Reading Facial Expressions

Are you able to gauge sincerity during a discussion? How do you know if someone is really smiling, or only flashing a fake smile? There have been many studies and publications on reading body language over the years and the findings continue to grow.

Many of the non-verbal cues we receive from others come from facial expressions, especially from the eyes. Things like our rate of blinking, eye contact, dilated pupils and facial muscle contractions combined with other cues often tell much more than we intend them to.

How much and how rapidly we blink our eyes can show our level of stress. Eye contact can show many things; our level of confidence and interest in what is being said, for example. Dilated pupils can show excitement and different combinations of facial muscles show a variety of emotions. You can visit Wikipedia for more information on this.

The facial expressions for happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust and contempt are recognized throughout the world. Scientists have taken photographs portraying different emotions to countries around the world, and had them clearly recognized. Try taking the "Facial Expressions Test" to see how good you are at interpreting these common expressions.

One of the foremost experts in the field of facial expression is Dr. Paul Ekman, Ph.D. He, along with Dr. Wallace Friesen, developed a facial action coding system called 'FACS.' It measures facial expressions by breaking them down into singular movements of individual facial muscles. For more information on FACS, visit Data Face.

Wikipedia also mentions that whereas facial expressions can be made voluntarily, mostly they are involuntary. They might appear momentarily when we don't want them to. Also, if we voluntarily assume an expression, we might actually end up feeling the emotion.

I always took people at face value and assumed that a smile meant friendliness and affability, but something my husband said completely changed my outlook. A certain in-law we often visit had smiled, given us gifts and acted like she wanted to be one of our dearest friends. When I commented on how nicely she treated us, my husband surprised me by saying, "Her eyes never smile." The next time we saw her, I watched her eyes and sure enough, they were cold and flat. It was very disconcerting. I don't know why her eyes do that, or what it means, but evidently she can smile at will.

On the BBC website there is an experiment you can try, entitled "Spot the Fake Smile." Click on the link and give it a try. At the end of the test, they explain your results and how you can tell if a smile is fake by the facial muscles that are used. The involuntary muscular contraction caused by a real smile uses slightly different muscle combinations than the voluntary contraction of one that is forced.

There are some people, such as Alan Fridlund, Ph.D., who insist that we cannot read someone's emotions, what they are actually feeling inside, through their facial features.

Most experts agree, however, that it is a combination of verbal and non-verbal clues that will give us this insight. Taking into account how someone is speaking and acting, and the look on his face, we can make an educated guess at what he is feeling.