Self explanatory title but why is it that when we are talking and on the brink of crying, or in a stage of heightened emotion, that our mouths turn downwards in the stereotypical 🙁
I understand that it’s facial muscles but what triggers that response? What chemicals/brain messages/ etc causes that?
In: Biology
Facial expressions have one purpose: communication. Turns out early humanoids survived better when they were able to tell how their friends were feeling. Over millennia, it’s been engrained into our brains that when we feel sad, we may get more help if we show our sadness. It just so happens that we ended up using smiling for happiness and a downward mouth for sadness, some monkey species have it completely opposite and a smile could be a sign of aggression for example.
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