TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.080
Welcome to Philosophy is not boring by kidopoly.com.
00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:05.200
I'm Mira.
00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:06.400
And I'm Finn.
00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:12.560
If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.
00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:15.279
Hey Mira, look at my face.
00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:18.320
What feeling am I having right now?
00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:22.879
You've got your eyes wide open and your mouth is shaped like an O.
00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:25.039
You look surprised.
00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:28.640
Yep, I was doing my best surprised face.
00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:32.320
But Finn, that brings up a huge question.
00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:42.880
If you went halfway across the world to a place where people speak a totally different language and have a completely different culture, would they know you were surprised?
00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:44.159
Wait, really?
00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:46.640
Wouldn't everybody know that face?
00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:49.039
That's exactly what we're asking today.
00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:52.479
Do people everywhere show feelings with the same faces?
00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:54.320
So let's think about this.
00:00:54.560 --> 00:01:00.079
When you are feeling really happy, maybe because we just got ice cream, what does your face do?
00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.520
I smile, and my eyes kind of squint up.
00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:08.560
And when I'm angry, I frown, or I scrunch my eyebrows together really tight.
00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:09.760
Exactly.
00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:13.840
But here is the big philosophical and scientific question.
00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:14.799
Why?
00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:20.719
Did you learn to smile because you saw babies and grown-ups smiling around you when you were little?
00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:24.799
Or were you born already knowing that a smile means happy?
00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:25.599
Huh.
00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:27.920
I guess I never really thought about it.
00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:30.640
I just do it without trying.
00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:33.439
But I guess I do copy people sometimes.
00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:35.200
So maybe I learnt it?
00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:39.760
For a really long time, lots of scientists thought exactly that.
00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.799
They thought we just copied the people around us.
00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:46.319
They believed faces were basically just like languages.
00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:48.239
In English we say hello.
00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:52.799
In Spanish, they say hola, and in French they say bonjour.
00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:58.319
So they thought different cultures probably had completely different faces for their feelings.
00:01:58.640 --> 00:01:59.200
Yes.
00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:07.599
Anthropologists thought that maybe in some distant country, a smile could mean you are angry, or a frown could mean you are overjoyed.
00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:09.360
Wait, huh?
00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:12.960
So a smile could mean you want to fight somewhere else?
00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:14.800
That would be so confusing.
00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:22.879
It would be, but in 1967, an American psychologist named Paul Ekman wanted to find out for sure.
00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:27.680
To truly test this, he couldn't just test people in America or Europe.
00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:36.800
He had to find people who hadn't seen movies or television or magazines from other countries, so they couldn't have just copied the faces.
00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:39.120
Where did he go to find people like that?
00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:40.879
He travelled very far.
00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:43.360
To the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:46.479
He went to meet a group of people called the Four.
00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:54.319
Many of the Four people lived in very isolated areas and had seen very few outsiders or photographs.
00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.080
That's a perfect test.
00:02:56.240 --> 00:03:02.400
If they make the exact same faces, then it proves it's not just from copying movies or reading magazines.
00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:03.439
Exactly.
00:03:03.759 --> 00:03:11.439
Ekman wanted to see if human faces share a single, universal language that every human being is born with.
00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:13.840
But Ekman had a tricky problem.
00:03:14.159 --> 00:03:22.560
He didn't speak their language very well, and he couldn't just say, make a happy face, because the translation might not mean the exact same thing.
00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:26.560
So how did he test them if they couldn't just talk about it easily?
00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:28.319
He used stories.
00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:42.319
He would tell a short, simple story through a translator, like, a friend has come and you are happy, or you are angry and about to fight, or even you stepped on a dead, smelly pig.
00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:47.039
Ew! I would definitely make a grossed-out face for that one.
00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:57.759
Exactly! After telling the story, Ekman showed them photographs of Americans making different faces, and he asked them to pick the face that matched the story.
00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:05.840
Oh, that's really clever! They didn't need to know the exact word for the emotion, they just needed to understand the situation.
00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:07.039
What happened?
00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:13.199
The four people picked the matching faces far more often than if they were just guessing randomly.
00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:24.240
They matched the smiling face to the happy friend story, and the scrunched-up nose face to the smelly pig story, even though they had never met the Americans in the photos.
00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:25.680
So I was right.
00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:28.800
Everyone does have the exact same faces.
00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:31.839
It's like we all have the same operating system.
00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:34.079
That is what Ekman argued.
00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:40.879
He said
Load full transcript
this proved there are six basic facial expressions shared by all humans everywhere.
00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:50.079
Those six basic emotions are happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise.
00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:54.480
So those six emotions are just built into our brains from birth.
00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:57.759
Like a factory setting on a tablet or a computer.
00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.160
That's exactly what Ekman thought.
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:06.319
He called them basic emotions, and he believed they were hardwired into our biology.
00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:14.560
He thought that no matter where you were born, your brain automatically fires off those exact faces when you feel those feelings.
00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:17.360
Wait, but is it really that simple?
00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:18.720
Let me think.
00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:24.959
Sometimes when I'm super happy, like when we got our puppy last year, I actually cried.
00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:27.199
I didn't smile at all at first.
00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:34.160
Finn, that is a brilliant point! You are thinking exactly like a philosopher and a scientist.
00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:42.079
And that is exactly what a later researcher, a psychologist and neuroscientist, named Lisa Feldman-Barrett brought up.
00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:47.120
Oh cool! So she disagreed with Ekman's idea about the six basic faces?
00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:48.160
She did.
00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:56.480
She looked at all the research and she did her own studies, and she argued that faces are much less universal than Ekman thought.
00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:02.560
She pointed out that people don't always match those exact six faces in real-life situations.
00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:11.759
Yeah, like you can be really, really mad at someone, but you might just have a totally blank face, or you might even laugh because you're so frustrated.
00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:20.480
Exactly! Barrett says that emotions aren't just pre-programmed buttons in our brain that automatically trigger a specific face.
00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:32.240
She argues that our brains actually build or construct our emotions in the moment, using our past experiences, our body's physical state, and our culture.
00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:36.240
So my brain is actively building the feeling right then and there.
00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:37.199
Yes.
00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:45.600
And Barrett says that if you just show people a zoomed-in photo of a face with no context, they might guess it totally wrong.
00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:50.240
Someone crying could be sad, or they could be laughing really hard.
00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:56.160
A wide open mouth could be fear, or it could be screaming in victory at a soccer game.
00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:59.199
You need to know the situation to know the feeling.
00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:01.600
So, who is actually right?
00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:04.000
Are faces universal or not?
00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:06.800
I feel like they both make really good points.
00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:11.199
Well, scientists are actually still arguing about it today.
00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:19.040
Ekman showed that across the world, people can often recognise certain basic expressions when given a clear choice.
00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:27.920
But Barrett showed that real, lived human feelings are much more complicated and messy than a multiple choice photo test.
00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:31.439
And it's okay that we don't have a perfect answer yet.
00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:36.319
And this debate really matters for how we actually live our lives right now.
00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:38.879
Imagine you are on the playground.
00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:45.920
Have you ever looked at someone, decided they were definitely mad at you because of their face, and gotten upset?
00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.480
And then I completely avoided them.
00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:54.079
But later I found out they were just tired, or they were just thinking really hard about a math problem.
00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:56.879
Yeah, that has definitely happened to me.
00:07:57.199 --> 00:07:59.120
It happens to all of us.
00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:06.639
So next time you think you know exactly how someone is feeling, just by looking at their face, remember this debate.
00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:14.160
You might be seeing an angry face, but you don't know the story behind it until you actually talk to them and ask.
00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:16.160
That's actually really helpful.
00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:20.560
It means I have to ask questions, not just guess and assume I know everything.
00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:21.759
Exactly.
00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:24.560
We have to be curious about each other.
00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:28.720
Okay, are you ready for some mind-bending fun facts?
00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:29.920
Always.
00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:37.120
Did you know that Paul Ekman spent years cataloguing more than 10,000 different human facial expressions?
00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:38.799
10,000?
00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:42.000
I don't even think my face can do that many things.
00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:43.919
My face would get tired.
00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:53.440
He actually trained himself to control every single one of his 43 facial muscles individually, so he could understand them perfectly.
00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:56.480
He can even wiggle his ears one at a time.
00:08:56.799 --> 00:08:59.039
Whoa, I'm going to try that.
00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:00.000
Ugh.
00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:00.879
Nope.
00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:03.120
My ears are definitely not wiggling.
00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:05.120
I can only raise one eyebrow.
00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:08.159
It takes a lot of practice.
00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:10.399
And here's one more cool fact.
00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:16.000
Lisa Feldman-Barrett says your brain is basically a giant prediction machine.
00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:20.399
It tries to guess what's going to happen next, so it can save energy.
00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:25.200
Which is why the context of a situation totally changes how we see a face.
00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:29.759
Your brain predicts what the face means based on what's happening around it.
00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:35.039
That is so cool! Our brains are doing so much work we don't even notice.
00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:36.559
Are we ready for the quiz?
00:09:36.799 --> 00:09:39.919
Alright Finn, time for the quiz! Are you ready?
00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:41.600
Okay, I'm ready.
00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:43.200
First question.
00:09:43.519 --> 00:09:49.759
What was the name of the American psychologist who travelled to Papua New Guinea in 1967?
00:09:53.679 --> 00:09:54.639
Next one.
00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:58.080
What was the name of the isolated people he visited?
00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:03.360
Question three.
00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:07.840
How many basic emotions did he claim were shared by all humans?
00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:13.120
Here's number four.
00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:20.000
Which later researcher argued that facial expressions are much less universal than he thought?
00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:24.799
Last question.
00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:30.799
What method did the 1967 researcher use to test the people he visited?
00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.720
Great job! Let's see how you did.
00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:40.000
The first answer is Paul Ekman.
00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:43.440
For question two, it was the four people.
00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:48.559
The answer to question three is six basic emotions.
00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:52.879
For number four, that was Lisa Feldman Barrett.
00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:59.840
And the last answer is he told them a short story and had them pick a matching face from photos.
00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:03.919
You know, I'm going to look way closer at people's faces now.
00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:07.759
But I'm also going to remember to actually ask how they feel.
00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:10.240
That is a perfect takeaway, Finn.
00:11:10.799 --> 00:11:14.879
Faces give us clues, but talking gives us the whole story.
00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:19.919
If you liked figuring out faces with us today, please leave us a five-star review.
00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.159
Just scroll down and tap the stars.
00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:26.000
And if you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening.
00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:28.559
Oh, and we have sister shows too.
00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:32.240
History and science is not boring, and maths is not boring.
00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:34.639
Go give those a listen and a follow as well.
00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:36.320
Want your name on the show?
00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:39.840
Send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.
00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:43.519
See you next time on Philosophy is not boring.
00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:45.039
Bye everyone.