Emotion Faces Chart: Recognize Named Expressions and the Facial Cues Behind Them
An emotion faces chart pairs feeling words with common facial cues. Use the free printable to practice naming possibilities and asking how someone feels.
Reviewed byMichael Callans, MSWCommon expressions and their cues
How to use the chart
- Look at the face on the chart, or notice a face in front of you.
- Find the expression that matches best.
- Read the cues to confirm: what are the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth doing?
- Name it: 'That looks like ___' or 'I feel ___.'
- Ask the next question: what might have caused that feeling, and what might help?
Good for
- Building emotional literacy in young children.
- Social-skills practice and autism support.
- Calm-down corners and classroom check-ins.
- Practicing how to read other people's feelings.
- Mirror practice: making and naming each expression.
A note on reading faces
Faces are clues, not certainties. The same expression can mean different things depending on the situation, and people vary in how openly they show feelings. Use the chart to start a conversation rather than to decide for sure what someone feels. The best way to know is still to ask. It works as a feelings chart for adults with faces too, not only for classroom check-ins. Once a child can match a face, the feelings chart adds a short description for each feeling so they can check the word fits.
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About this tool
An emotion faces chart is a reference that connects emotion names with common movements of the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth. It gives children and adults language for discussing feelings when a facial expression is hard to describe. Faces carry an enormous amount of emotional information, and reading them is a skill we build over a lifetime. An emotion faces chart names the common expressions and spells out the cues that go with each one: a furrowed brow for anger, wide eyes and raised brows for fear, a downturned mouth for sadness. Putting names to faces helps both with reading other people and with recognizing your own state.
Decades of research suggest a small set of emotions show up on the face in fairly recognizable ways across many cultures, including happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. There is real scientific debate about how universal facial expressions truly are, since context and culture shape both how we show and how we read emotion. So this chart is best treated as a helpful guide to common cues, not a lie-detector or a rulebook for what someone 'must' be feeling. Ekman and Friesen's 1971 paper, Constants across cultures in the face and emotion, is an early source for studying shared recognition of expressions. Barrett and colleagues' 2019 review, Emotional Expressions Reconsidered, found substantial variation across situations, cultures, and individuals. Those findings support using these labels as possibilities to discuss; they do not establish that this particular chart improves emotion recognition.
Charts like this are especially useful for children, for social-skills and autism support, and for anyone building emotional literacy. Naming the expression is the first step. From there you can talk about what might cause that feeling, what it might need, and how to respond to it in yourself or someone else.
This chart works well alongside other emotion tools. Pairing it with an Identifying Emotions Worksheet gives children and adults practice both seeing a feeling on a face and putting it into their own words, which builds a fuller emotional vocabulary over time.
If a child or adult has ongoing difficulty reading facial expressions, especially alongside other social communication differences, this chart is a starting point, not a full picture. A pediatrician, school psychologist, or licensed mental health professional can offer a fuller assessment and targeted support, and our therapist directory can help you find one.
For a classroom check-in, invite the child to choose a word, point to a cue, draw, or describe a situation. Allow them to pass or answer privately. Avoid assigning an emotion based on whether they smile, make eye contact, or imitate an expression. A child who disagrees with your guess is giving you useful information about their experience. Mirror practice should be optional, with room for different ways of expressing the same feeling. To practice without putting anyone on the spot, use a fictional character from a story. Ask what you notice about the character's face, what has happened in the story, and what else the expression could mean. Keep observation and interpretation separate: 'Their mouth is open' describes a cue; 'They are frightened' is a guess to explore.
A useful result is a more specific conversation: "Your eyebrows look tense. Are you worried, concentrating, or feeling something else?" Ask what support would help, and leave room for uncertainty. The chart has no diagnostic score, and difficulty matching its descriptions cannot establish autism or any other condition. If you choose the Autism Test, treat it as a separate self-assessment to discuss with a qualified professional, never as confirmation from a facial expression. The free tools library includes other formats for exploring feelings.
For an adult using the printable after a difficult interaction, try recording the visible cue, your first interpretation, and what you still need to ask. For example, a coworker's pressed lips might leave you wondering whether they are upset with you. You can acknowledge the uncertainty and ask about the conversation directly, without asking them to display a different expression. If the exercise makes you monitor every facial movement, set the sheet aside and return to the person's words and the practical issue you need to discuss.
References
- Ekman P, Friesen WV. Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1971;17(2):124-129.
- Barrett LF, et al. Emotional expressions reconsidered: challenges to inferring emotion from human facial movements. Psychol Sci Public Interest. 2019;20(1):1-68.
- Ekman P, Friesen WV. Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Original article record. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5542557/
- Barrett LF, Adolphs R, Marsella S, Martinez AM, Pollak SD. Emotional expressions reconsidered: Challenges to inferring emotion from human facial movements. Full text. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6640856/
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, October 18). Emotion Faces Chart. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tools/emotion-faces-chart
Emotion Faces Chart FAQ
What is an emotion faces chart?
A reference that names common facial expressions and describes the cues that go with each, like a furrowed brow for anger or wide eyes for surprise, to make feelings easier to read and name. You can use it as a prompt for describing what you notice, then ask the person whether the feeling word fits.
Are facial expressions the same in every culture?
A small set of emotions show up on the face in fairly recognizable ways across many cultures, but context and culture also shape how we show and read emotion. Treat the chart as a helpful guide, not a strict rule. A familiar expression is a starting point for a question. The person's own explanation and the surrounding situation matter when interpreting it.
Who is this chart for?
It is especially useful for young children, for social-skills and autism support, and for anyone building emotional literacy. Adults use it as a quick reference too. Keep practice voluntary and let the person use their own words, draw, point, or pass. Matching expressions should not become a test of whether they are showing feelings correctly.
Can I tell exactly what someone feels from their face?
Not for certain. The same expression can mean different things depending on the situation, and people vary in how openly they show feelings. The chart helps you start a conversation; the best way to know is to ask. Leave room for the person to correct your guess or say they are unsure.
How is this different from a feelings chart?
A feelings chart lists emotions with word descriptions. An emotion faces chart focuses on what each feeling looks like on a face, which helps with reading expressions in yourself and others. Both can support a conversation. Choose the format the person finds easiest, and ask whether the suggested word matches their experience.
Is the emotion faces chart free to print?
Yes. The chart and its cue list are free to view on this page, and you can print it or save it as a PDF for a classroom, calm-down corner, or home use at no cost. Invite the person using it to add their own descriptions, and keep personal check-ins private when sharing the chart with a group.
Is a facial expression chart the same as an emotion faces chart?
Yes. A facial expression chart and an emotion faces chart are two names for the same kind of reference: feeling words paired with the movements of the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth that commonly go with each. This one is free to view and print, and it treats every match as a possibility to ask about rather than proof of what someone feels, since the same expression can mean different things depending on the situation and the person.
Which different emotions faces with names are on the chart?
The chart shows twelve different emotions faces with names: happy, sad, angry, afraid, surprised, disgusted, worried, calm, confused, tired, embarrassed, and excited. Each comes with the cues to look for, such as eyebrows pulled down and pressed lips for angry, or raised eyebrows and an open mouth for surprised. If none of the names fits, write the person's own description beside the chart and leave the category open.