Curiosity Daily Podcast: Are Facial Expressions Universal?
Learn about common ancestors shared by every human; evolution’s multiple directions; and universal facial expressions.
July 02, 2021
Episode Show Notes:
There's a point in the past when every person on Earth was an ancestor to every person alive today by Grant Currin
- Hershberger, S. (2020, October 5). Humans Are All More Closely Related Than We Commonly Think. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/humans-are-all-more-closely-related-than-we-commonly-think/
- Hopkin, M. (2004). Human populations are tightly interwoven. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/news040927-10
- Numberphile. (2019). EVERY baby is a ROYAL baby - Numberphile [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm0hOex4psA
- Rohde, D. L. T., Olson, S., & Chang, J. T. (2004). Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans. Nature, 431(7008), 562–566. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02842
Evolution Doesn’t Have Just One Direction by Ashley Hamer
- Is the human race evolving or devolving? (1998, July 20). Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-human-race-evolvin/
- Waimanu, the first penguin. (2010, January 30). March of the Fossil Penguins; March of the Fossil Penguins. https://fossilpenguins.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/waimanu-the-first-penguin/
- Morber, J. (2016, October 6). 5 Times Evolution Ran in “Reverse.” Science; National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/reverse-evolution-explained-hagfish-penguins-snakes-science?loggedin=true
- Elliott, K. H., Ricklefs, R. E., Gaston, A. J., Hatch, S. A., Speakman, J. R., & Davoren, G. K. (2013). High flight costs, but low dive costs, in auks support the biomechanical hypothesis for flightlessness in penguins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(23), 9380–9384. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1304838110
- How Birds Lost Their Teeth. (2014, December 12). Audubon. https://www.audubon.org/news/how-birds-lost-their-teeth
- The evolution of whales. (2021). Berkeley.edu. https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evograms_03
- How did whales lose their hind legs? - Popular Mechanics. (2006, May 23). Popular Mechanics. https://www.popularmechanics.co.za/science/null-610/
Are facial expressions universal? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Jared in Vancouver)
- Price, M. (2016, October 17). Facial expressions—including fear—may not be as universal as we thought. Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/facial-expressions-including-fear-may-not-be-universal-we-thought
- Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17(2), 124–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030377
- Crivelli, C., Russell, J. A., Jarillo, S., & Fernández-Dols, J.-M. (2016). The fear gasping face as a threat display in a Melanesian society. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(44), 12403–12407. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611622113
- Krys, K., Melanie Vauclair, C., et. al. (2015). Be Careful Where You Smile: Culture Shapes Judgments of Intelligence and Honesty of Smiling Individuals. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 40(2), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-015-0226-4
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Next Up
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Are Sleep-Deprived Men More Masculine?
Learn about why men who sleep more are seen as less masculine and what exactly makes radiation harmful. Then, test your podcast knowledge with this month’s Curiosity Challenge trivia game.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: World of Warcraft Could Help Fight COVID-19, Social Rejection Can Fuel Creativity, and What Mouse Facial Expressions Teach Us About Emotion
Learn about how studying World of Warcraft helped researchers learn how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic; how scientists described mouse facial expressions for the first time; and how social rejection can fuel creativity.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Are There Really Wasps in Figs? Plus: People Like Round Numbers Even When They’re Bad
Learn about why people prefer round numbers over precise ones, thanks to a principle behavioral economists call attribute framing; and whether there really are wasps inside figs.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Are Women Colder Than Men? Plus: The Worst Year to Be Alive, and Heart Cancer Rarity
Learn about the worst year to be alive, according to at least one medieval historian; why you never hear about heart cancer; and why women prefer hotter showers than men do.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Introducing If/Then
What gets you curious? Virtual experiences, celestial bodies, water worlds or maybe just the tiniest mysteries inside your brain? The endlessly curious and curiously funny, Gillian Jacobs (Community, Netflix's LOVE) and Diona Reasonover (NCIS), step off set to go on tangents with real-life astronauts, astrophysicists, science artists, mathematician-types and other really smart people that investigate what seems impossible.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: The Curiosity Podcast Wraps Up with Yoga, Volcanoes, and Meditation
Learn from some of our favorite expert guests about yoga, volcanoes, meditation, and more on this special episode of the Curiosity Podcast. You'll hear from accomplished authors and academics from past episodes, in addition to a special guest you've never heard before on the show. Plus, hear about the past, present, and future of the Curiosity Podcast.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Does ESP Exist?
Learn about ESP; why people panicked about electricity in the 1800s; and how embryos use sound to prepare for the world.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Do Opposites Really Attract?
Learn about why opposites don’t really attract; the “propinquity effect” and how physical distance affects the way we feel about other people; and the history of when and why we started using last names.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: How to Talk to Strangers, Red Dead Redemption 2 Naturalists, July Curiosity Challenge
Learn how to get better at talking to strangers; and how Red Dead Redemption 2 turns gamers into naturalists. Trivia too!
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Octopuses Have Sleep Cycles, Too
Learn about imaginary beams of motion coming from people’s eyes; where lost luggage ends up; and octopus sleep cycles.