Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

facial-feedback hypothesis.
According to this hypothesis, facial expressions not 
only refl ect emotional experience, but they also help determine how people experience 
and label emotions. Basically put, “wearing” an emotional expression provides 
muscular feedback to the brain that helps produce an emotion congruent with that 
expression (Izard, 1990; Davis, Senghas, & Ochsner, 2009).
For instance, the muscles activated when we smile may send a message to the brain 
indicating the experience of happiness—even if there is nothing in the environment 
that would produce that particular emotion. Some theoreticians have gone further by 
suggesting that facial expressions are necessary for an emotion to be experienced 
(Rinn, 1984, 1991). In this view, if no facial expression is present, the emotion cannot 
be felt. 
Support for this facial-feedback hypothesis comes from a classic experiment 
carried out by psychologist Paul Ekman and colleagues (Ekman, Levenson, & 
Friesen, 1983). In the study, professional actors were asked to follow very explicit 
instructions regarding the movements of muscles in their faces. You might try this 
example yourself:
• Raise your brows and pull them together.
• Raise your upper eyelids.
• Now stretch your lips horizontally back toward your ears.
After carrying out these directions—which, as you may have guessed, are meant to 
produce an expression of fear—the actors’ heart rates rose and their body temperatures de-
clined, physiological reactions that characterize fear. Overall, facial expressions representing 
the primary emotions produced physiological effects similar to those accompanying the 
genuine emotions in other circumstances (Keillor et al., 2002; Soussignan, 2002). (Also see 
Applying Psychology in the 21 st Century. )
facial-affect program
Activation of a 
set of nerve impulses that make the 
face display the appropriate 
expression.