Since watching Lie to me, learning more about Dr Paul Ekman and following Ellen’s studies in psychology, I’ve been fascinated with human emotion and facial expressions. Our faces can produce over 50,000 different expressions and in this post I’m going to talk about how we can identify the truth behind a face through exposing and understanding micro expressions.

Micro expressions are split second facial expressions that we sub consciously make when trying to suppress an emotion. There are seven micro expressions; Anger, Contempt, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness and Surprise. They are universally consistent and unlike body language, cannot be falsified. They generally occur under some form of pressure and are considered to be reliable sources of information regarding how we actually feel.

Micro expressions are not usually registered by the conscious mind of the person making the expression, or the person observing the expression. Despite this, our brain activity is still influenced and our perception is altered. A natural expression of happiness for example is usually identified as one being happy. However, should this expression bare a micro expression, even if the observer is not consciously aware of it, they’ll detect that something isn’t right. This is where our trusty subconscious kicks in and processes ‘feelings’ about someone or something.

Lying

We’ve all told lies, white lies, good lies and bad lies, but if you want to tell a successful lie, you’re going to have to actually believe the lie. This level of lying is actually quite scary and can cause all sorts of problems. To tell a good lie you’re going to need to be able to tell it from all different angles, recite the lie backwards and reiterate it under pressure without changing the facts. Some people can successfully tell a lie by choosing to not believe or even acknowledge the truth. Some people rehearse the lie over and over until after hours, days and weeks of constant repetition they have eventually convinced themselves of the lie. Some people even showcase a second personality and act as though it’s not them who is telling the lie.

What to look for

Micro expressions help us decipher the difference between the expression that is being consciously produced and the expression that is subconsciously present. Being able to see these micro expressions is fundamental in being able to see the face behind the face. Where there’s doubt in one’s mind, there’s definite micro expression leakage. The following images are from Lie to me and show Tim Roth as Dr Cal Lightman demonstrating the seven micro expressions:

The obvious giveaway here is the smile, but not just any smile. It’s easy to fake a smile, but where there is genuine happiness there’ll be uncontrolled muscle movement around the eyes. This will expose wrinkles known as “crow’s feet”. You’ll also see the corners of the lips turn up slightly and upward movement in the cheeks.

Children can be brilliant at playing the sadness game when they didn’t get the latest action hero or Barbie doll, but as we get older we may mask our sadness. We often insist that we are fine but subconsciously or even consciously leak information as indirect cries for help. Some people pretend to be happy as to avoid an agony aunt session, and some people just like to keep it in. If you suspect that behind one’s courageous front lies something that hurts, look for muscle activity around the central regions of their face and loss of focus in the eyes. The eyelids will narrow closer than usual, eyebrows will draw together, the chin will be pulled up in a scrunched fashion, and most notably, the corners of the lips will pull downwards.

Whether you already know what lies beneath the wrapping paper, or you’ve discovered that tomorrow’s meal for two isn’t just any meal for two, make sure that you at least know how to act with genuine surprise. Surprise is easy to fake, and faked surprise is easy to spot so look for a dropped jaw, relaxed lip and mouth activity, widened eyes and slightly raised eyelids and brows. When someone fakes surprise they almost always leave their eyebrows raised too long, more than a second and they are lying! Genuine surprise is often a good sign that someone is telling the truth when accused of something they didn’t do. However, it could be that they are surprised because your accusation is actually correct.

Hopefully an expression we don’t see or feel everyday, but just in case look for an open mouth, wide-open eyes and raised eyebrows slightly drawn together. The upper eyelids will be raised and the lower eyelids will be tensed. Sometimes the nostrils may flare.

Fear and surprise are sometimes confused as they can be somewhat similar. Fear is more intense than surprise so look for tense muscle movement around the eyes. Surprise will only last for a second, so any longer then it’s either fake surprise or fear.

Generally anger is there for all to see but sometimes people hold it in before exploding. To avoid being on the end of that look for the eyebrows lower towards a slightly wrinkled nose, a wrinkled forehead, tense eyelids and lips and an intense glare in the eyes.

The king of expressions and the easiest to spot. It’s the only expression that is biased to one side of the face. Contempt is most noted for the raising of one side of the lips coupled with very slight muscle movement around the nose. It can come across as a twitch or smirk.

Disgust can tell a million stories so look for nose scrunching, downcast eyebrows and narrowed eyes. The biggest giveaway is the rise of the upper lip and in some cases, the exposure of the teeth. Next time you invite a few friends over for a meal, have a few random glances and checkout what they really think of your cooking!

Disgust can sometimes be confused with contempt, so look for nose scrunching. Without nose scrunching, the micro expression is probably contempt.

Put yourself to the test

Here’s a test based on “The Micro Expression Training Tool” developed by Paul Ekman

http://www.cio.com/article/facial-expressions-test

Summary

It’s often said that no matter how hard we try to mask our feelings, micro expressions eventually betray our emotions. So this leaves me with one question:

What does your face say?