The Seven Basic Emotions: Do you know them?
Humintell’s microexpression training features images of individuals portraying the 7 basic emotions: Anger, Contempt, Fear, Disgust, Happiness, Sadness and Surprise. But what exactly are basic emotions and where do other emotions such as shame, guilt and pride fit in? Read on to learn more…
Basic emotions are emotions that have been scientifically proven to have a certain facial expression associated with it.
For example, the basic emotion of “Anger” can be recognized by this picture all around the world, no matter what age, religion or gender you are, or what language you speak. Anger can be characterized by these characteristics below:
Similarly, Fear is also a basic emotion. Fear is recognized all around the world by this facial expression of emotion, with the characteristics which can be seen below. Its important to note that other words describing fear are also expressed by this same face (or portions of this face). Emotions such as scared, mortified, horrified and petrified all have characteristics of this expression.
There are other basic emotions such as disgust, contempt, happiness, sadness and surprise. Their characteristics can be seen below:
We often get asked about emotions such as shame, pride, jealously and guilt. While these emotions are important ones, they are still not considered part of the basic emotions set. For example, there is no scientific evidence showing that there is a universal expression of shame that is recognized around the world as shame. Be weary when you see or hear people labeling expressions as emotions not in the basic emotion set. There is little evidence backing up their claims.
*Please note that the images used in this blog post are property of Humintell. Duplicating or using these images are any purpose is strictly prohibited without written consent of Humintell.
23 Responses to “The Seven Basic Emotions: Do you know them?”
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I have done the training on the 7 basic emotions and found it very valuable. I think HumIntell has done a great job offering this and other training products.
I will say, that I am disappointed with the blog however. I find that information in the articles is sparse to non-existent. I would have expected to find information, research papers, and more discussions on micro-expressions. While there is some, overall I find it disappointing. For example, in this post you mention shame, pride, jealously and guilt. It might be nice to share research you are currently doing, or general discussion about these other emotions.
In general, I am finding that there are other sites that seem to foster more learning, examples, and discussion — which is great. Disappointing for HumIntell in my opinion.
I am still following, but I wouldn’t rate this blog number one in this area, which is a bit of a surprise to me.
Michael, Thanks so much for your feedback and suggestions. We appreciate your comments and will take them into consideration. Please know that there have been very limited amounts of literature and research that have been published in scientific, peer reviewed journals on the topic of microexpressions. However, we understand the need and desire to have more exposure to this field and will, to the best of our ability, to provide this information to you.
Michael, you may find this article interesting. Although published in 2006, it suggests that the emotion of pride is perhaps more of a basic emotion than we think: http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar06/pride.aspx
I have recently started my training in micro-expressions for help in my military career and I find it fascinating. I feel the web-site has helped me understand more about the prospects of micro-expressions and it has helped me realize how many options there are for me to learn.
Dr. Matsumoto:
What do you consider the look of Hatred in the eyes, 7+43 ? I always assumed that was Contempt.
I have found that the raising of a single eyebrow is not listed in any informative websites. Have there been research into the raising of the single eyebrow raise as I have been doing some intense research.
I am having volunteers participate in an experiment to see if if this could be a contemptuous emotion or a subtle wink.
My findings have shown that this could be either of the two and I feel that it is an indicator of truthfulness as I have never seen anyone lie to me in my scientific and personnel research. I will soon be posting my finding on my blog, but I would like to know if there is already some research in this expression.
follow my blog at
examiningdeception.blogspot.com
Ben, I would not consider 7+43 to be hatred. I would say that 43 is not usually associated with any expression in the anger family. My speculation that hatred would be something like 7+23 or 7+24 but you should know that there has been no data to back up a certain universal expression of hatred.
Ben M, There has been no data to suggest that the raising of one eyebrow is associated with any emotion in particular. I would say that it is more of an emblem that represents some sort of questioning when used.
David Matsumoto, the idea of it being an emblem of curiosity, doubt, or any other related synonym did cross my mind, but, I can not convince myself that this is it’s meaning. I have had people tell me factual and emotional information that they (should) strongly believe in being the truth.
I MAY have detected self-doubt, but this could also be in cause of the fact that they could be thinking of their lie at the same time because I did two truths and one lie. Even though this game is of minimal stakes, they still need to present a lie. This pausing is possibly them trying to figure out what or how they’re going to say their lie. I was able to get an accuracy of 93% as a finishing result.
I did an experiment with some of my untrained peers in facial expressions on what they thought this may mean. I found that they assumed this to be surprise as I had given them cards of Tim Roth’s universal emotions pictures from Fox’s TV show “Lie to Me”. I then measured the facial actions speed and duration. With some commonsense, I concluded that it to be too slow to be surprise, nor does the person revert to display any other emotion as surprise would usually do. So, there is some confusion in it being related to surprise amongst people.
I can state that this may mean that, but I would assume that there would be some, if not slight lowering in the opposite eyebrow.
You may also be correct as it is probably an emblem. I do not live in the United Stats, I live a bit more up north in Canada and I can say that as an emblem, it may mean curiosity, doubt, etc. in the US, but in Canadian culture, I would determine it a subtle wink or, if I want to get a bit more philosophical, an indicator of contempt, which is I feel, unlikely, but can be argued.
My fourth paragraph should be connected to my first paragraph, I am referring to the curiosity, doubt, questioning-ish emblem
Whenever I think of a single eyebrow raise, I think of Spock in the original Star Trek series. When I’ve seen real people do it (those who are able to, many people can’t), it seems to indicate questioning, being inquisitive. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as an emotional response. But I’m a novice, with very little training or education in the matter, not a professional in any capacity.
Keith, I am considering this, but raising eyebrows can be a greeting. Usually with the our “inqisitive” emblem, that usually happens when you also lower the opposite eybrow (raise left eyebrow – lower right eyebrow).
When people show a duchenne smile with the inquisitive emblem, it would mean that they’re showing this subtle wink.
I stated that in comment number nine, I had run an experiment to see if it is of an emotional origin. the results came back negative and no emotional regognition should be obtained from this.
I have seen this happen at the micro speed (check out my website and watch Julian’s third fact). This shows that it is subconscous, so what does it mean? The ability to question, like in his video, would be conscious, not subconcous and also does not determine why every time I see it, its the truth.
I feel that research is definitly needed for this expression, but as you have said Keith, this emblem may mean inquisitveness AND/or thuthfulness.
The contempt picture says: Eyes neutral, while one of the eyes is pulled together. Am i missing some info?
Hi Laguna, Thanks for your comment. Sometimes with contempt the eye corresponding to the same side that the lip corner is being tightened may become smaller. However, usually, contempt can be seen when the eyes are neutral. Its just a unilateral tightening of the lips.
Laguna: That is more of an exaggerated expression, and it is forced. Yes, eyes should be neutral in contempt, but when you FORCE the corner muscles of your mouth up like that, the eyes will squint.
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so we can’t use these images what soever?
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