(Bk Business) Carol Kinsey Goman Ph.D.-The Nonverbal Advantage_ Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work -Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2008)

Chapter 4: Face to Face
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TRY THIS
For a full day, pay attention to different emotions that are
being expressed by your co-workers or clients. As soon as you
see one, write it down. Now here’s the hard part: just write the
emotion you detect, not the cause: “She looks sad,” not “She’s
disappointed with the presentation.” “He looks fearful,” not
“He’s afraid we’ll lose the account.” “The boss looks angry,”
not “The boss is mad at me for coming late to the meeting.”
Omitting the suspected motivation is difficult to do
because we all have a tendency to jump to conclusions
about the causes behind expressions. I’m not saying
that your assumptions about causes are wrong, just
that they may be. And this gives you a chance to
stop, observe, and then explore alternatives.
Universal Expressions
A longstanding debate involved the origins of various facial
expressions. On one side of the argument was Charles Darwin,
who had written in 1872 about the consistency of expressions
in mammals. On the opposing side were prominent social
scientists of the 1960s and 1970s—including anthropologist
Margaret Mead—who believed that facial expressions are
learned through culture. So, who was right? Are facial expressions
innate or are they culturally influenced?
The issue was settled by Paul Ekman, PhD, a professor of
psychology at the University of California at San Francisco
(UCSF). His research proved that there are six expressions
that are universally recognized and understood: joy, sadness,
surprise, fear, contempt/disgust, and anger.