Paul Ekman and the Evolution of Emotion

How has emotion evolved? Is it universal or does it vary significantly from culture to culture?

Paul Ekman is a psychologist who is an expert on microexpressions and provided a theory for the evolution of emotion. He has done research which has provided back up for Charles Darwin's theory that some emotion is universal, even though emotion can vary somewhat between cultures, especially the amount of emotion used in different cultures. One of his research methods was taking people and showing them photographs of people exhibiting basic emotion expressions and asking the subjects to identify the emotion pictured. He compared those in Western cultures to other cultures and found that the majority of the time, their choices matched. Ekman has also compared to human expressions with similar expressions of primates, which also backs Darwin's theory. He has said that emotions were first meant to serve an adaptive purpose, then later to fulfill a primarily socially communicative function that can influence others. Another study on the blind has shown that they even use the same expressions as those who are not blind to express emotion. To me, that is some of the most strong evidence that emotion has indeed evolved in humans.

Ekman also note that while emotions do appear to be more universal, many people have trouble with interpreting microexpressions, split second changes in the face that indicate whether a person is suppressing their true emotions, consciously or unconsciously (if it makes any difference, I got a 10/10 on my microexpressions quiz!) Microexpressions can help you understand people better, detect lies easier, and protect yourself, among other things. Perhaps being able to detect microexpressions will be the next order for evolution, you know, as sort of a survival mechanism? Who knows?

Ekman's theory of an evolutionary influence on emotion is very interesting. Do I believe in evolution? Sort of, I believe in a creation-evolution hybrid. So I can see where he's coming from and some of his evidence is very convincing (such as the study on the congenially blind). I'd say that emotion is influenced by evolution but also by environment.