Contempt

Besides the basic facial expressions like happy, sad, angry, disgusted, surprised, scared, and neutral, contempt is another emotion that can be recognized in the face. Contempt is the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn and therefore seen as a negative emotion.

Politicians show contempt. Or boxers in the ring. Also, many celebraties photographed at the wrong moment can show some contempt in their facial expressions. They might mean it though, when dealing with nasty paparazzi.

Your face can also show contempt. Even if you don’t mean to show this emotion, others can certainly interpret your face. For example, by seeing subtle facial cues: a slight lip-snarl, or the slightest squinting of the eyes and burrowing of brows. So, it can be the case that you don’t want to show contempt, but that your face is showing this slightly negative expression.





Learn more about facial expression recognition on the FaceReader homepage.