, 3, 28–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomkins, S. S. (1962).Affect, imagery, consciousness: Vol. 1. The positive affects. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomkins, S. S. (1981). The role of facial response in the experience of emotion: A reply to Tourangeau and Ellsworth.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 355–357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tourangeau, R., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1979). The role of facial response in the experience of emotion.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1519–1531.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaughan, K. B., & Lanzetta, J. T., (1981). The effect of modification of expressive displays on vicarious emotional arousal.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 17, 16–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wegner, D. M., & Pennebaker, J. W. (Eds.) (1993).Handbook of mental control. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wikan, U. (1989). Managing the heart to brighten face and soul: Emotions in Balinese morality and health care.American Ethnologist 16, 294–312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winton, W. M. (1986). The role of facial response in self-reports of emotion: A critique of Laird.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 808–812.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wissing, M., & Wessels, S. (1992). Unilateral Lower Facial Contractions and Emotional Experience: An Affirmative Study.25th International Congress of Psychology Brussels, Belgium, July 19–24.

  • Zajonc, R. B., & McIntosh, D. N. (1992). Emotions research: Some promising questions and some questionable promises.Psychological Science, 3, 70–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zajonc, R. B., Murphy, S. T., & Inglehart, M. (1989). Feeling and facial efference: Implications of the vascular theory of emotions.Psychological Review, 96, 395–416.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zajonc, R. B., Murphy, S. T., & McIntosh, D. N. (1993). Brain temperature and subjective emotional experience. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.)Handbook of emotions (pp. 209–220). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman, M., Klorman, R., & Larrance, D. T. (1981). Facial, autonomic, and subjective components of emotion: The facial feedback hypothesis versus the externalizer-internalizer distinction.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 929–944

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Denver, 80208, Denver, Colorado

    Daniel N. McIntosh

Authors
  1. Daniel N. McIntosh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

I appreciate the helpful comments of Harry Gollob, Greg McHugo, Catherine Reed, Craig Smith, and R. B. Zajonc on earlier drafts of this paper.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

McIntosh, D.N. Facial feedback hypotheses: Evidence, implications, and directions. Motiv Emot 20, 121–147 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02253868

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02253868

Keywords

Search

Navigation