Evolution of emotion Evolution of emotion The study of the evolution of emotions dates back to the 19th century. Evolution and natural selection has been applied to the study of human communication, mainly by Charles Darwin in his 1872 work, "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals". Darwin researched the expression of emotions in an effort to support his theory of evolution. He proposed that much like other traits found in animals, emotions also evolved and were adapted over time. His work looked at not only facial expressions in animals and specifically humans, but attempted to point out parallels between behaviors
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals with livestock breeders and pigeon fanciers; on observations on his infant son William Erasmus Darwin ("A Biographical Sketch of an Infant" - published as a paper in the philosophical journal "Mind"), on his family's dogs and cats, and on the orangutans at London Zoo; on simple psychology experiments with members of his family concerning the recognition of emotional expression; on the neurological insights of Duchenne de Boulogne, a physician at the Salpêtrière asylum in Paris; on hundreds of photographs of actors, babies and children; and on descriptions of psychiatric patients in the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum at Wakefield in