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VALUE MEASUREMENT VS. FACIAL CODING
Facial coding is a neuromarketing technique purported to measure emotional reactions by tracking consumers’ changing facial expressions as they engage with content or an experience.***
WHAT IS FACIAL CODING?
Facial Coding claims to make an educated guess about which emotions are being shown by a person.
Facial Coding is founded on academic research conducted by facial expression expert, Paul Ekman, who purports that all humans share 7 universal emotional expressions: Happiness, Sadness, Surprise, Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Contempt. Ekman adapted a system for coding the presence of these facial expressions, called the facial action coding system (FACS), and he offers a certification program where individuals can be trained to code these expressions by watching for the activation of specific facial muscles. Despite the rich history of facial coding, much of this theory has been disproven, and emotions do not seem to be as universal as claimed.
As a neuromarketing methodology, facial coding involves using consumers’ own webcams to record their facial reactions. These recordings are then processed using automated algorithms designed to detect movement in facial muscles linked to Ekman’s 7 universal emotional expressions.
Facial coding results are typically output in aggregate, with metrics conveying the proportion of consumers who showed each of the emotions at some point during the experience. Output also typically includes a line graph depicting the proportion of consumers who expressed each emotion at varying points of the experience.
***NOTE: Facial Coding has been debunked by numerous studies conducted by Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett and others. As she noted, "if you’re trying to build software or technology to identify scowls or frowns and pouts and so on and assume that means anger, good luck." Learn more about the challenges to Facial Coding.
THE BENEFIT
Facial Coding is a relatively affordable option in terms of neuromarketing solutions.
Facial Coding is relatively non-invasive since the cameras are simply looking at participants' faces, instead of requiring an uncomfortable cap of electrodes or awkward finger sensors.
Some software for Facial Coding does not require participants to be in a lab environment.
THE DRAWBACK
In recent research, several experts have contested the accuracy of Facial Coding. This research indicates that facial expressions are likely a poor indicator of true emotional experiences and a weak predictor of future behavior.
Facial Coding requires very specific environments to properly work with webcams. Consumers must watch in front of their computer, in a place with good lighting, and sit very still so as not to disturb the initial calibration.
Facial coding does not work well on non-white participants and is not culturally universal, thus it is not a good option for accurate market testing.
Facial Coding can be faked. Research has found that responses can be to some extent controlled by humans and therefore the results might be intentionally or unintentionally falsified.
Due to the challenges of using individual webcams, a good portion of Facial Coding data, especially when used by software, is considered "bad data" and must be thrown out. This requires companies to over-recruit to make up for the loss, and means you pay for data you can't use.
DINNER PARTY FACT FOR BRAIN NERDS:
The human face has 43 different facial muscles that work together to create over 10,000 facial expressions. Facial Coding attempts to identify and understand 7 of these as "universal expressions".
(Makes you wonder what the other 9,993 expressions mean...)
HOW VALUE MEASUREMENT IS DIFFERENT
Value Measurement is not based on what expressions are made externally while a person is having an experience, but rather what is actually going inside the brain, second-by-second. These results let you predict your audience’s future behavior with over 80% accuracy so you can confidently make impactful decisions.
Value Measurement data is clear, direct, and provides actionable insights. Because you can measure the value delivered by any experience in real-time, in the real world, it ensures the integrity of your results.
Facial Coding is simple, free, and bullish*t. There are over 1,000 open source libraries to add facial coding to your project and it has become very popular for research technology companies. But the core science is bad, and the results are meaningless. Sorry, not sorry.
IS IT A VALUE MEASUREMENT?
FEELS LIKE IT'S PURE MAGIC BECAUSE IT'S GOOD SCIENCE
Your brain tells a story. Your smart watch is ready to listen. After more than 20 years of published, peer-reviewed research, we’re connecting the two. Now, using everyday wearable devices to capture activity within the body, we can measure the brain's value throughout the day.
Don't take our word for it. Download the full scientific and academic background.