Observer-Based Measurement of Facial Expression with the Facial Action Coding System

FACS is regarded by many as the standard measure for facial behavior and is used widely in diverse fields and beyond emotion science, these include facial neuromuscular disorders.

Abstract

Abstract Facial expression has been a focus of emotion research for over a hundred years (Darwin, 1872/1998). It is central to several leading theories of emotion (Ekman, 1992; Izard, 1977; Tomkins, 1962) and has been the focus of at times heated debate about issues in emotion science (Ekman, 1973, 1993; Fridlund, 1992; Russell, 1994). Facial expression figures prominently in research on almost every aspect of emotion, including psychophysiology (Levenson, Ekman, & Friesen, 1990), neural bases (Calder et al., 1996; Davidson, Ekman, Saron, Senulis, & Friesen, 1990), development (Malatesta, Culver, Tesman, & Shephard, 1989; Matias & Cohn, 1993), perception (Ambadar, Schooler, & Cohn, 2005), social processes (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1992; Hess & Kirouac, 2000), and emotion disorder (Kaiser, 2002; Sloan, Straussa, Quirka, & Sajatovic, 1997), to name a few.