Human Neutral Face Bears an Imprint of Emotionality

Abstract

Perceiving a neutral human face, an eye can capture information that is not always available to a rough morphometric assessment. We hypothesized that a neutral face can bear traces of individual emotional expressiveness. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between neutral facial shape and individual emotional facial expressiveness of a person. Videos and photographs of the same subjects were analyzed using the FaceReader neural network, which classified and estimated the intensity of emotional expressions for 176 men and women of European origin. The results revealed that a static neutral face bears an imprint of emotional facial expressions. The emotional coloring of a neutral face was significantly associated with individual predispositions to demonstrate certain emotional expressions during dynamic communication. Men were characterized by imprinting traces of anger, sadness, and surprise, while women – of sadness, fear, and disgust. The study is the first of its kind and contributes to understanding the mechanisms of human nonverbal communication.