Negativeemotions compel action, such as fight or flight, along with expression throughvocalization, posture, variations in facial musculature patterns, andalterations of activity. This represents communication and often elicits socialsupport, thus contributing to survival. Darwin,8 observinganimals, noted that emotions enable communication through vocalization,startle, posture, facial expression, and specific behaviors. He held thatemotions must be inborn rather than learned tendencies. Darwin pursued this issue by comparing thefacial and other emotional expressions of children born blind with those ofother children, reasoning that blind children would express emotion differentlyif emotion is primarily a learned behavior. As others have since confirmed,9 Darwin learned that thebasic blueprints for human emotional expression are innate.
Contemporaryinvestigators who study emotions and human or animal social behavior emphasizethat communication is a fundamental adaptive function of emotional expression.10,11 Socialmammals, including humans, depend upon one another or their social group asresources for adaptation and survival. The emotional expression of pain in thepresence of supportive persons is socially powerful; it draws upon afundamental sociobiological imperative: communicating threat and summoningassistance.