A new study by scientists shows that the emotions conveyed by facial expression. This can be diverse, rich and complex as the faces themselves. From happiness to sadness, from fear to anger – a person’s facial expression can convey a huge amount of emotions, and without words, writes Science Alert .

But until now, scientists haven’t fully understood its complexity. How something as simple as a raised eyebrow or raised lip can convey complex emotional information. They still wonder

Study at University of Glasgow

A new study led by scientists from the University of Glasgow explored how facial expressions. They discovered that facial expressions can convey complex combinations of information about a person’s emotional state.

The researchers found that different facial movements. For instance lowered eyebrow or a gaping mouth, can co-transmit both general and specific emotion information. This can be in the form of multicomponent facial cues. Means those that can convey two or more types of information.

Using a computer graphics platform developed at the University of Glasgow, the research team showed 100 participants a wide range of different computer-generated facial expressions.

Participants then decided whether each of them represented one of the classic 6 emotion categories: joy, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, and sadness. Participants also had to rate them as negative or positive, active (excited) or passive (calm).

During the study, experts determined that different facial movements, such as a raised eyebrow, wrinkled nose, or open mouth, can convey 2 different types of information at the same time: both general information (for example, a positive or negative emotion) and a specific emotional category (for example, happiness or sadness).

The new study raises some interesting questions, not least about how we perceive the emotions that other people express. As the team notes, similar studies may be useful in the future. From the point of view of robotics and virtual reality few things make difference. It is very important that artificial faces convey the feelings that they are supposed to convey.