Facial Expressions in Hollywood's Portrayal of Emotion

Much theory and research on emotion are based on the facial expressions of amateurs asked to pose for still photographs. The theory of facial affect programs (FAPs; P. Ekman, 1972) was proposed to account for the resulting expressions, most of which are patterns consisting of distinguishable parts. In the present study, 4 Hollywood films noted for fine acting and realism were examined for the facial expressions that accompany a basic emotion. In keeping with the theory of FAPs, professional actors judged as happy were found smiling in 97% (Duchenne smiling in 74%) of cases. In contrast, actors judged as surprised, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sad rarely showed the predicted pattern (found in 0 to 31% of cases). Typically, they used one or two parts from the full pattern. If these films represent real life, these findings favor a theory that assumes separable parts (e.g., components theory) over the older theory of FAPs.