Facial Expression Coding

What it is

Counting movements of the face from video, such as a raised brow or a smile, as a record of visible reaction. The count is sturdier than the step that names the emotion behind a movement.

It sits close to Neuromarketing, Construct Validity and Facial Feedback Hypothesis in the wider body of research, and is best taken as one idea among several rather than a stand-alone rule.

In effect

The 2019 review by Lisa Feldman Barrett and colleagues found that people sometimes produce the expected facial configurations, that expressions vary across cultures, situations and individuals, and that the same configuration can carry different meanings. They concluded that facial movements communicate useful information but not emotion in a simple one-to-one way.

What it does not say

The finding comes from the studies named on this page and describes a pattern in those samples. It does not show that the pattern holds for every person, product or market, and it does not tell a brand what to do on its own. It is one input to a decision, to be weighed with other evidence.

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