By smoothing our skin, botox injections and other aesthetic operations would cause our facial expressions to disappear. However, some experts insist, these expression lines are essential to recognize the emotions of others, but also to feel them.
They smooth out fine lines and wrinkles, plump up their lips… To stay young and desirable, more and more women – but also men – are resorting to minimally invasive aesthetic procedures.
Injections of botox, hyaluronic acid or chemical peels… Performed in dermatologists’ offices or by plastic surgeons, these procedures requiring no operation have become commonplace across the Atlantic. Since the year 2000, the practice of botox injections has jumped by more than 800%, while “mini-face lifters” allow people to have their eyes, forehead, chin or cheekbones redone at the card.
Facial mimicry, key to our relationship with others
If these procedures make it possible to remain physically young, they also have a defect: by erasing the wrinkles which form when we smile or when we frown, they erase our facial expressions. In any case, this is the opinion of Paula Niedenthal, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Asked by the New York Times, this specialist in facial mimicry explains that our wrinkles have an emotional and social importance: it is thanks to them that we interact with others, that we transmit our emotions to them… and therefore that we feel them. “People these days are constantly rearranging their facial appearance in ways that avoid facial mimicry, having no idea how much we use our faces to coordinate and manage social interactions,” Paula Niedenthal said.
Botox injections and surgery, by immobilizing our features and freezing our expressions, therefore contribute to disconnecting us from our feelings. It’s what researchers call “facial mimicry”: every time we interact with another person – friends, family, colleagues, children, spouse – we unconsciously and subtly adapt to the other’s facial expressions. .
“By mirroring the other person’s expressions, you’re not only signaling that you’re engaged and participating, but it’s also kind of a feedback loop that helps you empathize,” says the New Tork Times. However, “if you slightly interfere with your ability to do so, you change the social dynamic between you and the other person.”
This is the case, for example, when a person wears a hockey mouth guard, bites into something or chews gum, but also when botox injections paralyze our expressions. Analysis of fMRI scans have shown that people who have received injections have less activation in areas of the brain used to interpret and modulate emotional states. Studies have also shown a decrease in the intensity of the emotional experience following Botox injections.
A disconnection from our emotions
Researchers also found that people who injected Botox into the crucial expressive muscles around the eyes and forehead also had more difficulty and were slower to interpret and understand emotions. “I think we may be grossly underestimating the power of our facial expressions,” says David Havas, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater who studies facial mimicry. “We need to recognize how information-rich facial feedback is, and when we block it, we cut off an important channel on our own emotions and on social emotions.”
Hence the importance of keeping our wrinkles. And this, even if they make us look our age. Unlike animals, they are the ones who give us millions of facial expressions that connect us to others, make us feel their emotions and help us empathize. “Facial mimicry is a very old mechanism of connection and not something you want to see disrupted by Botox or other procedures,” concludes Frans de Waal, a primatologist and ethologist at Emory University. “Today, I think primates are sometimes more discerning than humans at reading facial expressions and body language because that’s all they have to do, while we’re still waiting for the words – and the words can be very misleading.”
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