If you’re a football fan, you likely heard about Tom Brady’s facial expression that went viral a few weeks ago. The expression (which can be seen in the image above), was shown by Brady after head coach Bruce Arians mentioned something to him at the Bucs vs Panthers game on January 9th.
As mentioned in a past blog post, gestures are an important part of nonverbal communication. They illustrate speech, amplify meaning, and deliver verbal messages. Gestures are categorized as two types, those co-occurring with speech (speech illustrators) and those independent of speech (emblems).
Dr. Matsumoto explains that Brady’s expression is likely somewhat between an emblem and an illustrator. Although it is a spontaneous reaction, it is not a spontaneous emotion. He’s likely referencing the experience of “wow” or “amazing” and keeps the expression on his face to convey this message.
It’s important to remember that expressing emotion is just one thing that faces do. We also know that facial behavior has many other functions such as:
- Signaling cognition and cognitive processes
- Signaling specific verbal words or phrases (what Brady was doing)
- Articulating speech
- Signaling physical exertion or physical effort
- Other idiosyncratic things
All in all the research to date continues to demonstrate the power of faces all around the world.
So what did Arians say to Brady to elicit that reaction? View the video below to find out:
Always a good time chopping it up with my brotha @TomBrady 🙌🏾 Check out the full interview on NFL GameDay Morning tomorrow at 9AM ET. @nflnetwork @NFLGameDay pic.twitter.com/V8EoAkjIWC
— Willie McGinest (@WillieMcGinest) January 15, 2022