Facial Feedback Hypothesis - Development of The Theory

Development of The Theory

While James included the influence of all bodily changes on the creation of an emotion, "including among them visceral, muscular, and cutaneous effects", modern research mainly focuses on the effects of facial muscular activity. One of the first to do so, Tomkins wrote in 1962: "...the face expresses affect, both to others and the self, via feedback, which is more rapid and more complex than any stimulation of which the slower moving visceral organs are capable".

Two versions of the facial feedback hypothesis appeared, although "these distinctions have not always been consistent".

• The weak version, introduced by Darwin, sees the feedback intensify or reduce an emotion already present. McCanne & Anderson (1987) instructed participants to suppress or increase the zygomatic or corrugator muscle while imagining pleasant or unpleasant scenes. Subsequent alteration of the emotional response was shown to have occurred.
• The strong version implies that facial feedback by itself can create the whole emotion.

According to Browndyke, "the strongest evidence for the facial feedback hypothesis to date comes from research by Lanzetta et al. (1976)" (but see "Studies using Botox" below for more recent and powerful evidence). Participants had lower skin conductance and subjective ratings of pain when hiding the painfulness of the shocks they endured, compared with those who expressed intense pain.

In all research, however, difficulty remained in how to measure an effect without alerting the participant to the nature of the study and how to ensure that the connection between facial activity and corresponding emotion is not implicit in the procedure.