From slight amusement to super excitement, there are myriad ways we express happiness. (Photo: (top row) Syda Productions/ (middle) mimagephotography/ (bottom) WAYHOME Studio/Shutterstock)
In the early study of emotional expressions, researchers believed humans only had six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. Later researchers believed there might be as many as seven or eight. Every emotion was shoehorned into one of those categories.
That didn't make much sense to Aleix Martinez, a cognitive scientist and professor of electrical and computer engineering at The Ohio State University.
“I always figured that was very strange for many reasons,” Martinez tells MNN. “First, it was a small number. But more important, why so many negative emotions and only one happy expression? We tend to be more happy than angry or disgusted.”
After a recent study that involved more than 7 million online images and 30 countries, Martinez found there are actually 35 different expressions that are recognized across cultures. Of these, 17 of them convey happiness.
“It was reassuring to me that we are a happier society and world than we thought,” Martinez says. “Almost half of the expressions we identified were positive ones.”
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Am I being a cynic? Sceptical about this?
Too right I am.
The images that were viewed were online. Why would I allow an online picture of me to show anger, fear, or any of the negative emotions? I’m not even sure how I would express fear facially in order for a photo to be taken.
The happy faces were nice though.
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