Just days after writing my previous blog, I read this in the paper:-
Why have we developed sophisticated expressive faces in the first place?
It was a question that transfixed Charles Darwin, who became so obsessed with the human face he wrote a book about it in 1872 called The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Darwin believed that our ability to express happiness or grief was a product of evolution and facial expressions were the "language of emotion", a way for humans to communicate before words.
Darwin also surmised that by expressing an emotion, we actually intensified the emotion itself and facial expressions helped us to understand the emotions of others and even share them. Almost 140 years later, with new brain scanning technology and the ability to track facial muscles, scientists have been able to prove just how spot-on Darwin was.
When we see a face, we not only recognise it, we fleetingly mimic the expression on that face. Mimicking is a deep human instinct that we begin to do within days of being born.
Research from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cologne has shown that when we mimic, we don't just copy the movement or expression of others but actually experience the emotion of the other. It's "an ancient line of communication".
Fascinating... and even though this explains the science, it does not diminish the magic.
Cowboy advice #63 - No man ever got shot doing the dishes.
Why have we developed sophisticated expressive faces in the first place?
It was a question that transfixed Charles Darwin, who became so obsessed with the human face he wrote a book about it in 1872 called The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Darwin believed that our ability to express happiness or grief was a product of evolution and facial expressions were the "language of emotion", a way for humans to communicate before words.
Darwin also surmised that by expressing an emotion, we actually intensified the emotion itself and facial expressions helped us to understand the emotions of others and even share them. Almost 140 years later, with new brain scanning technology and the ability to track facial muscles, scientists have been able to prove just how spot-on Darwin was.
When we see a face, we not only recognise it, we fleetingly mimic the expression on that face. Mimicking is a deep human instinct that we begin to do within days of being born.
Research from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cologne has shown that when we mimic, we don't just copy the movement or expression of others but actually experience the emotion of the other. It's "an ancient line of communication".
Fascinating... and even though this explains the science, it does not diminish the magic.
Cowboy advice #63 - No man ever got shot doing the dishes.
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