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The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
Charles Darwin's 1872 treatise on the expressions of emotion in people and animals, which opens with general principles of expression and then works through animals and a series of human expressions.
- Author and origin
- Charles Darwin (United Kingdom)Original language: English. First edition, London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1872. Passages here follow the Darwin Online transcription of that edition.
- Genre and form
- Academic (Foundational treatise)Foundational scholarly monographs, experimental treatises, and theoretical volumes written for researchers and students.
- Pairing and evidence
- Primary scholarshipA foundational academic book or treatise. Each profile states what was inspected and whether a research paper is paired.
- Sources inspected
- 1 text/abstract inspected, 0 metadata checked (of 1)1 with the primary text or archive/edition record checked, 0 with an indexed abstract read, 0 with bibliographic metadata checked, 0 not verified.
The work and edition history
Darwin’s 1872 first edition was published in London by John Murray. This profile covers the title page, contents, Introduction, and opening of Chapter I. Later chapters are represented only by their titles.
Psychological reading
The book moves from principles and animal expression to human expressions such as grief, anger, fear, and blushing. In the Introduction Darwin describes printed questions circulated to observers in 1867. Ask what such reports could reveal about similarities across cultures and what might be lost when different observers interpret an expression.
Why it earns inclusion
The book is an early attempt to treat emotional expression as something to be observed and explained, not only described. It is a natural starting point for chapters on emotion and for the later debate about how much expression is shared across cultures.
Academic pairing and claim scope
No journal article is paired. Darwin's printed queries are part of the book, not a separate study, and the responses to them were not read.
Limits and controversies
Only the title page, contents, Introduction and the opening of Chapter I (to about page 46) were read. The later chapters, the illustrations and the responses to the queries were not read. The book is a nineteenth-century naturalist's account, and whether facial expressions are universal is a research question for later work that this record does not review.
Evidence behind the claims
The first-edition title page identifies London, John Murray, and 1872.
The contents list an Introduction and fourteen chapters: general principles of expression (I to III), means of expression and special expressions of animals (IV and V), special expressions of man (VI to XIII), and concluding remarks and summary (XIV).
In the Introduction Darwin describes circulating printed questions in 1867 and discusses Bell’s effort to distinguish human from animal expression.
Chapter I proposes that intense nervous excitation can generate expressive movements.
Authors and researchers
- Charles Darwin. Naturalist; author of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.
In the Psy101 course
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 10.4: EmotionChapter 10, Motivation and Emotion. Concept. Suggested conceptual background; a mention of this work in the section has not been verified.Connects to chapter coverage of emotion, including expression.
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 3.1: Human GeneticsChapter 3, Biopsychology. Historical context. Suggested conceptual background; a mention of this work in the section has not been verified.Darwin's evolutionary framing connects to the chapter's section on genetics and natural selection; the match to that section's text was not checked.
Educational reading guide only, not clinical diagnosis or treatment guidance. This course map indicates introductory curriculum relevance rather than clinical proof.See the full course map.
Sources and inspection
Of 1 cited sources, 1 had primary text or archive/edition records checked, 0 had an indexed abstract read, and 0 had bibliographic metadata checked (0 unverified). Literary works and memoirs are distinguished from empirical research studies.
- [1]Darwin, C. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals (Darwin online transcription of the 1872 first edition). Darwin Online (John van Wyhe, Ed.). https://darwin-online.org.uk/content/contentblock?basepage=1&itemID=F1142&hitpage=1&viewtype=textPrimary literary or historical text. Work, edition, or catalog record.Primary text or passage readFirst part of the transcription read on 2026-10-23 (title page, contents, Introduction and opening of Chapter I, about the first sixth of the text). The remaining chapters were not read.