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A collection of blogs written by David Matsumoto over the past six years on the science underlying the nature of emotions and facial expressions.
Perfect for both newcomers and practitioners who want a clear, practical resource.
Description
The perfect companion to The Emotion Primer Booklet!
Beyond the Primer: Emotions and Facial Expressions brings together 9 years of insightful blog writing on the science of human emotion, curated from a long-running series of blogs originally published on Humintell’s website.
What began as a simple idea—to gather these pieces into one place—revealed a surprisingly rich body of work substantial enough to form a compact, informative volume.
This book compiles foundational explanations, research highlights, and approachable discussions on emotions and facial expressions.
Lightly edited for print, each chapter maintains the authentic tone of its blog origins, including natural overlaps, recurring themes, and occasional cross-references—now converted from hyperlinks to page numbers for ease of reading.
Rather than smoothing away every redundancy, the book preserves the rhythm of the original posts, allowing readers to experience the conversational, accessible style that made the blogs engaging.
Each entry includes the date it first appeared online, though the sequence has been rearranged to create a clearer narrative arc—from basic concepts to deeper insights—while remaining faithful to the material as it was first written.
Whether you’re a curious lay reader, a practitioner in psychology or communication, or someone interested in understanding human behavior more deeply, this collection offers a cohesive, approachable exploration of how we express and interpret emotion.
It serves as both a standalone introduction and a companion to Humintell’s online resources—an inviting addition to any library on nonverbal behavior and emotional science.
Beyond the Primer: Emotions and Facial Expressions is recommended for readers who want a big-picture, structured understanding of the relationship between emotions and facial expressions from both theoretical and practical perspectives—and who want to think through the issues for themselves.
The book tackles essential questions such as: “Even if there is some universality in emotions and facial expressions, why can they appear differently—or be interpreted differently—across cultures and individuals?” “Why do doubts about the ‘universality’ of emotion–expression links arise, and how does the author position those doubts?” and “Why do we shift from one emotion to another?” These topics are not only academically important; they also offer valuable insights for thinking about why today’s rapidly advancing generative AI conversations and emotion-recognition AI cannot adequately deal with human emotions if they treat them as simple labels.
In addition, through topics like “When we feel anger, how can we reframe it so it doesn’t damage interpersonal relationships?” and “What kinds of smiles are there?” the book helps us learn practical perspectives for engaging with others as embodied humans—managing our own emotions skillfully and becoming less likely to misread what others are feeling.
I especially recommend it to anyone who wants a clear theoretical map, along with concrete hints for translating that understanding into practice—how to interpret what they see and how to respond in real-world settings.