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> featuring a lifelike facial expression Notice that, although it was a completely alien culture in a very far away time, before agriculture and writing, we st

> featuring a lifelike facial expression Notice that, although it was a completely alien culture in a very far away time, before agriculture and writing, we still know what a lifelike facial expression looks like. Many things vary from culture to culture. Facial expressions, at least many of them, are consistent across humanity. If someone stubs their toe or tastes something delicious, you'll know without words. Look up 'human universals' in anthropology, evolutionary psychology, and in other fields. Donald Brown (see below) gives some opinionated background here, including a literature review (of Brown's own writings, and more): https://literary-universals.uconn.edu/2017/06/25/human-universals/ https://literary-universals.uconn.edu/2017/06/25/human-unive... The seminal book is Human Universals by Donald Brown: https://archive.org/details/humanuniversals0000brow/ https://archive.org/details/humanuniversals0000brow/ (I don't know how fully accepted it is; there seems to be at least some disupte over Brown's theories.)

verbify 3y ago
How many of these universals are shared with other mammals (especially apes)?
- TrapLord_Rhodo 3y ago
  Showing teeth, universally means aggression. In humans, it's for showing you are happy, or excited.
- gumby 3y ago
  I don't think any other species has the set of facial muscles humans do. Cats seem inscrutable because they have very few; dogs seem more understandable because they can move their eyebrows. I think the non-human animal with the most facial expressions is the chimpanzee, but even then it is much less expressive than a human in this regard. Various mammals have (non-facial) macroexpression somewhat similar to humans, such as excitement, curiosity and fear. Many non-mammals such as birds, fish, and some reptiles can express fear to some extent.
  - jamiek88 3y ago
    I think we share a very similar disgust response to other primates primarily and some other mammals as well including dogs.
    - galangalalgol 3y ago
      Fear and anger on the face of a human and a wolf are very similar. Include body language in general and the similarities expand. If a mammal drops its head, widens its eyes and its ears pull back (yes humans do that too), its time to look for escape, or a weapon.
  - TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
    I don't think cat faces are all that much less expressive than dog faces. They have a wide variety of facial expressions, including surprise, irritation/anger, happiness, playfulness, anxiety/fear, disgust, and so on - and that's not including at cat body language, especially tail movements. Our cat has perfected the guilt-tripping innocent stare. She stands beside her food bowl looking almost blank. This somehow communicates a combination of infinite sadness and disappointment, blended with child-like hopefulness. It's very effective.
    - wolverine876 3y ago
      I suspect the most effective for pets is a perfect blank slate onto which the owner can project whatever they want.
      - manonthewall 3y ago
        have you ever owned and been inseparable from a pet? you absolutely can interpret their moods and you can find papers on it if you like, they do have expressions and body language. It may not be the same as humans necessarily but it is there if you care to research it.
    - cm2012 3y ago
      Once you know cats (or probably any other advanced animal) you can read their emotions like a book. Lots of people don't know how to read cats though.
- wolverine876 3y ago
  Some universals are certainly shared with other creatures, and it's not even restricted to mammals. From one article: Take, for example, social facilitation or the notion that organisms tend to perform better on simple tasks in the presence of observers. Although disagreement about its innate origins exists (Do-Yeong and Junsu 2010), social facilitation has had supportive evidence in humans in a natural setting (Michaels et al. 1982), cockroaches (Zajonc et al. 1969), and macaques (Dindo et al. 2009). (I don't know about facial expressions, though the fact that I don't know means little - I've just read a bit about it.) There are other universals among non-human species, not shared with us, such as 100+ discovered for chimpanzees. Source: Reza Ziai, "Cross-Cultural Universality". In Todd K Shackelford, Viviana A Weekes-Shackelford, eds. Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer (2021)
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verbify 3y ago

How many of these universals are shared with other mammals (especially apes)?

TrapLord_Rhodo 3y ago
Showing teeth, universally means aggression. In humans, it's for showing you are happy, or excited.
gumby 3y ago
I don't think any other species has the set of facial muscles humans do. Cats seem inscrutable because they have very few; dogs seem more understandable because they can move their eyebrows. I think the non-human animal with the most facial expressions is the chimpanzee, but even then it is much less expressive than a human in this regard. Various mammals have (non-facial) macroexpression somewhat similar to humans, such as excitement, curiosity and fear. Many non-mammals such as birds, fish, and some reptiles can express fear to some extent.
- jamiek88 3y ago
  I think we share a very similar disgust response to other primates primarily and some other mammals as well including dogs.
  - galangalalgol 3y ago
    Fear and anger on the face of a human and a wolf are very similar. Include body language in general and the similarities expand. If a mammal drops its head, widens its eyes and its ears pull back (yes humans do that too), its time to look for escape, or a weapon.
- TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
  I don't think cat faces are all that much less expressive than dog faces. They have a wide variety of facial expressions, including surprise, irritation/anger, happiness, playfulness, anxiety/fear, disgust, and so on - and that's not including at cat body language, especially tail movements. Our cat has perfected the guilt-tripping innocent stare. She stands beside her food bowl looking almost blank. This somehow communicates a combination of infinite sadness and disappointment, blended with child-like hopefulness. It's very effective.
  - wolverine876 3y ago
    I suspect the most effective for pets is a perfect blank slate onto which the owner can project whatever they want.
    - manonthewall 3y ago
      have you ever owned and been inseparable from a pet? you absolutely can interpret their moods and you can find papers on it if you like, they do have expressions and body language. It may not be the same as humans necessarily but it is there if you care to research it.
  - cm2012 3y ago
    Once you know cats (or probably any other advanced animal) you can read their emotions like a book. Lots of people don't know how to read cats though.
wolverine876 3y ago
Some universals are certainly shared with other creatures, and it's not even restricted to mammals. From one article: Take, for example, social facilitation or the notion that organisms tend to perform better on simple tasks in the presence of observers. Although disagreement about its innate origins exists (Do-Yeong and Junsu 2010), social facilitation has had supportive evidence in humans in a natural setting (Michaels et al. 1982), cockroaches (Zajonc et al. 1969), and macaques (Dindo et al. 2009). (I don't know about facial expressions, though the fact that I don't know means little - I've just read a bit about it.) There are other universals among non-human species, not shared with us, such as 100+ discovered for chimpanzees. Source: Reza Ziai, "Cross-Cultural Universality". In Todd K Shackelford, Viviana A Weekes-Shackelford, eds. Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer (2021)

deleted 3y ago

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