15

o   Ekman (1972) argues that the 6 basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, disgust) are each associated with the distinct muscle configurations that produce obvious facial expressions

o   Facial expressions of emotion tend to be very brief, 1-10 seconds

o   They involve involuntary muscle actions that people can't produce on demand or easily suppress

§  Faked emotions usually lack this muscle action

·      they will be universal

·      Encoding hypothesis. Same expressions will be used in every society

·      Decoding hypothesis. People from all cultures will interpret expressions in the same way