Body Language of Furrowed Forehead
Cue: Furrowed Forehead
Synonym(s): Forehead Creasing, Wrinkled Forehead, Forehead Furrow.
Description: Frowning done by creasing the forehead and brow.
In One Sentence: A furrowed forehead is a sign of negative thoughts.
How To Use it: Furrow the forehead when you want others to visually see that you are not in a positive mood. This can be effective in showing your disapproval of others which may cause them to change their behaviour in order to better please you. Furrowing the forehead works well on children as it does with any submissive audience. The honest portrayal of disapproval through furrowed forehead works to influence others as people are strongly social and do not cope well with the anger of others. Showing disapproval nonverbally avoids a deeper potentially aggressive verbal confrontation, but at the same time, is obvious to onlookers.
Context: General.
Verbal Translation: “Muscles in my forehead are scrunching up to show how badly I feel on the inside.”
Variant: Various other forms of contraction can occur in the face such as the lips, nose and eyes to show negative thoughts. See Compressed Lips, Nose Crinkle, Sneering, Eye Squinting or Narrowing Eyes.
Cue In Action: She was worried that he was going to be upset for being so late for their date that her forehead began to wrinkle and her skin flushed red. She was harried and quickly left her house in a panic.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Wrinkled forehead is one of the quickest ways to detect when a person carries negative thoughts. It can signify anything from anxiousness, sadness, concentration, concern, worry, bewilderment or anger. The cluster of cues which accompany the forehead furrow will give clues to its underlying meaning.
Anger is shown through furrowed forehead coupled with finger pointing, overall tensing of the body or tightening of the jaw and lips (called “lip occlusion”), quivering in the lips, frowning, dilated pupils, squinting of the eyes, crotch displays such as legs open, sneering or flared nostrils, or extreme body loosening to ready for fighting.
Surprise is coupled with a straight upward lift of the forehead whereas fear engages the muscles between the brows folding them. Fear is sometimes confused with surprise as in much of the world only subtle differences exist.
During fear, eyebrows rise and are pulled together, and curve although less than in surprise. Wrinkles appear in the forehead, but do not cross the entire forehead like in the surprised expression. The upper eyelids rise, as in the surprise expression, to expose the white of the eyes and the lower eyelids also rise. The lips may be stretched back and the mouth opened.
Sadness is controlled mainly by the mouth where it drops at the corners. The inner eyebrows rise producing a triangular shape between the root of the nose and the eyes. The forehead might show wrinkles and the eyes may appear moist with tears.
Cue Cluster: See Meaning and/or Motivation.
Body Language Category: Amplifier, Aggressive body language, Anger, Confused body language, Closed facial gestures, Emotional body language, Fearful body language, Hostile body language, Microexpression, Stressful body language, Universal gestures, Universal facial expressions, Worry body language.
Resources:
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