Paul Ekman And Microexpressions: How Can Small Facial Gestures Give Us Away?
What are microexpressions? Can facial expressions reveal our hidden emotions? Discover the reality behind the small expressions on the face.
The microexpressions, investigated by prominent psychologist Paul Ekman, are small emotional expressions that can help us interpret people’s feelings. But how can we learn to see the facial microexpressions of others?
Why is it important to understand facial expressions?
The ability we have to understand the facial expressions of others helps us understand the non-verbal language of the people with whom we interact. If you only listen to what a person tells you and ignore what their facial expressions tell you, you are actually missing a lot of information during the conversation.
So much so that there are many occasions in which the words may not match the emotions of the interlocutor. In this way, it is the face through the facial expressions the one that allows us to understand what a person really feels.
What are microexpressions?
Those facial expressions that pass quickly across a person’s face are called microexpressions. According to research, this facial language It can be a probable sign of hidden emotions. These types of facial gestures occur so quickly that the vast majority of people cannot recognize them in time.
The idea that they could exist microgestures It has its roots in Darwin’s inhibition hypothesis made in 1872, where it was suggested that facial expressions that cannot be controlled voluntarily can be produced involuntarily even though the person tries not to show them.
The existence of the microexpressions It was verified almost a century later by the psychologists Haggard and Isaacs, as well as reaffirmed by Ekman and Fiesen. In fact, it was Porter and Brinke (2008) who demonstrated that these spontaneous facial gestures occurred precisely when individuals were trying to deceive through their facial expressions.
Paul Ekman and emotions
Paul Ekman He is the psychologist best known for the study of microexpressions. In fact, his field of study around emotions has shown a lot of interesting research on people’s facial expressions and facial language.
Why do microexpressions happen?
The research carried out around the facial expressions show that microexpressions occur due to the unison activation of voluntary and involuntary emotional responses.
To go deeper, there are two neural pathways that mediate our facial expression, each of which originates in a different area of our brain. The pyramidal tract is what drives voluntary facial actions and originates in the cortical motor strip, while the extrapyramidal tract drives emotional expressions that are involuntary and occur in the subcortical areas of our brain.
When people are faced with intensely emotional situations but need to control their expressions, they activate both systems, which involve a neural tug-of-war over control of the face, which causes the emotions to emerge. microexpressions
Characteristics of microexpressions
To understand how learning about this can help us type of facial expressions it is important to understand the following:
They cannot be avoided: The microexpressions They occur in all people. This happens because there is no way to avoid them.
Helps improve emotional intelligence: Learn to detect these small facial expressions It can help us improve our relationships and detect deception or bad intentions that others have towards us.
They occur when emotions are hidden: The microexpressions They usually occur when someone tries to hide their emotions, in fact the leakage of that emotion will often be evident on that person’s face.
Leak duration: The facial microgestures They can be difficult to recognize and detect to others. This is because they usually last a few seconds.
The microexpressions They can help us detect the following emotions in others:
Stress
Frustration
Anxiety
Comfort level
Disagreement
How to detect lies according to Paul Ekman?
The detection of these small facial expressions It can be the key to learning to detect lies, hidden emotions or deception. According to Paul Ekman, co-discoverer of microexpressions, to detect what these microgestures imply we must also take into account the context in which they occur. In addition to the situation, we must also take into account other signs of body language such as the other person’s voice and posture.
Most people do not detect the microexpressions since they usually occur very ephemerally during a conversation, therefore, it is not something that we can detect if we are not attentive to it.
Despite this, people can improve their ability to detect the microexpressions In fact, learning about the meaning of these facial expressions can help us develop our emotional intelligence.
