#30DAYSOFSCIKUCHALLENGE

The Brow(s) Surely Have It

Day 9 Prompt: Evolutionary and Affective science-inspired Sciku

with an arch of the brow needs and wants conveyed not a word to be said

Imagine a scenario, you told mom you would be home for dinner but then started talking to a friend, and before you know it, a few drinks in. It was an hour or two after you said you would be home — Now Imagine yourself walking in the house late and mom didn’t say anything but gave you “the look”!

So much was conveyed without a word being said — right — that “look” of a raised eyebrow — turns out that expressive eyebrow as a means to express emotion might have been quite important in human evolution itself.

While Charles Darwin is more commonly known as a prolific writer in evolutionary biology, one of the first studies he conducted was on how people recognize emotions in faces. At the time, Darwin proposed that emotion had an evolutionary history that could be traced across cultures and species. Today, many psychologists agree that certain emotions are universal to all humans, regardless of culture: anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness, and sadness.

The research on the much-debated topic of the evolution of emotion continues. A recent study focused on why the expressive brows might have mattered in human evolution. According to the researchers, it had a lot to do with our ability to form large social networks. Over the past 100,000 years, as we switched from hunter-gatherers to agriculture-based societies, our diet and physical effort requirement changed. A side effect of that — gradually smaller faces over time and a more communicative forehead that can convey emotions and form alliances more effectively.

Eyebrow movements allow us to express complex emotions as well as perceive the emotions of others. A rapid “eyebrow flash” is a cross-cultural sign of recognition and openness to social interaction and pulling our eyebrows up at the middle is an expression of sympathy. Tiny movements of the eyebrows are also a key component to identifying trustworthiness and deception (source: Godinho,et. al., 2018)

Next time you see a raised eyebrow, perhaps take a moment to appreciate the marvel of evolutionary success that is Us — and then apologize to mom — you know she is right this time!

In any case, here’s to social connectedness and communication in all its form — raised eyebrow or not!

*This is Day 9 of the #sciku challenge — science-inspired haiku-like poem( so #sciku?) prompts to get you inspired — Our dear readers — why not spend some time each day creating and having a little fun — if you do — publish it anywhere on medium, just tag it with — #30DaysOfScikuChallenge.

**If Haikus/SciKus are not your thing, feel free to exercise your artistic creativity and write another form of a science-inspired story — I can’t wait to read what you come up with.

Tagging Lynn E. O’Connor, PhD Melissa Gouty Swati Suman and anyone else who feels inspired to follow and/or play along with this fun #30DaysOfScikuChallenge and today’s prompt: Evolutionary and Affective Science

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