34 Journal of the Mitchell Society [August 



Tables and formulae for the extra area of pavement due to widen- 

 ing the roadway around sharp curves enable one to obtain exact re- 

 sults with no difficulty. 



The complete method will be published soon in the form of a 

 handbook suitable for the engineer in practice. 



Floyd H. Allport — Facial Expressions and How We React to Them. 



The explanation of the origin of the emotional expressions and 

 their connection with emotions is still obscure. Darwin's theory as- 

 serts that they are expressive vestiges of ancestral habits once service- 

 able to life in some other way. Facial expression is not the original 

 function of the facial muscles. Another view, that of Piderit and 

 Wundt, points out the analogous nature of facial expression. AVe 

 react for example to a situation that causes us ill feeling with the 

 same bitter expression that we assume when tasting a bitter substance. 

 Language contains many such "synonyms of expression." Is there a 

 common bodily "set" or attitude which carries over from the primitive 

 sense experience to the later emotional situation? 



The facial musculature comprises a number of sets of antagon- 

 istic muscles which render it impossible, for example, to raise and 

 lower the corners of the mouth at the same time. This mechanism 

 underlies two elementary affective expressions seen in smiling and 

 weeping respectively ; these expressions being antagonistic, identifiable 

 as bases for more complex emotions, and occurring (either one form 

 or the other) in all facial expression of emotion. Subjectively, their 

 counterparts, pleasantness and unpleasantness, may be recognized in 

 all conscious emotional states. Other muscles serve to" differentiate 

 the specific kind of pleasant or unpleasant emotion involved. For 

 example, the nose in disgust is shortened and m grief is lengthened. 

 A convenient chart summarizing these differentiating expressions was 

 presented showing the typical attitudes of brows, eyes, nose, mouth, 

 lips, lower jaw, and head, in the emotions of pain and grief, amaze- 

 ment and fear, anger, disgust, and pleasure. 



The study of our responses to facial expressions involves interest- 

 ing problems. For recognition of the ordinary strong emotions by 

 photographs of actors' poses experimentation shows the general ac- 

 curacy to be between forty and fifty per cent. The most effective 

 method used in this identification is that of recalling life situations 

 wuth which the expressions in question are readily associated. Again, 



