Fear or surprise?

Both can open the eyes. Look at the tension.

Fear expression with added brow and mouth tension — Fear

Surprise expression with curved brows and an open jaw — Surprise

Three places to compare

Feature	Fear pattern	Surprise pattern
Brows	Raised, with more drawing together	Raised into a rounder curve
Eyes	Open, with tighter lower lids	Open, with relatively less tension
Mouth	More sideways stretching	A looser jaw opening

Begin with the mouth, then check the brows. If you choose only from the size of the eye opening, the two patterns can be difficult to separate. Comparing a combination of changes gives you a more useful learning strategy.

Try the distinction

Study the brows and mouth. Which pattern do you see?

Start practicing Test all seven patterns

Explore the full fear and surprise lessons. Further reading: Paul Ekman Group on fear and surprise.