You cannot learn facial expressions.

Have you ever wondered if facial expression is learned from observation of other people, or if it is something  out of our control? For a long time people have thought that we learn how to express our emotions facially, from observing how people around us act in different situations. However, according to a study done in 2008, facial expressions of emotion are given by our genes. 

This study is the first in it's area to demonstrate that blind individuals, use the same facial expressions as those who can see, and produce the same facial muscle movements in response to specific emotional stimuli. It provides a new insight on how people manage emotional displays, and suggests  that the ability to regulate emotional expressions is not learned through observation. In this study, a psychology Professor David Matsumoto compared the facial expressions of sighted and blind judo athletes at the 2004 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games.His findings reveal that hat sighted and blind individuals manage their expressions of emotion in the same way according to social context. In his study he noticed that 85 percent of silver medalists who lost their medal matches produced "social smiles" during the ceremonies. Social smiles, are forced smiles that use only the mouth muscles,to cover up their true emotion with "happiness". True smiles,  cause the eyes to twinkle and narrow and the cheeks to rise. The losers tended to push their lower lip up as if to control the emotion on their face, an therefore produced social smiles. Participants of the study that were blind from birth, would never have the chance to earn to control their emotions in this way - through visual learning. Therefore there must be another mechanism that causes it. It is possible that  our emotions, and the systems to regulate them, are "leftovers" of our evolutionary ancestry

"The statistical correlation between the facial expressions of sighted and blind individuals was almost perfect," Matsumoto said. "This suggests something genetically resident within us is the source of facial expressions of emotion."

I choose this article because all of the other ones submitted were either repeating each other and what I already shared on my blog, or did not have enough interesting facts behind it to interest me. This specific article,  - "Facial Expressions Of Emotion Are Innate, Not Learned" by Science Daily  - relates to our class discussions since it supports that emotions and how we express them are given to us by nature. Humans can connect to each other through emotions, as their vast range is what in fact makes us different from those who came before us. If both blind and sighted people react similarly with their emotions and their expression, then there is much more for us to learn and discover in the field of Psychology.