Ansiktsuttrykk

Ansiktsuttrykk are the movements of facial muscles that communicate emotions, attitudes, or intentions. They form a key part of nonverbal communication and can accompany spoken language or convey information on their own. Expressions can be voluntary or spontaneous, and they may be brief or sustained, sometimes changing in response to social context.

Research on ansiktsuttrykk spans psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology. A foundational approach is the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), developed by Paul Ekman and colleagues, which catalogs facial movements into Action Units corresponding to specific muscles. FACS enables systematic analysis of expressions and the study of microexpressions—very rapid, often subtle expressions that may reveal underlying emotions. Early theories, influenced by Darwin, posited that certain expressions are universal across humans.

Universality versus cultural variation is a central theme. Many studies support the existence of a core set of basic emotions—such as happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust, and contempt—whose facial expressions are widely recognized. However, display rules, social norms, and contextual factors shape how emotions are expressed and interpreted in different cultures, leading to variation in intensity, duration, and masking of expressions.

Function and development are also highlighted in the literature. Infants show early facial responses to emotional stimuli, and adults use ansiktsuttrykk to regulate interactions, convey empathy, and signal social intent. In applied contexts, researchers use FACS and related methods to study emotion in areas such as psychology, marketing, and human–computer interaction, while noting limitations in inferring interior emotional states from exterior expressions alone.