Microexpressions are brief facial cues that reveal a person's true intentions. Listen in as Chuck and Josh discuss the subtle art of reading faces in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
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Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know from house Stuffworks dot Com? Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant. Welcome people, and this is stuff you should have And I'm about to tell Chuck if you guys should listen to this. Chuck, did you know there's a theory that there are two kinds of learning. Spill it. So there's one called cognitive learning, which book learning where you like, you read, you know, an article, and you read it again and again and you try to like make connections and then street smarts. That's actually yeah, that kind of would fall into the other category, which is called intuitive learning. Uh And apparently yeah, some people have more of one than the other. Ultimately, we would all under this theory of learning, UM do both simultaneously. UM. So, so you're reading a book and you're you're taking in knowledge, that's cognitive learning. Intuitive learning is um where basically we're picking up cues unconsciously from our environment around us, and we're learning from that. So what you would call instinct or gut feeling, it would be the result of in basically an un consciously processed evaluation of you know, some stimuli in the environment. So street smarts, street smarts, it is yea. And part of that, Chuck actually is, um, We're well, we're about to talk about micro expressions. So I know you've heard of them, but that's part of this, these unconscious cues and information that we pick up without knowing about it, which would make it unconscious. As I said, I really like this article very good too. It was written by Tom Schaft of Right BFF. So, Josh, we're gonna talk about micro expressions, which are in the face. We have to talk about the expressions you can make facial expressions, the broad plain ones that we see, right, So yeah, Chuck, is I understand there's UM seven universal facial expressions right, yes, quickly. They are happiness, sadness, fear, anger, discussed, surprise, and contempt. And what was the name of the guy who traveled the world studying these Ekman, Yeah, yeah, he he went around the world to a bunch of disparate cultures, UM all over the place and studied UM facial movements and found that those seven are universal. Right. He was trying to basically get to the root of whether or not, um, it's a learned thing or not. And I thought, I love this man. I thought it was so cool that he could go to like the furthest reaches of a borneo and they perhaps might make the same contempt face as I do. Yeah, or discussed or discussed I could see smiling fear. That kind of thing is universal. But that's kind of strange because that suggests that those are universal feelings then, right, Yeah, very cool. Okay, So basically Eckman documented all of these uh these of in universal facial expressions, but that wasn't enough right now, He and a guy named W. V. Freezing actually mapped out the muscles that create facial expressions and what they came up with is the Facial Action Coding System, which sounds like it should be like on the front of a comic book with a fist punching out. Um. And what the f a CS does is it measures the movements of facial muscles and expresses them in action union units. Yeah. So, um, a raised eyebrow is a U one, right, And it also denotes whether or not the this movement was voluntary or involuntary, and it also measures intensity, So like a smile, the strength of a smile is measured in six degrees um. And so you pop all this stuff together and um, you you apply to our knowledge of the seven universal expressions, and you can say just by analysis of these facial muscles exactly what emotion is going on. It's so cool. It is very cool, uh and conceivably useful. There's a stuff called facial scan and facial recognition systems, and right now as it stands, there kind of hit or miss. They tried one in in Logan Airport in Boston, UM and it was like sixty accurate, which isn't enough because if you're gonna be stopping people based on you know, their their facial expression, it needs to be a lot higher than that. Were they studying micro expressions or okay? Yeah, but also they they their software out there that can look for fugitives in a crowd, um based on the f A C s and what what what Aikeman and Freezing came up with? But yes, no, the one at Logan Airport, not micro expression. That's that's another one that I think FEMA, no Homeland Security, Yeah, t s A is is using. It's like a trailer and you walk through, and like, I think they show you stuff that's supposed to create like a facial um or micro EXPRESSI and if you're uncomfortable. Uh, and I don't think it's in use commercially yet. I think if they were smart, they would hire my wife. Oh is she good at that? Oh she is. Not only does she have a keen gut instinct on things, which is pretty accurate, I must say, but uh, yeah, she can read body language and facial expressions like nobody's business. Well, if she can read micro expressions, that would make her um part of just ten percent in estimated ten percent of people who can pick up on micro expressions when when they're seeing when they're shown them. Yeah, I would say that's her for sure. Yeah. I cannot fool her ever. Okay, so Chuck, let's we've got facial expressions down and we know that not everybody can consciously pick up on um micro expressions. What are micro expressions? Well, it's uh, basically it's not one thing, but it's it's super fast, uh, sometimes as fast as seconds, and it's just a really really quick facial cue that like you said, not many people been noticed sometimes, right, But we're still again we're picking it up on an unconscious level. So the information is in there right right. Um, So when you are talking to uh, some just kind of a slimy guy and you're getting him a slimy impression from him, you're not quite sure why because he's smiling at you like I am now exactly. But see right there, right there, I just saw that look of contempt. So now I don't trust you, but I'm not quite sure why, which I think in that, because facial expressions are generally considered, um, a revelation of the real emotion that's going on, um, that it lends itself to the idea that you should trust your instincts. If you get a bad feeling from somebody, run away or knife them or do something that could just just listen to like their Plaine expression, right, that could be the micro expression. If you've ever had that feeling like, I don't know what it is about that guy, but something about him that's you may be picking up on very valid micro expressions. And again they're fast and second and most people can't pick them up. But that doesn't mean that they are insignificant, I guess, is my point. No, they're very significant. Uh not everybody UM is as a tune to faces as your wife Emily, as though you know, yeah, well, there's actually a condition, a medical condition. Yes, it's prazo pagnosia a k A recognition impairment or for just the ultimate l people us face blindness. And basically this is it's an actual medical condition. They're not entirely certain what causes it, but they've seen it. People have been born with it, UM, and they've seen it as the result of stroke or brain damage from a car accident, right chuck, UM. And what they do know is that there is some sort of impairment in the physic form gyrus, which is located in the temporal lobe, and this is the area of the brain that's in charge of processing visual information of faces. It's that specialized just has to do with the faces. So people who UM have face blindness UM actually have been shown under m r I scans to this area doesn't activate. It's not working, so they can't tell if someone is pleased or displeased by looking at their face, Like they don't understand what a frown or smile means. No, no, no, they'll get that. They'll get that, and apparently I was. It was a terrible segue. They can. They can still they're looking at your face and they can see if you're smiling or frowning. What what they don't do is make a memory of your face. So, Chuck, how many times have we seen each other since we first met one? Too many? Chuck? Thousands of times? Let's say thousands. Sure, if one of us had face blindness, it would be like seeing the other one for the first time right now. Oh, as in, they wouldn't reckon like I would say, I don't know who this person is. Yeah, I mean like I would say, it's me Josh. But you wouldn't know for certain because you can't recall a memory, a visual memory of my face, even though I saw you yesterday or earlier in the hall. I'm a total stranger to you. So of course this makes life kind of hard for people with face blindness. Um, Like, for example, a television show or a movie, try keeping up with that, Like every time you see the main the main character again, it's like, where is this guy coming from? Right? She'd be watching your magnum p I And every every episode you think, who was this handsome mustache guy in the Ferrari I would, but the thought of not being able to keep up with magnum p I, it's a hellish thought. Um, I would never wish that on you. So, but that's just that's just movies and TV. Let's talk about real life. UM, they're tricks that people with face blindness have come up with, like um every morning name tags. Name tags would work, sure, but at the same time, how do you know that people aren't playing practical jokes on you? Like the movie Memento. I love that movie. What a great movie. I'm actually I'm gonna go watch that after this. Now. One trick that people do at work, UM, when they have face blindnesses go around and write down They'll you can look at the name tag on the on the cubicle, and then you write down with that person is wearing, and then you can kind of maybe study it or access it when you when you need to, when you're talking to somebody. I have a feeling that people who work with people with actual face blindness are probably fairly forgiving because other than that, there's no other disorder, right, it's I don't know who you are. With family members, you'll they'll often create UM like a safe word like a password. So somebody says, hey, it's dad. You know I need uh, I need to borrow five hundred bucks. Um. He'll also say like Geronimo or Apache or you know something trigger pickle Eskimo, something like that. So you know that it's actually that right, that makes sense? It is. But I mean, do you know of any more like interesting disorders than that. That's a pretty good one. That's right out there with alien hand syndrome, I agree, or jerusale of syndrome, which we'll get to eventually, I'm sure. Can we talk about Alex Rodriguez. I'm so proud of you right now, Chuck. I'm wing because you came up with this year wonderful man. Look at me, little me making it happen. Dr Ekman, who is the master from what I can tell at micro expressions. He uh as everyone knows by now probably in the sports world. Uh. Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez recently came out that he uh not came out, but he revealed that he used steroids for a couple of years, and he famously had an interview with Katie Kuric before that that we absolutely said he did not, and that he never saw him in the clubhouse and he didn't know much about them, and so good. Dr ekmun Um recently as last week, actually reviewed his videotape of this Currik interview and picked up on three micro expressions that indicated that he was lying. One was a guest dural slip, which is when one of your shoulders raises slightly. So it's just a micro expression, obviously, so it's not something and this isn't even on the face, but his shoulder raised slightly quite a few times in the interview when she was asking him, you know, blunt questions, and he was giving firm denials, and he said that it does not that kind of expression does not line up with firm denials. People that are firmly denying something do not do the guestral slip. One was unilateral contempt. I like this one. He said that Rodriguez would raise the corner of his lip just slightly and that indicates arrogance or a feeling of superiority. And he said he did this a lot, and he doesn't know if this might just be a trait that he has. Maybe he thinks he's better than everyone else. I don't know, but he says it definitely doesn't fit with what he was saying about, you know, being humbled with the steroid use. And interestingly, it's called unilateral because it's the only emotion with the corresponding facial expression that occurs just on one side of the face. Everything else anger, surprise, fear, sadness, or biladder also both sides of your face would react. Yes, So I thought that was interesting. And the last one was micro fear, and she pointedly asked him if he had ever been tempted to use illegal drugs. He answered with a simple no, And along with that no was a micro fear expression, which was basically the horizontal stretching of the lips, and he said that basically he looked like he was lying, because it's either fear or a fear being caught when you make this expression, or surprise too. Aren't fear and surprise often confused? Yes, indeed, which is actually one of the problems with searching for micro expressions. People with social anxiety have shown to um launch into an anxiety attack when they're confronted with micro expressions of surprise or fear because they mistake the surprise look for fear and it's a micro expression. They're already socially anxious that as it is, so all of a sudden there guts telling him something and interesting, there you go. So yeah, well he had one more little one with so I thought was the best. And at the at the end of the interview, he flatly denied taking trucks, and he said that he actually slightly nodded his head in the affirmative as he was saying that, which, there you have it. Yeah, you can't pull one by Paul Eckman. No, no, I would not want to be a rod and sit in front of him and try and tell the truth. So that's micro expressions, Yes, it is, and there's a lot more to it. Um. I think anybody would be wise to go on to our site and read what are micro expressions? Is this pretty in depth explanation of facial expressions in the whole shabank? So that's interesting. You can look that up and chuck, is it is it? Listener mail time? Not quite? Oh no, what we need to give a little shout out to our new blog which is on our website. It's called stuff You should know. You can find out how stuff works dot com and Josh and I post once a day each little interesting news items two bits than uh. We want to engage the stuff you should know nation, get people talking. Yeah, and you can get to it on the homepage how stuff works dot com on the right hand side and without further ado, he chimes says, listener mail times you ready, Josh, I was born ready. This is a good one. This came to us from a writer named Lee, and that would be the female Lee l E E. And Lee heard us talk about the one guy who wrote in talking about that he was possessed by the god Horace, and she thought we were very accepting of that notion that sure, who knows, you know, anything could happen. So she wrote this about her daughter. She says she has an attractive daughter, very intelligent, lovely and outgoing, and in high school, her daughter was only attracted to gay men one after the other. A lot of times they were not out with their sexuality. Sometimes they didn't even know it yet. But she had a terrible, terrible time falling in love with and being mistreated by gay men because they clearly could not return the love. So um she was very frustrated by this. She took her daughter to a card reader. And apparently this card reader said, the reason that she cannot get over these falling in love with gay men is because she was possessed. Her spirit was possessed by a gay man named Jerome from the eighteen hundreds. And this is what the card reader said. She said, Jerome is running the show. And the kid basically says, I don't like this. I'd like to get rid of this spiritual possession. Jerome's kind of baggage, baggage. And so the card reader, she said, quote without any fancy pantsy ceremony, said that Jerome was gone and she got rid of him. And the lady said after that her daughter felt different, never fell in love with a gay man again, had healthy relationships. And I just thought this was real interesting, is very interesting. And as we are always our motto is who knows to each his own or her own? Who knows what's going on out there in the wacky universe? Just she could have been possessed by a gay man named Jerome from the eighteen hundreds. Well, thank you Lee and your daughter and Jerome as well. Um, And if you have a really cool story to share with us, or you just want to say Hi no hi kus uh. Send an email to a stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com m brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you