With his astounding powers of observation, Darwin took on this challenge. He marshaled an eclectic variety of data to document “mental continuities” between human and animal expression. Amid the fifteen to twenty-five letters that arrived each day at his house from his correspondents (Darwin was a prolific letter writer), observations flowed in about emotional displays in other animals, expressive outbursts that sounded remarkably akin to those of our loved ones. There were detailed accounts of terriers frowning in concentration, pug dogs mugging intelligence, and monkeys throwing temper tantrums. Darwin himself catalogued the emotional displays of his dog Polly, a terrier who lay curled in devotion at Darwin’s feet as he labored on his articles, books, and correspondences in his study. Darwin closely studied his beloved ten children. He relied on the astute observations of mothers he knew to limn the expressions of emotion—wails of pain, laughter and smiling, sulking and tenderness—that emerged early in life. He turned with fervor to a new technology—photography. Darwin collected over 100 photos, photos of actors portraying different emotions and of the specific muscle actions produced by electrical stimulation.
These kinds of data led Darwin to a rich portrayal, the most detailed ever achieved, of human emotional expression. Unlike the scientists who would study emotion some one hundred years later, Darwin posited many different positive emotions, sixteen by my count. His theorizing about the evolution of positive emotions revealed a jen ratio unusually high for our field. The table below summarizes Darwin’s observations, which are a poetic periodic chart of how emotions are expressed, the embodied signatures of brief subjective states.
DARWIN’S DESCRIPTIONS OF EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION
EMOTION
EXPRESSIVE BEHAVIORS
NEGATIVE EMOTION
ANGER
TREMBLE, NOSTRILS RAISED, MOUTH COMPRESSED, FURROWED BROW, HEAD ERECT, CHEST EXPANDED, ARMS RIGID BY SIDES, EYES WIDE OPEN, STAMP GROUND, BODY SWAYS BACKWARDS/FORWARDS
ANXIETY
INNER ENDS OF EYEBROWS RAISED, CORNERS MOUTH DEPRESSED
CONFUSION
STAMMER, GRIMACES, TWITCHINGS OF FACIAL MUSCLES
CONTEMPT
LIP PROTRUSION, NOSE WRINKLE, EXPIRATION, PARTIAL CLOSURE OF EYELIDS, TURN AWAY EYES, NOSE WRINKLE, UPPER LIP RAISED, SNORT, EXPIRATION
DISAGREEMENT
CLOSE EYES, TURN AWAY FACE
DISGUST
LOWER LIP TURNED DOWN, UPPER LIP RAISED, EXPIRATION, MOUTH OPEN, SPITTING, BLOWING OUT PROTRUDING LIPS, CLEAR THROAT SOUND, LOWER LIP, TONGUE PROTRUDED
EMBARRASSMENT
LITTLE COUGH, BLUSH
FEAR
TREMBLE, EYES OPEN, MOUTH OPEN, LIPS RETRACTED, EYEBROWS RAISED, CROUCH, PALE, PERSPIRATION, HAIR STANDS ON END, MUSCLES SHIVER, YAWN
GRIEF
INNER ENDS OF EYEBROWS RAISED, CORNERS OF MOUTH DEPRESSED, FRANTIC MOVEMENTS, MOTIONLESS, HEAD HANGS, EYELIDS DROOP, ROCK TO AND FRO, FACE PALE, MUSCLES FLACCID, EYELIDS DROOP, CONTRACTED CHEST, TEARS, OBLIQUE EYEBROWS, DEEP SIGHS, BEAT HANDS, EYELIDS DROP
GUILT
GAZE AVERSION, SHIFTY EYES, GRIMACE
HORROR
BODY TURNED AWAY, SHRINKING, ARMS PROTRUDING, SHOULDERS RAISED, ARMS PRESSED AGAINST CHEST, SHUDDER, DEEP INSPIRATION/EXPIRATION, SHUT EYES, SHAKE HEAD
INDIGNANCE, DEFIANCE
FROWN, BODY ERECT, HEAD ERECT, SQUARE SHOULDERS, CLENCH FISTS
ILL TEMPER
FURROWED BROW, NOSE WRINKLE, LIP CORNERS PULLED DOWN
NEGATION
HEAD THRUST BACK
OBSTINATENESS
MOUTH FIRMLY CLOSED, LOWERED BROW, SLIGHT FROWN
PAIN
WRITHE ABOUT, PIERCING CRIES, GROANS, LIPS COMPRESSED, RETRACTED, TEETH CLENCHED, WILD STARE, PERSPIRATION, FURROWED BROW, NOSTRILS DILATED, PROFUSE SWEATING, PALLOR, UTTER PROSTRATION, EYES CLOSED, SQUARE MOUTH (LIPS CONTRACTED), COMPRESSION OF EYEBALL, MUSCLE AROUND EYES CONTRACTED, PYRAMIDAL MUSCLE CONTRACTS, UPPER LIP RAISED, NOSTRILS NARROWED, SCALP/FACE/EYES REDDENED, INSPIRATION, SOBBING, LACHRYMAL GLAND SQUEEZED, LAUGHTER, TEARS
PERPLEXED
SCRATCH HEAD, RUB EYES
RAGE
UNCOVERED TEETH, HAIR BRISTLE, FACE REDDENS, CHEST HEAVES, NOSTRILS DILATED, QUIVER, TREMBLE, TEETH CLENCHED, RESPIRATION LABORED, FRANTIC GESTURES, VEINS ON FOREHEAD/NECK DISTENDED, BODY ERECT, BENT FORWARD, ROLL ON GROUND AND KICKING, SCREAMING (CHILDREN), FURROWED BROW, GLARE, PROTRUDING LIPS, RETRACTED LIPS, TOSS ARMS ABOUT, SHAKE FIST, HISSING
RESIGNATION
OPEN HANDS, ONE OVER OTHER, ON LOWER PART OF BODY
SADNESS
CORNER MOUTH DEPRESSED, INNER CORNER EYEBROWS RAISED
SNEER, SNARL
CORNER OF LIP OVER TEETH RAISED
SHAME
BLUSH, HEAD AVERTED, HEAD DOWN, EYES WAVERING, EYES DOWN/AWAY, TURN BODY AWAY, FACE AWAY, BLINKING EYELIDS, TEARS
SULKY
POUT, PROTRUDE LIPS, FROWNING, LIFT SHOULDER AND JERK IT AWAY
TERROR (INTENSE FEAR)
PALLOR, NOSTRILS FLARE, GASPING, GULPING, PROTRUDING EYEBALLS, PUPILS DILATED, HANDS CLENCHED/OPENED, ARMS PROTRUDED, SWEAT, PROSTRATION, BODY RELAXED, EYEBROW CORNERS TIGHTENED AND RAISED, UPPER EYELIDS RAISED, LIP CORNERS PULLED SIDEWAYS, BRISTLING OF HAIR, LOSS OF HAIR COLOR