Communication and Evolution

I believe that facial expression is primordially about communication. Even though there is strong correlation between facial expression and emotion, some people suppress the facial expressions from their emotions, maybe because they don't want others to know how they feel or because they are unable of externalizing their emotions, so could say that facial expression is the tool to communicate those emotions.

When we are born we are received by our mother's smile, and after that we go through constant reinforcement of those facial expressions and emotions.



We create neural connections that hardwire the relationship between an emotion and its correspondent facial expression. We learn what it is to smile and what it means, and to frown, and every other expression.

I believe facial expression is an advanced tool of communication developed through evolution, only possessed by the more evolved organisms, or some might argue that only by humans.

You be the judge of whether animals are capable of emotions and of communicating them through facial expression:



It is also interesting that facial expression is so primordial that we only need very few cues to recognize something as a face. It makes sense then that we see "faces in the clouds" or that we might see a rock and think that it resembles George Washington or somebody that is very characteristic. We can see this principle applied to character design for example:



It is also interesting to note that even though we can recognize such simple things as faces, facial expressions can be extremely complex. The Mona Lisa is a prime example of how facial expression can be used to convey emotions that are much more complex than anger or happiness.