On the distinct meanings of smiles and frowns

Abstract This study examines the information encoded by the eyebrow frown and the smile. In a conceptual replication of Smith (1989), subjects imagined themselves in pleasant and unpleasant scenarios while muscle activities in the eyebrow and cheek regions were monitored electromyographically. Brow region activity was related to evaluations of motivational incongruence and perceived goal-obstacles, and, after taking these relationships into account, was uncorrelated with subjective pleasantness. In contrast, cheek activity was associated with subjective pleasantness and, after taking this relationship into account, nothing else. These results contribute to the literature indicating that individual components of facial expressions directly encode information about emotional state and clarify the nature of the information encoded by two of these components.