If most emotional expressions are fake, what is the purpose of emotional expression?

This is a series of questions for people to answer. This is a question that so far no one I've asked has been able to answer.

If most emotional expressions are fake, and no one really knows what anyone else is feeling, why do we care so much about emotional display, is it not simply acting?

emotionally independent, to avoid being an emotional hostage, is it possible to own your emotions?

emotionally independent, to avoid being an emotional hostage, why tell anyone how you really feel if no one cares how you feel?

So the real question, asked in any number of ways, why do we display fake emotions to each other? Fake smiles, laughs, sadness, happiness, anger, what is the point of the display?

 

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Most emotional expressions on most all people are not fake. I say "most all people" because I suppose this may depend on where you live as there could be a psychological cultural factor involved in this. For example, what I am referring to is that some people in say New York City may have the disposition to display some fake or fained emotions that people that live in, lets say, a mid-central farming community would never even have the time to think about doing. Get the picture?

So I really don't know what you mean by "fake emotions"?

Now at the end of your post you refer to "fake smiles, laughs, sadness, happiness, anger, etc." People, in general, try to empathize with others. This is a key word that you need to know: empathy. We try to understand and be aware of what other people are going through and in doing so this requires empathy. We project what we know into trying to understand where the other person is coming from and in the same process we exhibit the same emotions - real or fake on our part - that they do.

I hope this answers your question and helps you understand what empathy is all about. If not, I can get into more detail on specifics. Cheers!

 

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Why should I believe you have empathy just because you make a face at me, or say the word empathy? You think it's really that simple?

Why should someone believe your emotions are real if you offer no proof?

 

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Sure it's acting ...and it's so we can feel like we're fitting into our surroundings ....and to get laid!

Hmm, usually when we "own" our own emotions, the people around us shun us and call us nasty names and make all kinds of nasty accusations about us.

Because they're pretending to care also so they fit in with the group. If we tell them exactly how and what we're feeling, we'd be ostracized in no time!

So we can fool someone that we're attracted to and have sex with them!

Baron Max

 

TT have you been faking it? Or has someone been faking it for you?

Perhaps the fakers are trying to deliberately deceive or are simply afraid to show their true emotions in case they are misread or made fun of.

 

TT just doesn't think too well sometimes when he posts, that's all. It seems that something will pop into his head, and he posts it without giving it even a cursory thought or analysis.

Baron Max

 

You are the only one who honestly answered the question. Everyone else would rather blame the question because they can't answer it.

But your post displays fear, fear of being shunned by the group. Who is the group anyway? Are they being fake?

 

You should believe that I have real empathy because I have mirror neurons.


Do you have real emotions? If so, what makes you so special as to be the only one?


edit: fixed repeated sentance.

 

We fake emotional expression because we choose to do so. It is for reasons of satisfying expectation in social bonding without rendering ourselves to exposed and vulnerable. Also, if one is truly paying attention then the reality of the emotional state will be more evident than otherwise.

 

How do I know that? I have not scanned your brain to find out.

 

Why do you have to do it for it to count?

 

to manipulate situations of course...

you can tell the difference when you experience a REAL emotion... your face responds almost randomly and you are surprised by the smile that's spontaneously appeared on your face.

i felt this recently when i saw the first scan of my baby... spontaneous smile, surprise and tears even.. even my voice changed when the doctor said 'what do you think?'

I wouldn't regard myself as a fake person / false person and yet I realised in that moment how many of my facial expressions are contrived to follow social norms and it's all part of the emperor's new clothes we wear without realising sometimes...

Go the real!!!!

Hey... just made me think about the cannibals... when westerners smiled at them, trying to communicate (via their system of body language / facials) that they were friendly and harmless... the cannibals attacked them... This was because to them, smiling (and baring teeth) meant "I want / am going to eat you!"

haha

 

Yeah, but this is just it, smiles have no meaning. They are just showing teeth. Unless I know you, how would I know what you feel? I have no clue. Your facial expressions don't change the fact that I have no clue.

 

Words are not proof of feeling.

 

Facial expressions have a strong correlation across the entire human species. No matter the culture, people facing a funny or happy situation react the same way - they smile.


"words are not proof of feeling". I agree. Again I ask, why do you need to be the one to do my brain scan for the results to be real?

 

Just because something is common, it does not mean it's useful, or real. Maybe facial expressions exist so that people can manipulate you better.

 

river-wind: that's not true - did you read my post above.

it might be becoming more that way now due to globalisation and the americanisation/westernisation of the world.. but it is definitely not the case historically across cultures (re: cannibals etc).. what if the cannibals instead of the non-cannibal westerners had been the predominant earth culture today? smiling would have a totally different meaning for the whole world. we are animals afterall... ever seen a dog bare it's teeth like it's smiling just before it takes a chunk out of someone?

some cultures nod and 'cheep' when they experience something akin to humour...

non-westernised indigenous australians don't 'cry' like europeans, they make a strange kind of animal noise and sway....

we can assume as much as we want, but the truth is more complex.

 

Jeffrey Dahmer was a cannibal. You act as if cannibalism isnt western. So I guess the western cannibal will smile in your face while eating you? This makes it better?

 

absynnia: that is a special case; it is true for chimps as well - they smile with their bottom teeth. However, I'd say that case, as a single outlyer from the norm, is social modification of a natural reaction.

When europeans traveled around the world 400 years ago, they were amazed to find people...people who smiled, danced, and acted in many ways the same as they did.

and a dog bearing it's teeth is very different from smiling - I can bare my teeth, and very few people would mistake it for a smile.

It's possible that my information about people across the globe smiling, but I've seen alot of evidence to support it, from modernised to stone-aged people.

Links or book references to these different behaviors?

 

But back to the topic, is smiling a sign of actual happiness or pleasure, or can it be faked? And if it can be faked, then....?

Baron Max