Negative results on a reported facial expression of contempt

Ekman and Friesen (1986) claimed to have discovered a facial expression, a unilateral lip curl, universally recognized as conveying contempt. Their conclusion was based on a series of labeling studies, all of which relied on one response measure—subjects choosing one label from a small, preselected list. This article reports two studies on the question of whether their result can be replicated with other response measures. In one study, subjects were allowed to respond with any emotion label they wanted; in the second, subjects were asked to make quantitative ratings on six emotion scales. Neither method suggested contempt as subjects' interpretation of the unilateral lip curl.This study was funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I thank Dee-Ann Matsugu, Lara Weick, and Lisa Wong for their careful work on this study.