The face is central to so much that makes us human. Not only are our senses concentrated there, but the face is central to expression.
Humans have more muscles in their face than any other animal, with 22 on each side. The skin on the face is extremely mobile, unlike the skin on any other part of the body.
In 1722, Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen was the first to discover what is now called Easter Island. This is one of the remote places on the planet, and the civilization that existed there had been isolated from other humans for centuries. Still, the facial expressions of the inhabitants were exactly the same as the facial expressions of all other humans: fear, astonishment, happiness, and eagerness were all universal. Other explorers, including Columbus, Vespucci, and Cortes, found this to be true as well. Facial signals cross the boundaries of culture. They are ingrained in our human DNA.
The six most basic facial expressions are pleasure, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, and sadness. There are many subsets, including things such as pain, contempt, and neutrality.
A smile is the most recognizable facial expression and can be understood by another human being even at a distance of 300 feet. The second most identifiable expression is surprise, identifiable at 150 feet.
The mouth is responsible for many vital functions such as eating, speaking, and kissing, but it’s also important for expression, as it can turn instantly from smiling to pouting, sighing, yawning, spitting, laughing, trembling, and more.
The expression “two-faced” may spring from having many more muscles in our lower face than our upper face, making the lower face more skilled at false expressions.
There are several ways to discern a fake smile from a real smile. A fake smile employs only the muscles connected to the mouth, whereas a genuine smile also uses the cheek-pulling muscles, causing the eyes to squint. Real smiles last only a few seconds whereas fake ones linger for an unnaturally long period. A real smile will fade gradually, whereas a false one ends abruptly. A fake smile will also be slightly off balance: a right-handed person will lift their left lip artificially high, while a left-handed person will lift the right lip a bit too high.
The white of the eye is called the sclera. The white of the eye is very prominent in humans whereas most other animal eyes are very dark. Why? Researchers theorize that it’s for communication purposes. It’s easier to read the face of another human if you can see the expressiveness in their eyes. It’s also very handy for indicating which way a person is looking, which can have many implications.
Humans are the only primate that cries. There are two types of tears: “irritant” tears and “emotional” tears. They each have a unique chemical composition.
In a study when noise levels were too high to hear what another person was saying, people could understand the words just 23% of the time if they could not see the face of the person speaking, but they could understand 65% of the time if they could see the person’s face, especially the lips.
Do dark-skinned people blush? Yes, they do, but it’s far more difficult to discern than a blush on white skin.
The Japanese phrase “kao ga tsubureru” means literally “to ruin one’s face” and “kao ga tatsu” means “to establish face.” These phrases came into the English language as “losing face” and “saving face” regarding the state of one’s reputation.
