Scientists decode different ways human face conveys happiness

New York: While disgust needs just one facial expression to get its point across throughout the world, happiness has 17 — a testament to the many varied forms of cheer, delight and contentedness, finds a study. On the other hand, to convey fear humans use three expressions, four to convey surprise, and five each to convey sadness and anger.

The researchers explained that the differences in how our faces convey happiness can be as simple as the size of our smiles or the crinkles near our eyes. “This was delightful to discover because it speaks about the complex nature of happiness,” said Aleix Martinez, Professor at The Ohio State University. “Happiness acts as a social glue and needs the complexity of different facial expressions; disgust is just that: disgust,” Martinez said. The study showed that humans can configure their faces in thousands and thousands of ways to convey emotion — from anger to sadness to riotous joy — but only 35 expressions are actually similar across cultures. (IANS)

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