Which psychologist contributed to the finding that facial expressions are universal?

• A. Charles Darwin
• B. Sigmund Freud
• C. Paul Ekman
• D. B.F. Skinner

Answer: (C)

Understanding that facial expressions are universal rests on cross-cultural evidence showing that certain facial movements signal the same emotions around the world. Paul Ekman conducted landmark studies across diverse cultures, including remote communities, demonstrating that people reliably recognize a common set of emotions—happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust—from facial expressions. He also created the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) to measure facial movements objectively, giving researchers a precise way to compare expressions across cultures. Darwin suggested that expressions are evolutionarily based, but Ekman provided the modern empirical support that solidified the idea; Freud and Skinner focused on other aspects of psychology and did not study universal facial expressions.