The Human Anger Face Likely Carries a Dual-Signaling Function

Anger is an integral part of interpersonal aggression (Baumeister et al., 1990; Sell et al., 2009b) and has a cross-culturally recognizable facial expression (Ekman, 1973). This expression typically entails simultaneously lowering one’s browridge, raising the cheeckbones and mouth, widening the nose, and pressing the lips (Ekman and Friesen, 1978; Sell et al., 2014). Given these species-typical features, recent studies sought to reveal their signaling function. That is, what does the human anger face communicate? Sell et al. (2014) argued that the anger face mainly enhances facial cues of physical strength, thereby increasing the angry person’s perceived fighting ability. In a paper published in the same year, Reed et al. (2014) argued that the anger face communicates the angry person’s commitment to carry out threats. We believe that these two hypotheses complement each other to provide a more complete analysis of the signaling function of the anger face. In our discussion, we focus on men because interpersonal aggression is primarily a male activity (Puts, 2010). At the same time, though this opinion piece concerns the signaling function of face, we use research on vocal signals to build up our arguments. This is because (to our knowledge) a major component of this opinion piece, namely aggressive-intent signaling, has been mostly demonstrated with vocal signals.