Facial expressions as modes of action readiness

Abstract

Many questions one could ask about facial expressions seem to be fixed by the use of the very word expression. Facial expression, first, refers to facial behavior that suggests emotional meaning to an outside observer. Second, the term carries the implication that that facial behavior has the function or purpose of conveying such meaning. Third, it suggests that there exists something (say, an inner feeling) independently of that behavior to which the behavior called expression is added as an extra.