Why the Long Face, LEGO Man?

How's this for sad face? Christoph Bartneck and other researchers at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, have published a paper examining the evolution of facial expressions in LEGOs from 1975 to 2010, bringing what appears to be unfortunate news for those who grew up loving the iconic yellow plastic people. The researchers’ statistical analyses show that since 1989 in particular there has been a marked decrease in the proportion of happy LEGO faces to sad LEGO faces.

LEGOs are manufactured in Denmark, a country consistently ranked by the United Nations as having one of the highest “happiness indices” in the world, whatever that means. What are the toy-making Danes so sad about that they should take it out on these ever-so-fun and popular choking hazards?

Perhaps the manufacturers are merely choosing to more accurately reflect trends they observe in their customer base. Recent pollings show declines in optimism within the American population across all age groups, and surveys of young Americans have shown levels of stress so heightened that it kept half of those surveyed from getting to sleep at night, which certainly isn’t encouraging.

Findings like those regarding the LEGO mood shift, however, may be more nuanced than a triumph of sadness over happiness. The researchers claim that accompanying the lesser representation of smiles has been a general diversifying of the LEGO emotional palette. A decline in default happiness has made way for expressions previously not seen in LEGOs, like disdain, confidence, concern, and fear, for example.

The researchers attribute this maturation to a general shift in toy-making, referring to what “has become a more complex design space in which the imaginary world of play does not only consist of a simple division of good versus evil, but a world in which heroes are scared and villains can have superior smiles.” By abandoning the stale moral tropes surrounding “good” and “evil,” LEGO manufacturers may simply be approaching a more realistic LEGO philosophical condition, where truth is more situational than absolute.

If so, then the people at LEGO actually are designing their products with the customer in mind, albeit in a way one might not initially expect. In support of this notion, when researchers’ had study participants gauge the pretend internal state of LEGO faces, participants’ “impression of anger, disgust, sadness and surprise were significantly influenced by the presence of context information.” What the LEGOs wore, their setting, and the tools in their crescent-shaped plastic hands were the ultimate determinants of how participants judged their characters, not merely what shone in their non-toxic painted eyes.

Whatever the reason for LEGO’s shift, the trend of which it is a part shows no sign of ceasing. People are becoming more okay with showing less “positive” representations of real life to children.

Some find this concerning, believing that the potential for detrimental effects on children is not sufficiently explored. While I sympathize with these people, I, personally, am not afraid of angry LEGOs.