The Hidden Language Of Eyebrows
The subtle, barely noticeable expressions of the brow are more telling than you may think.
You may think of eyebrows as just hair, but to reduce them to such is an oversight. We are all completely obsessed with eyebrows, whether that be our own, our friend’s, or our favourite celebrities, and we’re constantly finding new ways to change how they look. While yes, the brow serves an important purpose keeping sweat, water, and other debris from falling into the eyes, and our faces would look a tad weird without the strip of hair on our foreheads, there is a deeper effect eyebrows have on us than just the anxiety caused when trying to get them symmetrical.
When it comes to expressing emotions, eyebrows tell it all. What would The Rock’s smoulder be without the subtle rise and curve of his arches? Eyes have forever been referred to by romantics as the window to the soul, and following this theory, eyebrows frame what the soul is feeling. They set the tone for the face, conveying our mood to all those who can see them. When we’re angry, the brows furrow down, narrowing our eyes and warning anyone near to step back. When we’re shocked, they raise up, sometimes extortionately high, to open up the eyes and let us take in more of our surprising surroundings. The strip of hair can do and say so much with such little movement — so how do they do it?
Where eyebrows truly shine is in their subtle, barely noticeable contractions that involuntarily reveal your immediate evaluations and unspoken preferences. For example, the corrugator supercilii (“super silly eye”), the muscle sitting just below your eyebrows, produces a quick, involuntary frown at the bridge of the nose in response to things you don’t like. Now you know why sometimes you catch yourself subconsciously scowling at the mention of an ex’s name — it’s your body’s natural reaction to a less than displeasing memory.
Eyebrows don’t just help you convey your emotion, but they may also help you to understand the emotions of others. Now it’s been pointed out, you’ll likely become painfully self aware of your eyebrows spontaneously mimicking those of the people you interact with — sorry in advance. Speaking to The Independent, Javid Sadr, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, explains that this is a type of interpersonal, empathetic response humans have in conversation. It’s an indication to whoever you speak to that you are really listening and paying attention to them.
And you don’t have to be talking with someone who even speaks the same language as you for your brows to pick up on what they are saying. The beauty of facial expressions is that they’re a universal language. The way our facial muscles react to emotions are not learnt or shaped by what is around us, but science has long suggested they’re hardwired into our DNA.
American psychologist Paul Ekman, co-discoverer of micro-expressions, found through extensive research that even members of the most remote and isolated tribes portrayed basic emotions using the same facial movements as those in the western world. The theory, first recorded by Ekman in the ’70s, was confirmed in 2020 with research proving the existence of universal facial expressions and suggesting every human may share a total of 16 complex expressions. Travel across the globe, and each person in each country and culture utilise the same facial expressions to express amusement, anger, awe, concentration, confusion, contempt, contentment, desire, disappointment, doubt, elation, interest, pain, sadness, surprise, and triumph.
What’s more, even those who were born blind express emotions through facial movements in the exact way as those who are not impaired although they can neither see nor imitate others.
When the ability to move your eyebrows is blocked, perhaps through botox knocking out your muscles, not only will others struggle to read your emotions, but you yourself may lose the ability to properly recognise how you are feeling. Though it is just a theory, the Facial Feedback Hypothesis is an idea so interesting that it warrants a mention. Many theorists, going back as far as the problematic naturalist Charles Darwin, believe there is a feedback system going from certain muscles to your brain, meaning your muscle movements, aka your facial expressions, directly influence how you feel. Very simply put, you smile, your muscles tell your brain you’re smiling, and your brain assumes you must be happy.
While our eyebrows need to move to convey feelings, a still brow can still say a lot about a person. Picture any Disney villain and hold that picture in your mind. What shape are the brows? High? Mega-arched? Super snatched? There seems to be a trademark ‘evil arch’ that every baddie in a movie is born with. Cruella de Vil, the Evil Queen from Snow White, Maleficent; the thin, arched, and impossibly raised eyebrows establish that they are villains. It doesn’t matter if the villain is smiling, laughing, crying, or frowning, their eyebrows remain at a permanent high arch on their forehead, giving a constant expression of menace or disdain.
Just as in animated films, real-world brows can be primed and pruned to convey a desired emotion. The thin, downturned eyebrows of the 1920’s gave silent movie actresses a melancholic look, drooping the outer corner of the eye to give a dramatic, pensive expression that would stand out on black and white cinema screens. In the ‘70s, hippies grew out their brows, keeping them bold and bushy to rebel against the traditional groomed look of the day. In the ’90s it was all about the pencil-thin look with celebrities like Gwen Steffani and Drew Barrymore rocking a barely there brow to gain more lid space for the ultimate smokey eye. Now all those who duly plucked their brows to almost nothing in the noughties are fretting to grow them back to the full, bushy brow of the 2020’s — we’ve gone from a fine line to a forest.
No matter whether they’re thin or full, brushed or bushy, eyebrows are masters of nonverbal communication. As you speak, just as your hands do, they are busy gesturing, contributing to the full meaning of your spoken words. Now your attention has been drawn to the subconscious movement, it may be impossible not to stare at the eyebrows of each person you meet to see how they wiggle about the forehead.
