Are facial expressions universal?

fart@sh.itjust.works to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 10 points –

Like i feel like languages diverge but like I feel like the worried/angry/happy facial expressions are universal. Are they? Am I right? why?

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some of them are present in the mammal world, so I'd guess they are universal among humans, at least to a certain degree

One of the most mind opening things I ever read from Temple Grandin: to understand the difference between dogs and cats, you just have to notice that dogs have eyebrows and cats don't.

I think it's from her book Animals Make Us Human. She's basically saying that dogs and cats have different needs when it comes to communicating with humans (and with each other), and dogs do a lot of it with facial expressions.

the hypothesis that dogs learned some expressions to communicate better with humans makes sense, but some expressions like showing the teeth to express disapproval is present in various mammal populations