FACS · School

The face as measurable behaviour. The Facial Action Coding System taught as a descriptive instrument — what a movement is, not what a person is thinking.

Fields of study

  • Action unitsthe anatomical vocabulary of facial movement
  • Coding disciplinereliability, inter-coder agreement, error
  • Emotion and expressionthe evidence, and the overreach in popular accounts
  • Micro-expression and timingonset, apex, offset, asymmetry
  • Observation ethicsconsent, context, and refusing to infer character

Reading for this school

  • Research Library — FACS and reference worksOpen
  • FACS & Behavioural ObservationOpen
  • Digital LabsOpen

Courses

Courses are delivered through the university’s learning platform. Where a course for this school is not yet published, the reading above is the entry point and the course catalogue lists what is currently running.

Course catalogue University Library

The Facial Action Coding System and the principal works describing it are the property of their rights holders. The university teaches the method and points to the official sources; it does not redistribute their manuals.