Facial coding. What emotions can it recognise?

Facial coding allows you to measure your audience’s emotions when they are subjected to a stimulus. For example, with tests using this neuromarketing tool, you can anticipate how your audience will feel when you launch your campaign and make the necessary changes to increase advertising effectiveness.

Recognisable emotions in facial coding

Psychologist Robert Plutchik differentiates between 8 primary (or basic) emotions and 24 secondary emotions, which he organises into 3 different types of dyads.

Primary emotions

There are 8 of them, they are innate, they are genetically programmed in our organism. They are also universal, as they are present in all cultures around the world. Their function is closely linked to survival, as it is thanks to them that humans are better prepared to survive.

The primary emotions are organised into four pairs of antagonistic emotions.

• Surprise – Anticipation
• Joy – Sadness
• Fear – Anger
• Confidence – Disgust

The primary emotions have different degrees.

Secondary emotions

Plutchik also defined a whole series of secondary emotions, which result from combining the primary emotions. These emotions are not universal, as they differ from culture to culture. These emotions are learned over time as a function of one’s experiences, and their function is social. Secondary emotions contribute to the definition of each person’s identity.

Secondary emotions are formed by combining primary emotions in pairs or dyads. Depending on the distance between emotions, we speak of primary, secondary and tertiary dyads.

Primary dyad emotions are formed by combinations of emotions that are adjacent on Plutchik’s wheel:

• Joy + trust = love
• Trust + fear = submission
• Fear + surprise = awe
• Surprise + sadness = disapproval
• Sadness + disgust = remorse
• Disgust + Anger = contempt
• Anger + anticipation = aggressiveness
• Anticipation + joy = optimism

Secondary dyads arise from combining the primary + petal emotion 2 spaces further (clockwise):

• Joy + fear = guilt
• Trust + surprise = curiosity
• Fear + sadness = despair
• Surprise + disgust = unbelief
• Sadness + anger = envy
• Disgust + anticipation = cynicism
• Anger + joy = pride
• Anticipation + trust = hope

Tertiary dyads arise from combining the primary + petal emotion 3 spaces further.

• Joy + surprise = delight
• Trust + sadness = sentimentality
• Fear + disgust = shame
• Surprise + anger = outrage
• Sadness + anticipation = pessimism
• Disgust + joy = morbidness
• Anger + trust = dominance
• Anticipation + fear = anxiety

How are emotions recognised?

Emotions are coded using the Facial Action Coding System, the methodology used by most facial coding experts.

• The subject stands in front of a camera. The camera software detects the person’s face and frames the survey area.
• Key points are identified and fixed. The software recognises the corner of the lips, the tip of the nose and the ends of the eyebrows. These points help to monitor the areas where key muscle groups are found in the collection of emotional information, as it is here that the so-called action units (AU) are produced.
• Detection of AU zones. AUs are the letters that make up the alphabet of facial coding. In isolation, an AU is nothing more than the movement of an area of the face. But combined with others, they constitute the dictionary of facial expressions, where each combination has an emotional meaning. In this phase, the software detects all the AUs that occur on the face of the person under investigation.
• Emotion coding. Finally, the software automatically processes the AUs to classify them into emotions. Let’s say that an image detects a rise of the cheek (AU 6) and a separation of the lips (AU 25). With this information, the software deduces that it is probably a smile.

Facial coding with We are testers

The We are testers facial coding module will accurately measure most primary and secondary emotions. Ask our experts about all the possibilities and start measuring emotions to boost the success of your campaigns.