March 19, 1996 Contact: Jennifer McNulty (408) 459-2495; mcnulty@ua.ucsc.edu
THE ORGAN OF EMOTION: NEW VIDEO USES VIDEOS AND DEMONSTRATIONS TO SHOW THE KEY ROLE THE HUMAN FACE PLAYS IN COMMUNICATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SANTA CRUZ, CA--Police use the face to track down suspects. Flight attendants are trained to mask their true emotions by putting a smile on their face. And studies show that physical attractiveness is linked to popularity--even among kindergartners.
Identity. Emotion. Attraction. The face is like a bulletin board that conveys who we are and what we feel, says sociologist Dane Archer of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has produced an engaging new video about the power of facial communication.
"I wanted to give people a sense of the range of important information that is located in the face," says Archer. "Everybody knows the face is a window on our emotions, but it's much more than that. The face is vital to our ability to communicate and to understand each other."
Archer's video, The Human Face: Emotions, Identities and Masks, examines twelve aspects of the face and uses lively interviews and demonstrations to illustrate the material. During the 30-minute tape, viewers are presented with several opportunities to test their ability to "decode" messages conveyed by the face. The twelve properties discussed are:
-- The organ of emotion -- Reading the face
-- True emotions vs. masks -- Facial mythology
-- Culture and the face -- Hair
-- The face as it ages -- Beauty
-- Identity -- Manufactured
beauty
-- Pupil size -- Piercing the face
When it comes to identity, people are very skilled at recognizing faces, says Archer. Even walking into a crowded room, it's easy to spot a friend or family member. But it is difficult to describe that face in such a way that a stranger will be able to pick out your friend. In The Human Face, a police officer describes the tricks he uses to help him remember the faces on "wanted" posters, such as noting if the suspect looks like a "young Walter Matthau."
In the realm of emotions, Archer says researchers have identified at least six facial expressions that are universally recognized: happiness, anger, disgust, sadness, surprise, and fear. Recent work suggests that contempt is also recognized cross- culturally.
Of course, understanding facial emotions is complicated by the blends of expressions and counterfeit emotions that are common, notes Archer.
"We've all learned to lie with our faces," says Archer. "It's common to tell a white lie to make somebody feel better--like university students trying to look interested during a lecture. Being a professor is one of the many occupations in which reading faces is pretty important."
Humans enjoy a subtlety of facial expression that other animals lack, and we combine it with other forms of communication in unique ways. "We use sarcasm to send a message verbally and contradict it facially," says Archer. "So the face is used to send signals and even to contradict messages."
Archer's video includes a segment that describes the difference between a genuine smile and an artificial one (a genuine grin uses the muscles around the eyes, as well as those around the mouth) and gives viewers an opportunity to test their expertise.
Other facial indicators are beyond our control, however. Pupil size, for example, responds to available light, but also to increased interest or arousal and to some drugs. Experienced gem buyers wear sunglasses to help avoid revealing how much they really want a particular gem, notes Archer.
Because faces are so prominent, the changes we make-- whether with makeup, cosmetic surgery, jewelry, hairstyles, or other modifications--invariably attract attention.
"Physical attraction regarding the face is really fascinating," says Archer. "Internationally, the standards of beauty are incredibly variable. There's facial scarring in parts of Africa, facial tattooing among the early Maoris of New Zealand, and some Indonesian tribes stretch their earlobes to the size of dinner plates--all of which conflict with conventional Western notions about beauty. There are certainly facial looks that in one culture represent beauty and in another culture would be terrifying."
The Human Face includes interviews with people who discuss their decisions to have cosmetic surgery, pierce their tongues, nose, and ears, and, in one man's case, to stretch his earlobes. In the video, one man with a pierced nose describes the reactions of others, including potential employers. "The face is your personal billboard-- it never gets totally hidden," says Archer. "These people have staked a lot on an aesthetic that may turn out to be temporary."
One of those interviewed in The Human Face is Dr. Marie E. Pletsch, a plastic surgeon who describes in detail the procedure involved in performing a face-lift. "Most people don't realize what's involved, so it's very tough for some people to watch this segment," says Archer.
Just as facial adornment changes over the years, so has the mythology surrounding what can be learned from the face. "People used to think you could tell honesty from the face and identify different types of criminals from the face," says Archer. "The most famous instance was the Nazis, who used measurements of the face- -the width of the nose and height of the forehead, for example--to assert the superiority of Aryans. Of course, there was no validity to any of those claims, but there's probably still a lot of facial mythology around, like the idea that you can tell from eye contact if someone is shifty or reliable."
An expert on nonverbal communication, Archer has written two books on the topic, but the subject clearly lends itself to videotape. The Human Face is the fifth video in a University of California series Archer has produced on nonverbal communication. Previous videos cover international differences in gestures, vocal paralanguage (the nontext parts of speech, such as pronunciation, intonation, accent, and emotion), and important verbal and nonverbal clues used in communication. His tapes, each of which is accompanied by an instructor's guide, are being used in more than 2,000 universities and colleges around the world, including in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Instructors find them valuable in courses that range from anthropology and sociology to linguistics, speech communication, psychology, and even cross- cultural training programs offered by government agencies.
Editor's Note: Dane Archer can be reached via e-mail at archer@cats.ucsc.edu or at (408) 426-1186. To receive a videotape for review, contact Jennifer McNulty in the UCSC Public Information Office at (408) 459-2495. These videotapes are designed to be used in college classrooms; interested faculty and teachers can obtain the videotapes in this series from the University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning at (510) 642- 0460.
This release is also available on the World Wide Web at UCSC's "Services for Journalists" site (http://www.ucsc.edu/news/journalist.html) or via modem from UC NewsWire (209-244-6971).
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Highlights of The Human Face Running time
3:55 Test your ability to tell the difference between a genuine smile and a posed one
9:25 A police officer describes how he looks for the faces of "wanted" suspects
10:41 See the role pupil size plays in physical attractiveness
16:10 A chef lets his hair down, showing the importance of hair in identity
17:45 UC Santa Cruz psychology professor Elliot Aronson discusses the impact of physical attractiveness on popularity--even among kindergartners
22:45 Cosmetic surgeon Marie E. Pletsch, M.D., describes the facelift procedure
26:33 The segment on piercing begins with a testimonial by a young man with a pierced nose who describes the process of stretching his earlobes (the interview ends with a close- up of his earlobes). Two interviews follow, including a man who discusses the discrimination he feels he has suffered because of his pierced nose.
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