The Dark Side of Science: The Horrors of the Facial Expression Experiment 1924 (Short Documentary)

the human face it makes us who we are it is the center of our senses and as such it is vital in the way we communicate but not what you think yes we use our mouths to talk but our faces are much more than that for broadcasting our thoughts and feelings just one look at a person's expression can tell you so much about the emotional state of the individual a smile a frown a scale each one can tell you how to interact with someone although this is something we take for granted as a natural part

of the human condition some scientists have looked to categorize and study our facial expressions one such study took place in 1924 and in order to create genuine reactions in its test subjects various stimuli were used which would bizarrely culminate in the participants being asked to behead a rat in order to track their facial expressions my name is john and today we're looking at the 1924 facial expression experiment welcome to the dark side of science [Music] carly landis was born on the 11th of january 1897 in west alexandria ohio a small town with a population of

around 700 at the end of the 19th century carney would attend state university where he majored in psychology graduating in 1921. study would not end for landis however when he gained his masters a year later from dartmouth college in 1922 this was whilst he was working as a psychology instructor upon completion of his masters landis moved to the university of minnesota to study for his doctorate during his education landis read various scientific studies into facial expressions one of which was darwin's the expression of the emotions of man and animals his third book in his series

of works on evolution the book looks to delve into emotions of humans and animals alike and features multiple pictures of faces in various different emotional states for the animal kingdom darwin shows various expressive movements of dogs cats horses ruminants and monkeys he visualizes various facial expressions in the book showing joy affection pain anger astonishment and terror the book also has photographs and illustrations of human faces in various states of emotion from happiness to fear and anger the book was originally released in 1872 with a second edition compiled by darwin's son in 1890 and this was

likely the version that landis studied one of the other main works that carney took inspiration from was r schultz's experimental psychology and pedagogy released translated into english in 1912 this work touches on facial expressions and looks at the links between psychology and education there are a number of different photographs of subjects reactions to different stimuli but it doesn't seek out to find the reason why the final and probably the work that carney would take as a basis for his later experiments was herbert langfield's the judgment of emotions from facial expressions in 1918 this study would

take place at harvard's psychological laboratory langfield made use of six subjects four men and two women and showed each person 105 images of an illustration made from a photograph of an actor's face each expression was meant to convey a certain emotion after being shown the image the subject was then required to write down their interpreted emotion landis thought that this experiment had a problem though and that was because of the authenticity of the expression of the actor the results from the langfield experiment were pretty interesting however although the study was not unique in finding that

we can judge emotion from a picture i mean look at artwork in general from history you can tell we can understand emotion from a still image of a facial expression but he did find that the general consensus from his six subjects was that each picture conveyed a particular emotion even the more subjective images that contained subtle emotional state cues such as half crying and laughing in post-experiment interviews each subject was asked where do they look first when judging a facial expression and interestingly each gave slightly different answers for example one person stated they stared at

the mouth first and another saying that they tried to imagine themselves with that expression and how it would make them feel of course modern day eye tracking experiments are more reliable seeing what we look at first but langfield's experiment is interesting to see the thought processes of the subjects as they examine the images presented to them landis would achieve his phd in 1924. and it quickly led him into the experiment that would put his name down in infamy landis took from the books and papers he had studied and saw a question unanswered what is one's

facial expression when exposed to real-world stimuli schultz's experimental psychology and pedagogy did touch on this by giving children bitter sour and sweet tasting items and photographed their expressions however landis wanted to go deeper he wanted to see if there was universal expressions for certain stimuli landis started off with his studies of emotional reactions a preliminary study of facial expression in mid-1924 he made use of 19 test subjects all men from dartmouth college the experiment was set up in a regular laboratory room in order to record the facial expressions landis had access to a motion picture

and ordinary steel producing cameras landis had a specially constructed table behind which the subject was seated this was placed in the center of his setup in a wall eight feet from the subject in front of them several small openings were cut through which cameras were focused before the experiment would begin landis said to the subject i'm making a study of facial expressions all you have to do is to be seated behind the table and act as naturally as possible in the various situations that follow don't try to be emotional or show a poker face try

to forget the cameras and act natural various stimuli from nine categories were presented to each subject and after each situation a card was given to the participant with a number of emotions written on it such as boredom abstraction dreamy indifference interest also a space labelled feelings other than those mentioned each situation however would have a slightly different card the experiment stimuli started off pretty tame culminating in a fairly harsh finale first off was classical music a phonographic reproduction of divalki by wagner around a quarter of the subjects indicated interest with the remaining showing indifference or

boredom landis noted of the facial expression of a vacant stare in most in the similar vein the second stimuli was jazz music a phonographic reproduction of my man the majority of the subjects indicated a rhythmic feeling with around a quarter indicating border more indifference this was shown on the face expression with 12 cracking a smile and the opposite for the remainder of the subjects the third stimulus was this time visual with giorgioni's sleeping venus and boguero's birth of venus both images are of unclothed women most indicated sex appeal and aesthetic appreciation with remaining indicating indifference

the facial expressions are shown to be smiling or smirking but a fourth stimulus they were shown paintings of christ and the facial expressions were mainly of a frown which correlated with most indicating sadness religious feelings or indifference from the fifth stimulus all the way to the ninth things started to get a little bit more cruel starting with vulgar pictures of direct sex appeal a strip of pictures depicting various adult acts was used the subjects recorded disgust repulsion sex appeal and feelings of absurdity and grotesque the facial expressions were a mixture of smirking all the way

to pure disgust but interestingly each subject let out a noticeable gasp when shown the stimuli the sick stimulus were pictures to arouse horror or disgust illustrations in the diseases of china by jefferies and maxwell were used i've looked at the book and it is pretty upsetting with some of the images within interestingly because some of the participants were medical students a high number indicated professional interest with the second highest being pity the expression shown is most indicated by a frown and a closed mouth number seven on the list was odours this consisted of eight small

bottles with various smelling dilute forms of cinnamon oil spirits of peppermint and others but the final was the actual interesting item the bottle was marked syrup of lemon but actually contained ammonia needless to say the reactions to the sweet smelling items resulted in generally happy expressions but the shock of the ammonia yielded an instant reaction of disgust followed by a small smile the penultimate stimulate was a bucket filled with frogs each subject was told to put their hand inside and feel around instantly a reaction of disgust was recorded until they are allowed to look inside

when most showed signs of relief and even a small smile the final stimuli seemed to be the most cruel it too involved a bucket it had around six inches of water inside and the subject was told with his right hand to hold onto a metal rod and with his left hand to feel around in the bucket there was an induction coil placed in the bucket as soon as the hand touched it the circuit was complete and the subject received a substantial electric shock all of the subject's expressions immediately went to surprise and in the questionnaire

most indicated surprise and pain landis had discovered that he could generate more accurate facial expressions with his initial experiment but he felt like improvements could be made and set about planning the next step in his deep dive into expression he didn't manage to see any universal expression for any of the stimuli as most of the subjects showed a whole range of slight differences even including smiling during some of the more shocking situations maybe a bigger experiment with more people would help taking what he learnt from the earlier 1924 study he wanted to create ever more

real emotional disturbances and record the facial expressions generated furthermore landis wanted to make use of as many distinct forms of reaction as possible culminating in significant emotional upset instead of the nine stimulus categories from the first experiment he upped it to 17 and some went well beyond the boundary of ethical also different in the second experiment was that women would be part of the study as well as recording of blood pressure 25 subjects would be used consisting of 12 men 12 women and oddly one male child another part that landis criticized of his original study

was that of the setting you see he felt that the previous setup felt too much like a laboratory well it was but that it might have colored the reactions from his subjects as they were always aware of the experimental nature of the situation they were in this time around is sought out to make the experimental room more homely the walls were redecorated drapes were placed at the window and several paintings were hung on the walls so that the final effect gave a minimal suggestion of a laboratory this time around the subjects were seated comfortably at

the table behind stood a large screen which served as a photographic background either side of the subject stood a thousand watt lamp in a diffusing reflector with this illumination was possible to take better photographs at any time a second room was used to house all the equipment including the camera which shot images through a small hole in the wall facing the subject a speaking tube and buzzer was provided between the two rooms so that the experimenter in the subject's room could keep the assistant who was handling the apparatus in step with the procedure each subject

before the experiment had a front and profile photo taken and then to assist with facial studying after experiments each subject had their faces marked with black lines to highlight certain muscle groups then another photograph both front on and in profile were taken with a grid placed over the camera to assist with later measuring every movement of the head was judged after each stimuli and notes were made on every visual change of each subject's face each participant during a study would be subjected to roughly a three-hour ordeal and much like landis's previous study each stimuli would

increase in severity but the whole experiment was much better choreographed in order to keep the subject guessing and thus hopefully generate a more genuine reaction to the stimulus well i've spoken around it enough let's actually look at the 1924 facial expression study as i mentioned before the number of stimuli was increased over the earlier study and as such there was some crossover between both experiments and this was because landis reused similar situations however he did modify them to achieve a greater reaction the experiment would start off with the participant signing a slip stating that they

would not divulge any information about the situations they will be exposed to then the subject will be led into the experiment room by an experimenter who in most cases would be landis himself for the men and a female assistant for the women before aforementioned control photographs were taken and the faces would be marked up now ready the first stimuli would begin [Music] the first two situations were music that was aimed to calm any nerves of the participants for the first 10 minutes the music was the pop music of the day jazz this disarmed the subjects

but things would ramp up in the second section when more complex technical music was played this was marked by their virtuosity and technique almost having no melody photographs and blood pressure measurements were taken this would be for every section although the images will be taken at the closest moment to the reveal of the stimuli the next section brought an interesting subject into the mix and that was being requested to read saint luke 6 18-49 out of the bible this required the participant to pick from two pieces of paper with a letter printed on it a

t for truth or l for lie if l was selected points of circumstantial evidence attaching the participant to some crime were written on they were then meant to invent a lie which would clear them of the charges on a cross-examination with the experimenter if t was chosen then an alibi was provided for the crime this situation was used to try and induce anxiety and lengthen the total time of the experiment as well as assert the experimenter's dominance this is another carry across from the early experiment again again like before having several bottles with nice smelling

fluids within with the last having ammonia mislabeled again as lemon syrup situation 5 will be the first taste of landis's now trademark of misdirection in order to get a more natural reaction landis continues his misleading antics by having the experiment to say the subject had smudged the marks on their face and as such they would need to reapply them the experimenter would then go behind the screen this would be the point they would signal to the other room to get ready for photographs and blood pressure readings the experimenter then lit and set off a firecracker

under the subject's chair needless to say this yielded a shocked expression from the participant although shocking it has so far been a harmless type of diversion not much more than a high school prank this one is more bizarre the subject was given a sheet of paper and a pencil and told to write a full description of the meanest or most contemptible or most embarrassing thing they ever did as soon as they were finished the experimenter would then read aloud this confession again embarrassment and anxiety was the aim of the game here strangely landis wanted to

see if he could make a universal joke to invoke a laugh but this section was promptly removed after the second participant shrugged off the apparent humorous quip this section much like the previous experiment showed pretty unpleasant pictures of various diseases but this time from the book atlas the helt crank curtain do yourself a favor and don't look it up i did and it put me off my dinner this again seemed a bit like a padding exercise like the truth or lie section 4 but involved distracting the participants whilst they undertook mental arithmetic frustration and annoyance

were the name of the game here but it also helped cement the authority of the experimenter as they would hold the subject until they got a correct answer naughty pictures much like before these were intended to elicit a shock response would the experimenter insisting that the subject look these over carefully the pictures were of an illicit nature don't forget that these people were from the 1920s and would have probably have had a greater shock value much like the previous situation and involving nudity again it consisted of posed photographs of feminine artists models again the experimenter

would insist on the subject thoroughly looking at the images some of the most salubrious excerpts from the book psychology of sex were presented to the participants and again were instructed to read thoroughly again this was another part taken from the previous experiment but landis up the ante once again he combined this with the electric shock stimuli the participant would be told to put their hand in the bucket and after touching the frogs and reacting the experimenter would then say feel longer you've missed something the hand would feel until it touched the electric coil the coil

would discharge a shock again photographs and blood pressure readings would ensue although seemingly cruel the next part is arguably why we're here talking about this experiment in the first place the table in front of the subject had been covered with a cloth for the 15th scenario the cloth was removed revealing a tray and a butcher's knife the experimenter then brought out a live rat the instructions were simple but unbelievable hold this rat with your left hand and then cut off its head with the knife 21 of the subjects were given this instruction some willingly perform

the execution with little prompting others offered some resistance but after continued orders from the experimenter would eventually capitulate 15 in total would comply with the authority figure and execute the beheading five who would completely refuse would then have to witness the experimenter perform the task themself one of the subjects beheadings as landis would later note in his paper for various reasons was not performed little did he know that landis had stumbled upon inventing a behavioral study of obedience some 40 years before the infamous milgram experiment clearly landis found electric shocks to be pretty handy in

psychological experimentation as he managed to wrangle it in again the subject's arm was connected to an armband and a stethoscope both of these were attached to an inductorium the subject was given a card which had two numbers printed on it and told to multiply these mentally while they received electrical distraction the electric shocks were increased and decreased in order to wear the subject down landis would later write this situation following the long grind of the other situations brought about a very real disturbance the electric shocks continued either in landis's own words some very real emotion

expression was given or it was apparent but the subject would not give away any marked expression which makes you wonder how long this would have gone on for only one person was actually able to correctly answer the multiplication question this one is also a little bit cruel the experimenter was stepped behind a curtain and make some loud noises as though preparing for another situation after enough stress was exerted on the subject the experimenter would step out and say well that finishes it just as soon as we get the final blood pressure and respiration records you

are through the final situation was to see the effects of sudden relief after a period of stress the experiment generated tremendous amounts of data hundreds of observations and around 711 photographs to sift through landis and his assistant started working their way through each photo discounting any that did not show any discernible reaction after sifting through all the data landis settled on a 17 point summary of the experiment and it was a real mixed bag he concluded that he did see a difference between the genders in their reaction to the same stimuli he claimed that men

were more animated than their female counterparts he categorized the main facial expressions to pain surprise anger exasperation crying disgust sexual excitement and revolting but did not see any uniform reaction across all the subjects and essentially the study failed to meet one of its key questions if there were certain facial expressions for each emotion but there was not we are after all individuals and the way we react to things unsurprisingly is individual but landis's results were not really the most important part of the experiment it was his unknowing discovery which has gone down in history the

setup of an experimenter and an experimentee inadvertently led the study down the path of showing the human condition of obedience of authority 15 out of the 21 beheaded the rat something that many people i'm sure even in 1924 thought to be a severe action not something many would be willing to do be it on moral grounds or just from being squeamish but someone with authority nudging them was all that was needed to end a poor rodent's life this is where the ethical concerns also come into play as it could be considered animal cruelty to kill

for no other reason than to kill even the deaths of the rats weren't swift in landis's notes he said the effort and attempt to hurry usually resulted in a rather awkward and prolonged job of decapitation another big criticism comes from the fact the participants were essentially exposed to some low-level psychological torture with the writing down secrets electric shocks animal murder and scaring them with unexpected loud noises unsurprisingly the most striking photos were from the shock and surprise situations using a male experimenter for the male participants and a female for the female participants also makes the

results problematic really there needed to be a control group and a much larger study group nearly all the participants were from a university background and did not represent a good section of society also and on top of all those concerns it was seemingly like landis wanted to break almost every ethical issue he even had one child participant which brings up the problem for just this one subject of informed consent needless to say carly landis and his experiment has aged a history like a fine one pint bottle of milk this period in history was a bit

of a wild west for psychiatry experiments with the baby albert experiment just four years earlier in 1920 and the gaia and donald experiment just after in the early 1930s the animal and human cruelty elements of this study definitely wouldn't get past the board nowadays an experiment didn't really further the study of emotions much a controversial experiment did not however affect landis's career where he would release multiple papers and books even interestingly speaking out about the issues with psychosurgery he would spend most of his career working at columbia university from 1932 to his retirement in 1959

but sadly he wouldn't enjoy his retirement for too long as he would die in 1962. i'm going to rate this subject between a 5 on my ethical scale and a 6 for reference 1 being no problems and 10 being pure evil where would you rate it let me know this is a plain difficult production all videos on the channel are creative commons attribution share like licensed play difficult videos are produced by me john in the currently sunny corner of southeast london uk help the channel grow by liking commenting and subscribing check out my twitter for

all sorts of odds and sods as well as photographs of other things as well as hints on future videos i've got patreon and youtube membership as well so check them out if you fancy supporting the channel financially and always left to say is thank you for watching [Music] [Applause] [Music] you