Do Blind People Use The Same Facial Expressions As Sighted People?

Girl showing facial emotionAn analysis of 21 studies concludes that blind people have similar spontaneous facial expressions to sighted people, but significant differences when it comes to voluntarily posed expressions.

In other words, when spontaneous emotions are evoked by life's experiences, lack of sight has little impact on the resulting facial expressions of those feeling these emotions.  This is likely a result of humans' evolutionary history.  On the other hand, when people are asked to display a particular facial expression, having visually seen others display that emotion factors heavily on the ability to replicate that expression.

The role of visual experience in the production of emotional facial expressions by blind people: a review

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Posted in Adapting and Emotions - Living with Vision Loss | View Post