Questão 2300422

Text 22A1-II

Do not rely on facial expressions for how people are feeling

A smile does not always mean someone is happy

1 Aristotle reckoned the face was a window onto a

person’s mind. Two millennia on, facial expressions are still

commonly thought to be a universally valid way to gauge other

4 people’s feelings, irrespective of age, sex and culture. A raised

eyebrow suggests confusion. A smile denotes happiness. A

frown indicates sadness.

7 Or do they? An analysis of hundreds of research

papers that examined the relationship between facial

expressions and underlying emotions has uncovered a

10 surprising conclusion: there is no good scientific evidence to

suggest that there are such things as recognisable facial

expressions for basic emotions which are universal across

13 cultures. Just because a person is not smiling, the researchers

found, does not mean that person is unhappy.

Dr Feldman Barrett, a psychologist at Northeastern

16 University in Boston, Massachusetts, along with her colleagues

found that, on average, adults in urban cultures scowled when

they were angry 30% of the time. Which meant that some 70%

19 of the time they did not scowl when angry. Instead, they did

something else with their faces. People also scowled when they

were not angry. “They scowl when they’re concentrating, they

22 scowl when someone tells them a bad joke, they scowl when

they don't feel well, and so on,” says Dr Feldman Barrett.

A scowl, the researchers concluded, is certainly one

25 expression of anger. But it is not the only way people express

that emotion. The ambiguous nature of facial expressions was

not restricted to anger, but seemed valid for all six of the

28 emotional categories that they examined: anger, disgust, fear,

happiness, sadness and surprise.

_{The economist. science & technology. Feb 20th 2020 edition. Internet: <www.economist.com> (adapted).}

According to text 22A1-II,