Measuring Happiness and Psychological Wellbeing using EMG and FACS

Abstract

While happiness and wellbeing are traditionally assessed using tools like the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and Ryff’s Psychological Wellbeing Scale, the present study examines the potential of facial EMG and facial action coding system (FACS) to measure these emotional traits in elderly participants. Ten individuals completed abbreviated versions of these questionnaires, followed by EMG measurements (zygomaticus, orbicularis oculi, corrugator) and video recording during emotional recall and expression tasks. The tasks involved rating happiness-related questions and recalling the feelings associated with those responses (Part 1) or recalling and actively expressing the feelings (Part 2). Main results revealed that participants with higher wellbeing (G1a) and happiness scores (G2a) demonstrated significantly stronger orbicularis muscle activity during the recall and expression of feelings associated with happiness-related questions compared to those with lower scores (G1b and G2b). Furthermore, the combined EMG activity associated with positive emotions (zygomaticus + orbicularis - corrugator) was significantly stronger in participants with higher wellbeing and happiness scores (G1a & G2a) compared to those with lower scores (G1b and G2b). Video analysis using FaceReader revealed that the action units associated with the measured EMG regions (AU12, AU6, AU4 respectively) did not show similar reactions to EMG but reflected different behavior such as increased AU12 values in G2a compared to G2b, but decreased AU6 values in G1a & G2a compared to G1b & G2b. These findings suggest that EMG and FACS measure different aspects of happiness and wellbeing. Orbicularis muscle activity may act as a biomarker for these traits, while FACS offers additional insights.