CAPS #3 Cole Frederick

Facial Expressions

            Facial expressions are facial gestures that convey emotions and attitudes (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). Facial expressions play an important role in language and communication. They can compliment oral language by giving a visual of what an individual is saying or they can speak by themselves by showing an emotion or attitude that an individual is feeling. Intercultural communication can become difficult with facial expressions because a particular facial expression may not have the same meaning in different cultures or areas of the world. There have been found to be 7 basic emotions- happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, anger, contempt, and surprise that are communicated by similar facial expressions in almost every society (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). The dangerous part is that there are hundreds of other facial expressions that may mean slightly different things to certain individuals. It has also been proven to be true that the expression shown on an individual’s face can influence the feelings and emotions of others. It speaks to the importance of a good attitude and body language when in a group setting. For example, I have played on many sports teams and some of the best teams I’ve played on our coach always kept his cool and showed positive facial expressions even when times are rough. I could definitely feel a “vibe” from his positive facial expression that was sent to the whole team. Facial expressions can tell just as much if not more about a person than their words.

                I think a classic example of facial expressions in intercultural communication is the fact that it can lead to many problems with miscommunication. I personally experienced this when I was interacting with another culture. I was trying a traditional Chinese candy that my roommate brought back from his hometown. Upon taking the first bite, my lips puckered up and my eyes shut because the candy was really sour. My roommate thought that I didn’t like the candy because in China that is a sign of not liking something or a food not tasting good. I had to explain to him that I thought the candy tasted pretty good but it just made my lips pucker because it was so sugary and sweet. This example between my roommate was not a huge problem and caused little conflict, but in some situations miscommunication can lead to huge problems.

                I ran across another interesting example from a video that I found on the internet. The short film below shows how a particular scientist studied whether or not facial expressions are innate or learned behaviors. He did this by looking at blind and normal sight individuals at the Olympics, by studying their facial expressions after victory or defeat. I thought it was very interesting how the blind individuals expressed their emotions almost identically when compared with individuals that could see. I thought this was a great example of how many facial expressions are in fact innate.

                        (Calacademy, 2009)

                By looking into the topic of facial expressions, it has brought to my attention how important they are. I don’t necessarily walk around worrying what my facial expressions communicate to people but at the same time I’m continuously thinking about what I am going to say. I find this strange because facial expressions are a language of their own but I never think or worry about them. I’m going to try to make a much greater attempt to think about what I am conveying by my facial expressions. Intercultural communication can be helped tremendously by understanding facial expressions and the variance between societies and cultures. With a better understanding, I think intercultural communication can be much more smooth with less conflict.

               

References:

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th Edition ed). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill.

Calacademy. (2009). Science in action: facial expressions[Theater]. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G6ZR5lJgTI