Questões para Concursos

Text 22A1-II

Do not rely on facial expressions for how people are feeling
A smile does not always mean someone is happy

1 Aristotle reckoned the face was a window onto a
person’s mind. Two millennia on, facial expressions are still
commonly thought to be a universally valid way to gauge other
4 people’s feelings, irrespective of age, sex and culture. A raised
eyebrow suggests confusion. A smile denotes happiness. A
frown indicates sadness.
7 Or do they? An analysis of hundreds of research
papers that examined the relationship between facial
expressions and underlying emotions has uncovered a
10 surprising conclusion: there is no good scientific evidence to
suggest that there are such things as recognisable facial
expressions for basic emotions which are universal across
13 cultures. Just because a person is not smiling, the researchers
found, does not mean that person is unhappy.
Dr Feldman Barrett, a psychologist at Northeastern
16 University in Boston, Massachusetts, along with her colleagues
found that, on average, adults in urban cultures scowled when
they were angry 30% of the time. Which meant that some 70%
19 of the time they did not scowl when angry. Instead, they did
something else with their faces. People also scowled when they
were not angry. “They scowl when they’re concentrating, they
22 scowl when someone tells them a bad joke, they scowl when
they don't feel well, and so on,” says Dr Feldman Barrett.
A scowl, the researchers concluded, is certainly one
25 expression of anger. But it is not the only way people express
that emotion. The ambiguous nature of facial expressions was
not restricted to anger, but seemed valid for all six of the
28 emotional categories that they examined: anger, disgust, fear,
happiness, sadness and surprise.
The economist. science & technology. Feb 20th 2020 edition. Internet: (adapted).