| Summary: | In this paper, we intend to advocate the thesis that social judgments begin with the emotional perception and the emotional information processing of facial expression recognition. For this purpose, we will review models which discuss (i) the mechanisms by which the facial expressions are encoded to convey information and be perceived by others, (ii) the perceptive mechanisms of decoding and categorization of facial expressions, (iii) the mechanisms by which the recognition of facial expressions generate emotional responses and behavioral adjustments, and, finally, (iv) the efficiency of our perceptual systems in the decoding of these processes. Throughout this discussion, our intention is (i) to explain in what sense our emotional perception of facial expressions is one of the major evolutionary mechanisms of life regulation and that (ii) emotional information processing is a powerful tool to ensure survival and sustain reasonable social interactions.
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