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  • NEWS FEATURE

Why faces don’t always tell the truth about feelings

Although AI companies market software for recognizing emotions in faces, psychologists debate whether expressions can be read so easily.
  1. Douglas Heaven

    1. Douglas Heaven is a science journalist in London. He wrote this feature before becoming a senior editor at MIT Technology Review.

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Illustration of digital emotional analysis on the face of the Mona Lisa painting

Credit: Adapted from GL Archive/Alamy

Human faces pop up on a screen, hundreds of them, one after another. Some have their eyes stretched wide, others show lips clenched. Some have eyes squeezed shut, cheeks lifted and mouths agape. For each one, you must answer this simple question: is this the face of someone having an orgasm or experiencing sudden pain?

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Nature 578, 502-504 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00507-5

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