affect display

noun

External show of emotion or affect, such as by voice, expression, gesture, or posture, whether voluntary or not.

Meanings

nounaffect display (plural affect displays)

plural affect displays

  1. human sciencesExternal show of emotion or affect, such as by voice, expression, gesture, or posture, whether voluntary or not.

    The face is a particularly rich source for affect display, although other parts of the body may also be involved.

    2004, Stephen W. Littlejohn, Karen A. Foss, Theories of Human Communication, page 107
    3 more examples

    We are not satisfied with this account (it is particularly weak in explaining the facial affect display of happiness) but Darwin also had trouble with […].

    1970, Paul Ekman et al., “The Repertoire of Non-verbal Behavior”, in Mouton Classics: From Syntax to Cognition, from Phonology to Text, page 843

    […] Darwin (as is implicit in the title of his book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals) saw facial affect display as the external expression of an internal emotional state, […].

    1987, Donald L. Nathanson, The Many Faces of Shame, page 16

    The marked affect-display, remains, nevertheless, sufficiently similar to the parent's normative emotion expression for the infant to recognize the [….]

    2002, Peter Fonagy, Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of the Self, page 178
Cite this entry
APA

affect display. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/affect%20display

MLA

“affect display.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/affect%20display. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “affect display,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/affect%20display.

Source: affect display on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.