Category: Closed facial gestures

Body Language of Tense Face

Body Language of Tense Face

No picCue: Tense Face.

Synonym(s): Stressed Face, Uneasy Face.

Description: A face that is compressed or contorted by various muscles such as the one between the eyebrows. This muscle will force the eyebrows together creating a wrinkle. The eyes are squinted and the lips are compressed or pursed.

In One Sentence: A tense face indicates stress, worry, and discomfort.

How To Use it: Use a tense face to show that you are not content in the situation. You can signal others that you are in emotional or physical pain by flexing muscles in the face. You may show a tense face when receiving negative news, when presented an unfavourable offer such as in negotiation, when seeing something visually distressing, and so forth. In other words, use a tense face when you want to show others your discomfort and dislike.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m full of stress or worry and am uncomfortable, I hold some degree of negative thoughts which is shown through various muscular contractions in my face.”

Variant: See Eyebrows Knit or Oblique Eyebrows Of Grief, Relaxed Face.

Cue In Action: As the details of the contract became clear, his face began to show signs of disagreement. When the split was offered at 40/60, his eyes squinted. When there was an additional royalty added, his lips compressed. The deal breaker came when he stated the he would be completely bought out of the company at the five year mark. This caused his forehead to furrowed in anger. His body language clearly signaled that had enough with the contract and he wouldn’t sign it.

Meaning and/or Motivation: A tense face is one that shows discomfort and discomfort is a cue that delineates a lack of honesty and that the body is concerned with negative thoughts.

Bodies show additional discomfort through an increased heart rate, breath rate, sweating, a change in normal colour in the face or neck, trembling or shaking in the hands lips, or elsewhere, compressing the lips, fidgeting, drumming the fingers and other repetitive behaviours. Voices often crack when under stress, mouths might dry up producing noticeable swallowing, “hard swallows”, or frequent throat clearing.

Cue Cluster: The eyes are compressed, tense and focused, the arms and legs will cross, the lips purse and licked frequently, people will tighten their bodies up, they might stop speaking, legs and toes may face away from the negative stimuli and toward the door, breathing might be shallow or exaggerated as if ready for action, hands might be rubbed against one other or against the thighs, the face might be touched and the skin pinched, plucked or scratched.

Body Language Category: Confused body language, Closed body language, Closed facial gestures, Dislike (nonverbal), Disapproval cues, Emotional body language, Evaluative body language, Negative body language, Stressful body language, Worry body language.

Resources:

Arsenio, W. F., Cooperman, S., & Lover, A. Affective Predictors of Preschooler’s Aggression and Peer Acceptance: Direct and Indirect Effects. Developmental Psychology. 2000. 36: 438-448.

Aviezer H, Trope Y, Todorov A. Body cues, not facial expressions, discriminate between intense positive and negative emotions. Science 2012;338:1225–9.

Aviezer, Hillel; Ran R. Hassin; Jennifer Ryan; Cheryl Grady; Josh Susskind; Adam Anderson; Morris Moscovitch and Shlomo Bentin. Angry, Disgusted, or Afraid? Studies on the Malleability of Emotion Perception. Psychological Science. 2008. 19(7): 724-732.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/emotions-read-context-study/

App, Betsy; Catherine L. Reed and Daniel N. McIntosh. Relative Contributions Of Face And Body Configurations: Perceiving Emotional State And Motion Intention. Cognition and Emotion. 2012. 26(4): 690-698.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/facial-expressions-versus-bodily-expressions-nonverbal-communication/

Aaron, Sell; Cosmides, Leda and Tooby, John. The Human Anger Face Evolved to Enhance Cues of Strength. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2014. 35(5): 425-429.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/the-universal-anger-face/

Ben-Zeev, Avi; Tara C. Dennehy; Rachel Sackman; Andres Olide and Christopher C. Berger. Flirting With Threat: Social Identity and the Perils of the Female Communality Prescription. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2011. 47: 1308-1311.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/flirting-with-danger-women-flirt-to-avoid-conflict/

Bard, K. A. (2003). Development of emotional expressions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Vol. 1000, pp. 88-90). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173-1882.

Biehl, M., Matsumoto, D., Ekman, P., Hearn, V., Heider, K., Kudoh, T., et al. (1997). Matsumoto and Ekman’s Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion (JACFEE): Reliability Data and Cross-National Differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 21, 3-21.

Burton, Keith W. Habitual emotion regulation and the facial grimace. Psychological reports. 2011. 109(2): 521-32.

Burton, K. W., Hargrave, K., Myers, S., Warren, A., Wolsfeld, S., Tompkins, D., Qualls, M., & Reminger, S. (2008) Habitual emotion regulation and increased zygomaticus major activity evoked by negative images (or “grimacing”). Psychophysiology,
45, S118.

Carroll E. 1994. Innate and universal facial expressions: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research Izard, Psychological Bulletin. 115(2): 288-299.

de Waal, F. B. M. (2003). Darwin’s legacy and the study of primate visual communication. In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (pp. 7-31). New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

Daniele Marzoli, Mariagrazia Custodero, Alessandra Pagliara, and Luca Tommasi. Sun-Induced Frowning Fosters Aggressive Feelings. Cognition And Emotion. 2013; 27 (8): 1513-1521.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/the-sun-can-produce-feelings-of-anger-and-aggression-it-makes-us-frown/

Daniel H. Lee, Reza Mirza, John G. Flanagan and Adam K. Anderson. Optical Origins of Opposing Facial Expression Actions. Psychological Science published online 24 January 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0956797613514451
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/eyes-and-facial-expressions-may-be-biologically-controlled-serve-a-real-non-emotional-purpose-says-research/

Ekman, P. (1994). Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions: A reply to Russell’s mistaken critique. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 268-287.

Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., O’Sullivan, M., Chan, A., Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis, I., Heider, K., et al. (1987). Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 53(4), 712-717.

Ekman, P., Levenson, R. W., & Friesen, W. V. (1983). Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions. Science, 221(4616), 1208-1210.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991a). Confusions about context in the judgment of facial expression: A reply to “The contempt expression and the relativity thesis.”. Motivation & Emotion, 15(2), 169-176.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991b). Contradictions in the study of contempt: What’s it all about? Reply to Russell. Motivation & Emotion, 15(4), 293-296.

Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128(2), 205-235.

Ekman, Paul. 1986. A new pan-cultural facial expression of emotion. Source: Motivation and Emotion Ekman. 10(2): 159-168.

Ekman, Paul and Friesen, W. V. 1987. Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 53(4): 712-717.

Ekman, Paul; Friesen, Wallace V. 1971. Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 17(2): 124-129.

Ekman, Paul. 1972. Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In J. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1971. 19: 207-282. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Fulcher, J. S. “Voluntary” facial expression in blind and seeing children. Archives of Psychology, 1942. 38: 272.

Friesen, W. V. 1972. Cultural differences in facial expressions in a social situation: An experimental test of the concept of display rules. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Francisco.

Grezes, Julie; Le´onor Philip; Michele Chadwick; Guillaume Dezecache; Robert Soussignan and Laurence Conty. Self-Relevance Appraisal Influences Facial Reactions to Emotional Body Expressions. PLoS ONE. 2013. 8(2): e55885. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055885
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/face-reacts-body-anger-brains-wired-process-emotional-body-language

Huang, Ding-Hau; Shih-Wei Chou; Yi-Lang Chen and Wen-Ko Chiou. Frowning and Jaw Clenching Muscle Activity Reflects the Perception of Effort During Incremental Workload Cycling. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2014. 13: 921-928.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/physical-strain-leads-jaw-clenching-frowning-body-language/

Hatz, Jessica L. and Martin J. Bourgeois. Anger as a Cue to Truthfulness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2010. 46: 680-683.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/anger-nonverbal-cue-truth-telling/

Hareli, Shlomo; Noga Shomrat and Ursula Hess. Emotional Versus Neutral Expressions and Perceptions of Social Dominance and Submissiveness. Emotion. 2009 9(3): 378-384. DOI: 10.1037/a0015958
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/dominance-expression-conveyed-different-facial-expressions-men-women/

Johnson, Richard R. and Jasmine L. Aaron. Adults’ Beliefs Regarding Nonverbal Cues Predictive of Violence. Criminal Justice and Behavior. 2013. 40 (8): 881-894. DOI: 10.1177/0093854813475347.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/wanna-fight-nonverbal-cues-believed-indicate-violence/

Kret, Mariska Esther and Beatrice de Gelder. Social Context Influences Recognition of Bodily Expressions. Exp Brain Res. 2010. 203:169-180. DOI 10.1007/s00221-010-2220-8
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/context-matters-judging-body-language/

Kret, M. E. and B. de Gelder. When a Smile Becomes a Fist: The Perception of Facial and Bodily Expressions of Emotion in Violent Offenders. Exp Brain Res. 2013. 228: 399-410. DOI 10.1007/s00221-013-3557-6.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/reading-bodily-postures-facial-expressions-incorrectly-can-disastrous-just-ask-violent-offenders/

Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). Voluntary facial action generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity. Psychophysiology, 27(4), 363-384.

Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., Heider, K., & Friesen, W. V. (1992). Emotion and autonomic nervous system activity in the Minangkabau of West Sumatra. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 62(6), 972-988.

Lang, P. J., Greenwald, M. K., Bradley, M. M., & Hamm, A. O. (1993) Looking at pictures: affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions. Psychophysiology, 30,
261-273.

Larsen, J. T., Norris, C. J., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2003) Effects of positive affect and negative affect on electromyographic activity over zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii. Psychophysiology, 40, 776-785.

Mori, K., & Mori, H. (2010) Examination of the passive facial feedback hypothesis using an implicit measure: with a furrowed brow, neutral objects with pleasant primes look less appealing. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 111, 785-789.
Matsumoto, D. (1989). Cultural influences on the perception of emotion. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 20(1), 92-105.

Matsumoto, D. (1992). American-Japanese cultural differences in the recognition of universal facial expressions. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 23(1), 72-84.

Matsumoto, D. (2001). Culture and Emotion. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), The Handbook of
Culture and Psychology (pp. 171-194). New York: Oxford University Press.

Matsumoto, D., & Ekman, P. (1989). American-Japanese cultural differences in intensity ratings of facial expressions of emotion. Motivation & Emotion, 13(2), 143-157.

Matsumoto, D., Keltner, D., Shiota, M. N., Frank, M. G., & O’Sullivan, M. (2008). What’s in a face? Facial expressions as signals of discrete emotions. In M. Lewis, J. M.
Haviland & L. Feldman Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 211-234). New York: Guilford Press.

Matsumoto, D., & Willingham, B. (2009). Spontaneous Facial Expressions of Emotion of Congenitally and Non-Congenitally Blind Individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(1), 1-10.

Mesquita, B., & Frijda, N. H. (1992). Cultural variations in emotions: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 197-204.

Marzoli, Daniele; Mariagrazia Custodero; Alessandra Pagliara and Luca Tommasi. Sun-Induced Frowning Fosters Aggressive Feelings. Cognition And Emotion. 2013; 27 (8): 1513-1521.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/avoid-anger-sunny-days/

Mondloch, Catherine J.; Nicole L. Nelson and Matthew Horner. Asymmetries of Influence: Differential Effects of Body Postures on Perceptions of Emotional Facial Expressions. PLOS one. September 2013. 8(9): e73605.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/facial-expressions-versus-bodily-expressions-nonverbal-communication-2

McClure, Erin B 2000. A meta-analytic review of sex differences in facial expression processing and their development in infants, children, and adolescents
Psychological Bulletin. 126(3): 424-453.

Mead, M. 1975. Review of “Darwin and facial expression.” Journal of Communication, 25: 209-213.

Nao, Misako Sawada and Motonobu Ishii. Development of the Movements Impressions Emotions Model: Evaluation of Movements and Impressions Related to the Perception of Emotions in Dance. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2013. 37:107-121.
DOI 10.1007/s10919-013-0148-y
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/convey-emotion-nonverbally-dance-study/

Nelson, Nicole L and James A. Russell. Children’s Understanding Of Nonverbal Expressions Of Pride. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2012; 111: 379-385.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/can-children-read-pride-body-language/

Navarro, Joe. 2008. What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People. William Morrow Paperbacks.

Peleg, G., Katzir, G., Peleg, O., Kamara, M., Brodsky, L., Hel-Or, H., et al. (2006). Heriditary family signature of facial expression. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 103(43), 15921-15926.

Russell, James A. 1995. Facial Expressions of Emotion: What Lies Beyond Minimal Universality? Psychological bulletin. 118(3): 379-391.

Russell, James A. 1994. Is There Universal Recognition of Emotion From Facial Expression? A Review of the Cross-Cultural Studies. Psychological Bulletin. 115(1): 102-141.

Russell, James A.; Naoto Suzuki and Noriko Ishida. 1993. Canadian, Greek, and Japanese freely produced emotion labels for facial expressions. Motivation and Emotion. 17(4): 337 -351

Reed, Lawrence, Ian; Peter DeScioli and Steven A. Pinker. The Commitment Function of Angry Facial Expressions. Psychological Science. 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0956797614531027
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/anger-facial-expression-gets-people-to-do-what-you-want/

Susskind, Joshua M and Adam K Anderson. Facial Expression Form and Function. Communicative Integrative Biology. 2008. 1(2): 148–149. PMCID: PMC2686004
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/emotional-facial-expressions-evolve/

Sell, A., Cosmides, L. and Tooby, J., The Human Anger Face Evolved to Enhance Cues of Strength. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.05.008
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/human-anger-face-signal-strength

Sinke, C.B, Sorger, B, Goebel, R, and de Gelder, B. Tease or Threat? Judging Social Interactions From Bodily Expressions. Neuroimage. A Journal of Brain Function. 2009. 49:1717-1727. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/friend-foe-let-body-language-decide

Stienen, Bernard M. C.; Akihiro Tanaka and Beatrice de Gelder. Emotional Voice and Emotional Body Postures Influence Each Other Independently of Visual Awareness. PLoS ONE. 2011. 6(10): e25517. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025517.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-language-read-quickly-subconsciously-study/

Schubert, Thomas W. The Power In Your Hand: Gender Differences In Bodily Feedback
From Making a Fist. Society for Personality and Social Psychology. 2004. 30(6): 757-769. DOI: 10.1177/0146167204263780
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/men-view-power-body-language-different-women-bodily-feedback-making-fist/

Sell, A., Tooby, J., and Cosmides, L. Formidability and the Logic of Human Anger. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. 2009. 106(35), 15073-78.

Teixeira Fiquer, Juliana; Paulo Sérgio Boggio and Clarice Gorenstein. Talking Bodies: Nonverbal Behavior in the Assessment of Depression Severity. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2013. 150: 1114-1119.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/using-nonverbal-behaviour-to-assess-depression-severity/

Thompson, Erin H. and James A. Hampton. The Effect of Relationship Status on Communicating Emotions Through Touch,. Cognition and Emotion. 2011. 25(2): 295-306. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2010.492957.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/using-touch-convey-emotion/

Wilkowski, Benjamin M. and Brian P. Meier. Bring It On: Angry Facial Expressions Potentiate Approach-Motivated Motor Behavior. 2010. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 98(2): 201-210.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/anger-facial-expression-elicits-approach-not-avoidance-study/

Zieber, Nicole; Ashley Kangas; Alyson Hock; and Ramesh S. Bhatt. Infants’ Perception of Emotion From Body Movements. Child Development. 2014. 85(2): 675-684.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/careful-infants-perceptive-reading-body-language/

Zhao, Ke; Wen-Jing Yan; Yu-Hsin Chen; Xi-Nian Zuo and Xiaolan Fu. Amygdala Volume Predicts Inter-Individual Differences in Fearful Face Recognition. PLOS one. August 2013. (8): 8: e74096. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0074096.g001
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/fear-amygdala

Zeinstra, Gertrude G.; M.A. Koelen; D. Colindres ; F.J. Kok; C de Graaf. Facial Expressions in School-Aged Children are a Good Indicator of ‘Dislikes’, but not of ‘Likes.’ Food Quality and Preference. 2009. 20: 620-624.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/read-kids-dislike-food-facial-expressions-accurate-detecting-dislike-not-like-children/

Body Language of Scorn

Body Language of Scorn

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Scorn 1Cue: Scorn

Synonym(s): N/A

Description: Scorn is a combination of anger and disgust that happens by wrinkling of the nose, raising and tightening of the upper lip. To visualize this expression think of a bad smell. Scorn sometimes flashes as a microexpression.

In One Sentence: The scorn facial expression shows disdain and contempt.

How To Use it: Use scorn to show nonverbal disapproval in connection with a person or their idea. Scorn can also be used in a microexpression and flash very briefly, often only slightly visible to the naked eye. Sent this way, scorn is a semi-concealed signal perceived only semi-consciously. It still retains the same amount of power and signaling strength, only that it is not readily attributed back to the sender.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m both angry and disgusted. I show this by wrinkling my nose and raising my upper lip. It is as if I have experienced a bad odor.”

Variant: See Fearful Facial Expression, Anger Facial Expression, Disgust Facial Expression, Happiness Facial Expression.

Cue In Action: It was as if there was a bad odor hanging in the air, but Dave had just offered a really poor suggestion. Debbie wrinkled her nose and raiser her upper lip in disgust and anger. Watch for scorn to appear as a microexpression that can flash over the face in a matter of seconds and quickly disappear.

Meaning and/or Motivation: The cue indicates disdain or contempt. Scorn is reflected through a visceral reaction. The facial expression is not unlike taking in a bad odor and plays on a similar visceral emotional reaction.

Scorn can be the result of a person, event, object or idea.

Cue Cluster: Scorn is a stand-alone cue and because it usually happens quickly as a microexpression it doesn’t rely on additional cues in a cluster. However, if scorn turns to anger, we should be watchful for violent outbursts such as loud voices and erratic arm or leg movements. In mild scorn, the body will angle away, the head will turn or shoot back, the nose my rise with the eyes downcast.

Body Language Category: Aggressive body language, Anger body language, Automatic gesture, Closed facial gestures, Dislike (nonverbal), Emotional body language, Hostile body language, Leaked or involuntary body language, Microexpressions, Negative body language.

Resources:

Bard, K. A. (2003). Development of emotional expressions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Vol. 1000, pp. 88-90). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173-1882.

Biehl, M., Matsumoto, D., Ekman, P., Hearn, V., Heider, K., Kudoh, T., et al. (1997). Matsumoto and Ekman’s Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion (JACFEE): Reliability Data and Cross-National Differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 21, 3-21.

Carroll E. 1994. Innate and universal facial expressions: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research Izard, Psychological Bulletin. 115(2): 288-299.

Daniel H. Lee, Reza Mirza, John G. Flanagan and Adam K. Anderson. Optical Origins of Opposing Facial Expression Actions. Psychological Science published online 24 January 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0956797613514451
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/eyes-and-facial-expressions-may-be-biologically-controlled-serve-a-real-non-emotional-purpose-says-research/

de Waal, F. B. M. (2003). Darwin’s legacy and the study of primate visual communication. In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (pp. 7-31). New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

Ekman, Paul. 1994. Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions: A reply to Russell’s mistaken critique Psychological Bulletin. 115(2): 268-287.

Ekman, Paul. 1986. A new pan-cultural facial expression of emotion. Source: Motivation and Emotion Ekman. 10(2): 159-168.

Ekman, Paul and Friesen, W. V. 1987. Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 53(4): 712-717.

Ekman, Paul; Friesen, Wallace V. 1971. Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 17(2): 124-129.

Ekman, Paul. 1972. Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In J. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1971. 19: 207-282. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., O’Sullivan, M., Chan, A., Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis, I., Heider, K., et al. (1987). Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 53(4), 712-717.

Ekman, P., Levenson, R. W., & Friesen, W. V. (1983). Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions. Science, 221(4616), 1208-1210.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991a). Confusions about context in the judgment of facial expression: A reply to “The contempt expression and the relativity thesis.”. Motivation & Emotion, 15(2), 169-176.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991b). Contradictions in the study of contempt: What’s it all about? Reply to Russell. Motivation & Emotion, 15(4), 293-296.

Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128(2), 205-235.

Fulcher, J. S. “Voluntary” facial expression in blind and seeing children. Archives of Psychology, 1942. 38: 272.

Friesen, W. V. 1972. Cultural differences in facial expressions in a social situation: An experimental test of the concept of display rules. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Francisco.

James A. Russell, Naoto Suzuki and Noriko Ishida. 1993. Canadian, Greek, and Japanese freely produced emotion labels for facial expressions. Motivation and Emotion. 17(4): 337 -351

Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). Voluntary facial action generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity. Psychophysiology, 27(4), 363-384.

Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., Heider, K., & Friesen, W. V. (1992). Emotion and autonomic nervous system activity in the Minangkabau of West Sumatra. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 62(6), 972-988.
Matsumoto, D. (1989). Cultural influences on the perception of emotion. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 20(1), 92-105.

Matsumoto, D. (1992). American-Japanese cultural differences in the recognition of universal facial expressions. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 23(1), 72-84.

Matsumoto, D. (2001). Culture and Emotion. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), The Handbook of Culture and Psychology (pp. 171-194). New York: Oxford University Press.

Matsumoto, D., & Ekman, P. (1989). American-Japanese cultural differences in intensity ratings of facial expressions of emotion. Motivation & Emotion, 13(2), 143-157.

Matsumoto, D., Keltner, D., Shiota, M. N., Frank, M. G., & O’Sullivan, M. (2008). What’s in a face? Facial expressions as signals of discrete emotions. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland & L. Feldman Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 211-234). New York: Guilford Press.

Matsumoto, D., & Willingham, B. (2009). Spontaneous Facial Expressions of Emotion of Congenitally and Non-Congenitally Blind Individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(1), 1-10.

Mesquita, B., & Frijda, N. H. (1992). Cultural variations in emotions: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 197-204.

McClure, Erin B 2000. A meta-analytic review of sex differences in facial expression processing and their development in infants, children, and adolescents
Psychological Bulletin. 126(3): 424-453.

Mead, M. 1975. Review of “Darwin and facial expression.” Journal of Communication, 25: 209-213.

Russell, James A. 1995. Facial Expressions of Emotion: What Lies Beyond Minimal Universality? Psychological bulletin. 118(3): 379-391.

Russell, James A. 1994. Is There Universal Recognition of Emotion From Facial Expression? A Review of the Cross-Cultural Studies. Psychological Bulletin. 115(1): 102-141.

Susskind, Joshua M and Adam K Anderson. Facial Expression Form and Function. Communicative Integrative Biology. 2008. 1(2): 148–149. PMCID: PMC2686004
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/emotional-facial-expressions-evolve/

Peleg, G., Katzir, G., Peleg, O., Kamara, M., Brodsky, L., Hel-Or, H., et al. (2006). Heriditary family signature of facial expression. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 103(43), 15921-15926.

Body Language of Sadness Facial Expression

Body Language of Sadness Facial Expression

No picCue: Sadness Facial Expression.

Synonym(s): Grief.

Description: A raise of the inner eyelids into an inverted “V” accompanied by a lift of the lower eyelids. Often accompanied by lines across the forehead with the mouth pulled downward and a droop in the eyelids.

In One Sentence: The sadness facial expression is a demonstration of emotional grief.

How To Use it: Use the sadness expression to gain sympathy from others. Children use it best, as do women. Men can also elicit caring through sadness, but must display it to a compassionate audience which is not as readily available to them. When women use it, men and women will most certainly react, whereas for men, men and women will take great care not to overstep social boundaries and add extra insult to a man’s painful emotional condition.

If one wishes to appear dominant and in control, then displaying sadness should be used only in very narrow situations such as the loss of a loved one. In this case, the sadness is outbound and displays not a loss for the self, but compassion for others. This is usually read as a more permissible use of sadness. Using sadness to improve treatment is perceived as a selfish use of the condition and attributed to those whom are physically and emotionally weak.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m sad. Muscles in my face are contracting resulting in a face that is contorted proving my emotional turmoil.”

Variant: See Hang-Dog Expression, Eyebrows Knit or Oblique Eyebrows Of Grief.

Cue In Action: He learned that a close family member had passed away after a long struggle with cancer. His expression told of his grief.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Sadness is one of the six universal facial expressions (sadness, anger, disgust, surprise and fear). Sadness is a deep pain and emotional discomfort that comes from hearing or experiencing negative stimuli.

Cue Cluster: Sadness also sees an overall depletion of energy, enthusiasm, limp body, shoulders slumped, as well as trembling, lips quivering, moist eyes or crying.

Body Language Category: Arousal, Automatic gesture, Closed facial gestures, Dislike (nonverbal), Emotional body language, Universal facial expressions.

Resources:

Bard, K. A. (2003). Development of emotional expressions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Vol. 1000, pp. 88-90). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173-1882.

Biehl, M., Matsumoto, D., Ekman, P., Hearn, V., Heider, K., Kudoh, T., et al. (1997). Matsumoto and Ekman’s Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion (JACFEE): Reliability Data and Cross-National Differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 21, 3-21.

Carroll E. 1994. Innate and universal facial expressions: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research Izard, Psychological Bulletin. 115(2): 288-299.

Daniel H. Lee, Reza Mirza, John G. Flanagan and Adam K. Anderson. Optical Origins of Opposing Facial Expression Actions. Psychological Science published online 24 January 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0956797613514451
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/eyes-and-facial-expressions-may-be-biologically-controlled-serve-a-real-non-emotional-purpose-says-research/

de Waal, F. B. M. (2003). Darwin’s legacy and the study of primate visual communication. In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (pp. 7-31). New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

Ekman, Paul. 1994. Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions: A reply to Russell’s mistaken critique Psychological Bulletin. 115(2): 268-287.

Ekman, Paul. 1986. A new pan-cultural facial expression of emotion. Source: Motivation and Emotion Ekman. 10(2): 159-168.

Ekman, Paul and Friesen, W. V. 1987. Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 53(4): 712-717.

Ekman, Paul; Friesen, Wallace V. 1971. Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 17(2): 124-129.

Ekman, Paul. 1972. Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In J. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1971. 19: 207-282. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., O’Sullivan, M., Chan, A., Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis, I., Heider, K., et al. (1987). Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 53(4), 712-717.

Ekman, P., Levenson, R. W., & Friesen, W. V. (1983). Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions. Science, 221(4616), 1208-1210.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991a). Confusions about context in the judgment of facial expression: A reply to “The contempt expression and the relativity thesis.”. Motivation & Emotion, 15(2), 169-176.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991b). Contradictions in the study of contempt: What’s it all about? Reply to Russell. Motivation & Emotion, 15(4), 293-296.

Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128(2), 205-235.

Fulcher, J. S. “Voluntary” facial expression in blind and seeing children. Archives of Psychology, 1942. 38: 272.

Friesen, W. V. 1972. Cultural differences in facial expressions in a social situation: An experimental test of the concept of display rules. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Francisco.

James A. Russell, Naoto Suzuki and Noriko Ishida. 1993. Canadian, Greek, and Japanese freely produced emotion labels for facial expressions. Motivation and Emotion. 17(4): 337 -351

Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). Voluntary facial action generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity. Psychophysiology, 27(4), 363-384.

Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., Heider, K., & Friesen, W. V. (1992). Emotion and autonomic nervous system activity in the Minangkabau of West Sumatra. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 62(6), 972-988.
Matsumoto, D. (1989). Cultural influences on the perception of emotion. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 20(1), 92-105.

Matsumoto, D. (1992). American-Japanese cultural differences in the recognition of universal facial expressions. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 23(1), 72-84.

Matsumoto, D. (2001). Culture and Emotion. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), The Handbook of Culture and Psychology (pp. 171-194). New York: Oxford University Press.

Matsumoto, D., & Ekman, P. (1989). American-Japanese cultural differences in intensity ratings of facial expressions of emotion. Motivation & Emotion, 13(2), 143-157.

Matsumoto, D., Keltner, D., Shiota, M. N., Frank, M. G., & O’Sullivan, M. (2008). What’s in a face? Facial expressions as signals of discrete emotions. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland & L. Feldman Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 211-234). New York: Guilford Press.

Matsumoto, D., & Willingham, B. (2009). Spontaneous Facial Expressions of Emotion of Congenitally and Non-Congenitally Blind Individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(1), 1-10.

Mesquita, B., & Frijda, N. H. (1992). Cultural variations in emotions: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 197-204.

McClure, Erin B 2000. A meta-analytic review of sex differences in facial expression processing and their development in infants, children, and adolescents
Psychological Bulletin. 126(3): 424-453.

Mead, M. 1975. Review of “Darwin and facial expression.” Journal of Communication, 25: 209-213.

Russell, James A. 1995. Facial Expressions of Emotion: What Lies Beyond Minimal Universality? Psychological bulletin. 118(3): 379-391.

Russell, James A. 1994. Is There Universal Recognition of Emotion From Facial Expression? A Review of the Cross-Cultural Studies. Psychological Bulletin. 115(1): 102-141.

Susskind, Joshua M and Adam K Anderson. Facial Expression Form and Function. Communicative Integrative Biology. 2008. 1(2): 148–149. PMCID: PMC2686004
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/emotional-facial-expressions-evolve/

Peleg, G., Katzir, G., Peleg, O., Kamara, M., Brodsky, L., Hel-Or, H., et al. (2006). Heriditary family signature of facial expression. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 103(43), 15921-15926.

Body Language of Nose Crinkle, Nose Turning or Nose Shrug

Body Language of Nose Crinkle, Nose Turning or Nose Shrug

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Nose Crinkle 1Cue: Nose Crinkle

Synonym(s): Half-Sneer, Nose Shrug, Nose Turning, Nose Twitch, similar to a sneer.

Description: The nose momentary twitches to the side. Imagine a half sneer where the nose moves to one side rather than flexes in a full sneer.

In One Sentence: The nose crinkle signals a negative thought.

How To Use it: The nose crinkle is highly effective when used as a microexpression to show distain. Following a statement you disagree with, crinkle the nose by flexing the muscles around it forming an expression similar to disgust. This should be held only momentarily and follow the statement immediately. Since the cue is held for such a small amount of time, flashing it shows your true feelings, but since it’s not vocal or persistent, carries less weight and therefore puts you at less risk to scrutiny.

The signal can also be used between two parties whom wish to share a secrete dislike. For example, eye contact toward a friend coupled with a nose crinkle upon the entry of a new associate indicates dislike.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I don’t like what I’m seeing or hearing and it’s forcing my nose to crinkle up as if I’m taking in a particularly offensive odor.”

Variant: The nose might do a full sneer with both sides of the nose flexing in unison.

Cue In Action: When it was suggested that the lunch hour be reduced from a full hour to half that in order to boost productivity, the associate shrugged his nose to the side in a half-sneer. It was obvious that he wasn’t in favour of the motion.

Meaning and/or Motivation: A signal of dislike or disbelief as if a person is moving their nose away from a disagreeable smell.

Cue Cluster: The nose turning is associated with other negative body language, watch for eyebrows to come together in grief, eye rolling, head turning away and eye contact toward supporters rather to the presenter of the information. The body might also be turned away from the presenter of the information.

Body Language Category: Automatic gesture, Closed facial gestures, Dislike (nonverbal), Leaked or involuntary body language, Microexpression, Microgestures, Micromessaging, Negative body language, Rejection body language.

Body Language of Jaw Clenching or Jaw Tightening

Body Language of Jaw Clenching or Jaw Tightening

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Jaw Clenching or Jaw Tightening 1Cue: Jaw Clenching or Jaw Tightening

Synonym(s): Clenched Jaw, Teeth clenching, Teeth Grinding, Talking Through The Teeth, Lip Occlusion.

Description: The jaws appear to be tightly compressed and the teeth can even be ground together back and forth. Sometime the muscles connected to the temple can be seen flexing.

In One Sentence: Jaw clenching is a signal of an internal struggle.

How To Use it: Flexing the jaw muscles can produce a bulge in the side of the mouth which can signal to others your mounting frustration. You might consider using this signal as a way to have others take your aggression more seriously or as a warning that you are about to lose your cool. Often, demonstrations of aggression lead others to submit and placate. This can work in your favour.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m angry or frustrated and I want to speak out, but feel that it’s inappropriate so my teeth are clenching down to bottle myself up and prevent me from saying something I might regret.”

Variant: Sometimes the jaw is held open where muscles both work to keep the jaw open yet clenched at the same time. This causes pain at the edges of the jaw which people register as stress. See Hand Clenching or Fist Clenching.

Cue In Action: a) He put his hand out to shake hands, as they hadn’t seen each other for some time. At the conclusion of the handshake, he clenched his jaw and said “It’s nice to have you back.” Obviously, he felt quite differently. b) She wasn’t impressed. She clenched her teeth and talked thought them. Right away, he knew she was to be avoided, especially until she had time to calm down.

Meaning and/or Motivation: The jaw clenching gesture might be a throwback to a primitive desire to bite someone else. Teeth clenching is a nonverbal signal that indicates hidden or inward-directed grief, stress, fear, tension, anxiety, anger, frustration, or that aggression is being suppressed. Other times, clenching is due to intense physical strain or in anticipation of pain.

Clenching and gripping are ways of signaling that a negative thought or emotion is being held back. In this case, it is a person holding their negative thoughts back from spilling out their mouths.

Many people are fitted with retainers and mouth guards to protect their teeth as they are habitual teeth clenchers and grinders during the night. This is thought to be because of a high stress lifestyle or occupation. Some even develop pain in the muscles surrounding the jaw. When jaw clenching happens during the day, it is a sign that a person is not well and wishes to speak out, but feels like they can’t so they bottle it up. Other times, stress boils high and someone will even speak through their teeth.

Cue Cluster: Be aware of microexpressions such as snarls of the nose, eyes darting, fists slightly clenched or the fingers beginning to curl, mouth pulled to the side, tight-lipped smile, eyes rolling. As the cue is subtle, it indicates that someone is unlikely to want to be overt with their distain.

Body Language Category: Aggressive body language, Anger body language, Clenching and gripping, Closed body language, Closed facial gestures, Dislike (nonverbal), Emotional body language, Frustration or frustrated body language, Hostile body language, Microgestures, Stressful body language, Threat displays.

Resources:

Arsenio, W. F., Cooperman, S., & Lover, A. Affective Predictors of Preschooler’s Aggression and Peer Acceptance: Direct and Indirect Effects. Developmental Psychology. 2000. 36: 438-448.

App, Betsy; Catherine L. Reed and Daniel N. McIntosh. Relative Contributions Of Face And Body Configurations: Perceiving Emotional State And Motion Intention. Cognition and Emotion. 2012. 26(4): 690-698.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/facial-expressions-versus-bodily-expressions-nonverbal-communication/

Arsenio, W. F., Cooperman, S., & Lover, A. Affective Predictors of Preschooler’s Aggression and Peer Acceptance: Direct and Indirect Effects. Developmental Psychology. 2000. 36: 438-448.

American Psychiatric Association, A. P. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of
mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1987). Neuroticism, somatic complaints, and disease: Is
the bark worse than the bite. Journal of Personality, 55, 299–316.

Call, B., Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (1998). Chimpanzee gaze following in an object-choice task. Animal Cognition, 1, 89–99.

Behne, T., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2005). One-Year-Olds Comprehend The Communicative Intentions Behind Gestures In A Hiding Game. Developmental Science, 8, 492–499.

Broth, Mathias and Lorenza Mondada. Walking Away: The Embodied Achievement of Activity Closings in Mobile Interaction. Journal of Pragmatics. 2013. 47: 41-58.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbally-negotiate-conversation-walking-away/

Gräfenhaina, Maria; Tanya Behnea; Malinda Carpentera; and Michael Tomaselloa. One-Year-Olds’ Understanding Of Nonverbal Gestures Directed To A Third Person. Cognitive Development. 2009. 24: 23-33. http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/origins-nonverbal-communication-body-language-infants-study/

Gungormus, Z., & Erciyas, K. (2009). Evaluation of the relationship between anxiety
and depression and bruxism. Journal of International Medical Research, 37,
547–550.

Hatz, Jessica L. and Martin J. Bourgeois. Anger as a Cue to Truthfulness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2010. 46: 680-683.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/anger-nonverbal-cue-truth-telling/

Hubbard, J. A. Emotion expression processes in children’s peer interaction: The role of Peer Rejection, Aggression, and Gender. Child Development. 2001. 72: 1426-1438.

Hubbard, J. A., Smithmyer, C. M., Ramsden, S. R., Parker, E. H., Flanagan, K. D., Dearing, K. F., Relyea, N., & Simons, R. F. Observational, Physiological, and Self-Reported Measures of Children’s Anger: Relations to Reactive Versus Proactive
Aggression. Child Development. 2002. 73, 1101-1118.

Hung, Iris W. and Aparna A. Labroo. From Firm Muscles to Firm Willpower: Understanding the Role of Embodied Cognition in Self-Regulation. Journal of Consumer Research. 2011 37(6): 1046-1064. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/657240
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Huang, Ding-Hau; Shih-Wei Chou; Yi-Lang Chen and Wen-Ko Chiou. Frowning and Jaw Clenching Muscle Activity Reflects the Perception of Effort During Incremental Workload Cycling. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2014. 13: 921-928.
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Johnson, Richard R. and Jasmine L. Aaron. Adults’ Beliefs Regarding Nonverbal Cues Predictive of Violence. Criminal Justice and Behavior. 2013. 40 (8): 881-894. DOI: 10.1177/0093854813475347.
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Kret, M. E. and B. de Gelder. When a Smile Becomes a Fist: The Perception of Facial and Bodily Expressions of Emotion in Violent Offenders. Exp Brain Res. 2013. 228: 399-410. DOI 10.1007/s00221-013-3557-6.
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Kampe, T., Edman, G., Bader, G., Tagdae, T., & Karlsson, S. (1997). Personality traits in a group of subjects with long-standing bruxing behaviour. Journal of Oral Rehabilitation, 24, 588–593.

Lavigne, G. J., Khoury, S., Abe, S., Yamaguchi, T., & Raphael, K. (2008). Bruxism
physiology and pathology: An overview for clinicians. Journal of Oral Rehabilitation, 35, 476–494.

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Marsh, Abigail A; Henry H. Yu; Julia C. Schechter and R. J. R. Blair. Larger than Life: Humans’ Nonverbal Status Cues Alter Perceived Size. PLoS ONE. 2009. 4(5): e5707. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005707. http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/large-life-nonverbal-dominance-affects-perception-size/

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the general population. Chest, 119, 53–61.

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and temporomandibular disorders in a group of children with bruxing behaviour. Journal of Oral Rehabilitation, 35, 585–593.

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Body Language of Hidden Mouth or Mouth Conceal

Body Language of Hidden Mouth or Mouth Conceal

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Hidden Mouth or Mouth Conceal 4 BodyLanguageProjectCom - Hidden Mouth or Mouth Conceal 2Cue: Hidden Mouth or Mouth Conceal

Synonym(s): Covering The Mouth, Hand Over The Mouth, Talking Through The Hand, Mouth Guard (The).

Description: Done by placing the hand over the mouth, in part, or whole and “talking through it.”

In One Sentence: Hiding the mouth is a nonverbal signal indicating secrecy and the need for security.

How To Use it: One should do their best to avoid covering their mouth with their hand as it is an obvious display of lack of confidence.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m insecure or telling a lie so I’m covering my mouth to give me protection, security and secrecy.”

Variant: The gesture can be done with a fist, a finger, or a ‘shushing’ motion with the index finger vertically placed over the lips. In the Mouth Guard the hand raises up to the cheek, or side of the mouth, or by wrapping a finger around the upper lip. Sometimes the hand does a downward swipe with the mouth, the hand is made into a fist and rested against the mouth, or it seems as if the person is talking through their hand. See Hand To Mouth.

Other times the subconscious mind is so powerful that the hand comes up and slaps the mouth, such as when telling a lie, but to cover this ‘tell’, a fake cough is added.

Cue In Action: a) While on a date, Dave wrapped his fingers around his upper lip. He felt terribly uncomfortable being around such an attractive girl. Ccovering his mouth gave him a place to hide – a security blanket. b) After telling a fib, Billie brought her index finger up to the corner of her mouth as if shushing herself.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Hand covering the mouth shows timidity, low self esteem and appears dishonest to others.

Mouth covering is also way to reduce the pain of telling a lie. In this case, it is so as to “speak no evil.” Small children perform a full cover and even slap their mouths when they say something they shouldn’t. Grown adults will sometimes cup their hands to their mouths like children in effort to “jam the words back in their mouths” but usually use more subtle gestures such as talking through their hand or placing a finger softly over their lips.

Talking with ones hand covering the mouth “talking through the hand” or resting the hand around the mouth by wrapping the fingers around the top, are significant clues indicating insecurity.

Subconsciously, hand-to-mouth gestures leads people to distrust others, and see them as less honest overall.

Cue Cluster: Hand to mouth is a standalone cue and doesn’t require many additional cues to spell meaning. The context of the cue, be it high anxiety such as on a date or interview, or while being suspect of lying, will define the meaning of hand to mouth.

Body Language Category: Barriers, Blocking or Shielding, Closed facial gestures, Low confidence body language, Low confidence hand displays, Lying or deceptive body language, Negative body language, Security blankets, Shy nonverbal, Suspicious body language.

Resources:

Akehurst, L., G. Kohnken, A. Vrij, and R. Bull. 1996. Lay persons’ and police officers’
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Appelbaum, P.S. The new lie detectors: Neuroscience, deception, and the courts. Psychiatric Services. 2007. 58: 460-462.

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Barroso, Felix ; Feld, Jason. Self-touching and attentional processes: The role of task difficulty, selection stage, and sex differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1986. 10(1): 51-64.

Buckley, V., & Semple, S. (2012). Evidence that displacement activities facilitate behavioural transitions in ring-tailed lemurs. Behavioural Processes, 90, 433–435.

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Elaad, E. 2003. Effects of feedback on the overestimated capacity to detect lies and the underestimated ability to tell lies. Applied Cognitive Psychology 17(3): 349-363.

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Hall, Jeffrey A. and Chong Xing. The Verbal and Nonverbal Correlates of the Five Flirting Styles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2015. 39:41–68. DOI 10.1007/s10919-014-0199-8
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Heaven, Laura ; Mcbrayer, Dan ; Prince, Bob. Role of sex in externally motivated self-touching gestures. Perceptual and motor skills. 2002. 95(1): 289-94.

Heaven, L ; Mcbrayer, D. External motivators of self-touching behavior. Perceptual and motor skills. 2000. 90(1): 338-42.

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Heaven, Laura ; Mcbrayer, Dan ; Prince, Bob. Role of sex in externally motivated self-touching gestures. Perceptual and motor skills. 2002. 95(1): 289-94.

Heaven, L ; Mcbrayer, D. External motivators of self-touching behavior. Perceptual and motor skills. 2000. 90(1): 338-42.

Katza, Carmit; Irit Hershkowitz; Lindsay C. Malloya; Michael E. Lamba; Armita Atabakia and Sabine Spindlera. Non-Verbal Behavior of Children Who Disclose or do not Disclose Child Abuse in Investigative Interviews. Child Abuse & Neglect. 2012. 36: 12-20.
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Koppensteiner, Markus ; Grammer, Karl. Body movements of male and female speakers and their influence on perceptions of personality. Personality and Individual Differences. 2011. 51(6): 743-747.

Koppensteiner, Markus ; Stephan, Pia ; Jäschke, Johannes Paul Michael. From body motion to cheers: Speakers’ body movements as predictors of applause. Personality and Individual Differences. 2015. 74: 182-185.

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Mohiyeddini, Changiz ; Semple, Stuart. Displacement behaviour regulates the experience of stress in men. Stress. 2013. 16(2): 163-171.

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Mann, S., A. Vrij, and R. Bull. 2002. Suspects, lies, and videotape: an analysis of authentic high-stake liars. Law and Human Behavior 26 (3): 365-376.

Mann, S., A. Vrij, and R. Bull. 2004. Detecting true lies: police officers’ ability to detect suspects’ lies. Journal of Applied Psychology 89(1): 137-149.

Moore, M. M. and D. L. Butler. 1989. Predictive aspects of nonverbal courtship behavior in women. Semiotica 76(3/4): 205-215.

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deception. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 20: 65-80.

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Body Language of Grin, Smirk or Closed-Lip Grin

Body Language of Grin, Smirk or Closed-Lip Grin

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Grin, Smirk or Closed-Lip Grin 1Cue: Grin, Smirk or Closed-Lip Grin

Synonym(s): Smirk, Closed-Lip Grin

Description: This is a smile done by keeping the mouth closed, teeth hidden, and curling up the corners of your lips.

In One Sentence: The grin is a type of smile that is mischievous.

How To Use it: Use the grin to signal that you are “up to no good.” This can work well in intimate relationships as a way to tease. Men can use this to good effect to create a ‘bad-boy’ type impression which can leave women guessing. This can help spark sexual interest.

Children can also use the grin to good effect against parents as it is often seen as playful and cheeky and not particularly troublesome.

One should avoid the grin when dealing with authoritative figures as these people, especially when under stress, may not take well to humour.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m holding back information and not being totally open and honest which is why I’m not doing a full smile and exposing all my teeth.”

Variant: See Smiling, Fear Smile, Friendly Smile, Frown (the) or Downturned Smile, Honest Smile or Duchenne Smile, Jaw Drop Smile, Nervous Smile, Polite Smile (the), Uneven Smile Or Lopsided Smile, Upper Lip Smile, Artificial Smile or Fake Smile, Nervous Smile, Honest Smile or Duchenne Smile, Contempt Facial Expression.

Cue In Action: Dave set up a prank on his good buddy when he was away picking up lunch.  When his buddy realized that his cubicle had been “redecorated,” Dave cracked his lips in a grin.

Meaning and/or Motivation: This smile indicates smugness, arrogance, or hiding of information or feelings.

It is a tight lipped smile with the addition of a degree self satisfaction for good measure.

The close lipped smile is a restraint and concealment smile commonly associated with politicians and those who are up to no good. Children are sometimes seen sporting this smile, as are people who are teasing or being playful. If someone is speaking, but holding a tight grin, you can be assured that they aren’t telling you everything.

Sometimes the smile is done to hide bad or yellow teeth. An honest smile bares the teeth.

Cue Cluster: The smirk has accompanying dominant body language such as head back, shoulders back, open postures along with dialogue riddle with exuberant pride.

Body Language Category: Appease, Clenching and gripping, Closed facial gestures, Defensive, Dislike (nonverbal), Lying or deceptive body language, Masked emotions, Negative body language.

Resources:

Abel, Ernest L. and Michael L. Kruger. Smile Intensity in Photographs Predicts Longevity. Psychological Science. 2010. 21(4): 542-544.
Seder, J. Patrick and Shigehiro Oishi. Intensity of Smiling in Facebook Photos Predicts Future Life Satisfaction. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2012. 3(4): 407-413.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/facebook-smile-predicts-life-satisfaction/

Colonnesi, Cristina; Susan M. Bogels; Wieke de Vente and Mirjana Majdandzic. What Coy Smiles Say About Positive Shyness in Early Infancy. Infancy. 2013. 18(2): 202–220. ISSN: 1525-0008 print / 1532-7078 online
DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2012.00117.x
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbal-meaning-coy-smiles-infants/

Fairbairn, Catharine E.; Michael A. Sayette; Odd O. Aalen and Arnoldo Frigessi. Alcohol and Emotional Contagion: An Examination of the Spreading of Smiles in Male and Female Drinking Groups. Clinical Psychological Science. 2014. DOI: 2167702614548892
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/alcohol-social-lubricant-male-smiles/

Gosselin, Pierre; Reem Maassarani; Alastair Younger and Mélanie Perron. Children’s Deliberate Control of Facial Action Units Involved in Sad and Happy Expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour. 2011. 35:225–242. DOI 10.1007/s10919-011-0110-9.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/childrens-control-facial-actions-improve-age-create-accurate-emotional-expressions/

Gunnery, Sarah D.; Judith A. Hall and Mollie A. Ruben. The Deliberate Duchenne Smile: Individual Differences in Expressive Control. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2013. 37:29–41. DOI 10.1007/s10919-012-0139-4
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/can-probably-fake-honest-smile-deliberate-duchenne-smile/

Golle, Jessika; Fred W.; Mast and Janek S. Lobmaier. Something to Smile About: The Interrelationship Between Attractiveness and Emotional Expression. Cognition and Emotion, 2014. 28:2: 298-310. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2013.817383.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/smiles-arent-just-cameras/

Guéguen, N. The Effect Of A Woman’s Smile On Men’s Courtship Behavior. Social Behavior and Personality. 2008. 36(9): 1233-1236.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/how-women-can-use-a-simple-smile-to-attract-men/

Guéguen, N., & Fischer-Lokou, J. (2004). Hitchhiker’s Smiles And Receipt Of Help. Psychological Reports. 94: 756-760.

Gueguen, Nicolas. Weather and Smiling Contagion: A Quasi Experiment With the Smiling Sunshine. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2013. 37:51–55. DOI 10.1007/s10919-012-0140-y
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/weather-smile-not-contagion-smile-linked-weather-conditions/

Hertenstein, Matthew J.; Carrie A. Hansel; Alissa M. Butts and Sarah N. Hile. Smile Intensity In Photographs Predicts Divorce Later In Life. Motiv Emot. 2009; 33:99-105
DOI 10.1007/s11031-009-9124-6
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/small-smiles-predicts-divorce/

Harker, L., & Keltner, D. (2001). Expressions Of Positive Emotion In Women’s College Yearbook Pictures And Their Relationship To Personality And Life Outcomes Across Adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(1), 112–124. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.80.1.112.

Kraft, Tara L ; Pressman, Sarah D. Grin and Bear It. Psychological Science. 2012. 23(11): 1372-1378.

Kalokerinos, Elise K. ; Greenaway, Katharine H. ; Pedder, David J. ; Margetts, Elise A. Desteno, David (editor). Don’t Grin When You Win: The Social Costs of Positive Emotion Expression in Performance Situations. Emotion. 2014. 14(1): 180-186.

Krumhuber, E., Manstead, A., & Kappas, A. Temporal Aspects of Facial Displays in Person and Expression Perception: The Effects of Smile Dynamics, Head-tilt, and Gender. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2007. 31(1), 39-56.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/slow-onset-smile-best/

Krause, Michael W. and Teh-Way David Chen. A Winning Smile? Smile Intensity, Physical Dominance, and Fighter Performance. Emotion. 2013. 13 (2): 270–279. DOI: 10.1037/a0030745
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Krumhuber, Eva G.; Manstead and Antony S. R. Can Duchenne smiles be feigned? New evidence on felt and false smiles. Emotion. 2009. 9 (6): 807-820.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/can-fake-real-smile-practice/

Krumhuber, Eva; Antony S. R.; Manstead; and Arvid Kappas. Temporal Aspects of Facial Displays in Person and Expression Perception: The Effects of Smile Dynamics, Head-tilt, and Gender. Journal Nonverbal Behavior. 2007; 31: 39-56. DOI 10.1007/s10919-006-0019-x
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Labroo, Aparna A.; Anirban Mukhopadhyay; Ping Dong. Not Always the Best Medicine: Why Frequent Smiling Can Reduce Wellbeing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2014. 53:156-162.
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Lockard, J. S., McVittie, R. I., & Isaac, L. M. (1977). Functional Significance Of The Affiliative Smile. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 9, 367-370.

Okubo, Matia; Akihiro, Kobayashi and Kenta Ishikawa. A Fake Smile Thwarts Cheater Detection. Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour. 2012. 36:217–225. DOI 10.1007/s10919-012-0134-9
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Reissland, Nadja; Brian Francis, James Mason, Karen Lincoln. Do Facial Expressions Develop before Birth? August 2011. 6(8): e24081. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024081.g001
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Reed, Lawrence Ian; Katharine N. Zeglen and Karen L. Schmidt. Facial Expressions as Honest Signals of Cooperative Intent in a One-Shot Anonymous Prisoner’s Dilemma Game. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2012. 33: 200-209.
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Samuele Centorrino, Elodie Djemai, Astrid Hopfensitz, Manfred Milinski, Paul Seabright. Honest Signaling in Trust Interactions: Smiles Rated as Genuine Induce Trust and Signal Higher Earning Opportunities. Evolution and Human Behavior DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.08.001.
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Tidd, K., & Lockard, J. (1978). Monetary Significance Of The Affiliative Smile: A Case For Reciprocal Altruism. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 11, 344-346.

Vazire, S., Naumann, L.P., Rentfrow, P. J., and Gosling, S. D. (2009). Smiling reflects different emotions in men and women. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32:5, 403–405.
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Vigil, J. M. (2009). A socio-relational framework of sex differences in the expression of emotion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 375–428.

Walsh, D. G., & Hewitt, J. (1985). Giving Men The Come-On: Effect Of Eye Contact And Smiling In A Bar Environment. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 61, 873-874.

Body Language of Furrowed Forehead

Body Language of Furrowed Forehead

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Furrowed Forehead 3Cue: 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:

Bard, K. A. (2003). Development of emotional expressions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Vol. 1000, pp. 88-90). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173-1882.

Biehl, M., Matsumoto, D., Ekman, P., Hearn, V., Heider, K., Kudoh, T., et al. (1997). Matsumoto and Ekman’s Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion (JACFEE): Reliability Data and Cross-National Differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 21, 3-21.

Carroll E. 1994. Innate and universal facial expressions: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research Izard, Psychological Bulletin. 115(2): 288-299.

Daniel H. Lee, Reza Mirza, John G. Flanagan and Adam K. Anderson. Optical Origins of Opposing Facial Expression Actions. Psychological Science published online 24 January 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0956797613514451
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de Waal, F. B. M. (2003). Darwin’s legacy and the study of primate visual communication. In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (pp. 7-31). New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

Duan, Xujun ; Dai, Qian ; Gong, Qiyong ; Chen, Huafu. Neural mechanism of unconscious perception of surprised facial expression. NeuroImage. 2010. 52(1): 401-407.

e Charlesworth, W. R. (1964). Instigation and maintenance of curiosity behavior as a function of surprise versus novel and familiar stimuli. Child Development, 35, 1169–1186.

Ekman, P. & O’Sullivan, M. (1991). Who can catch a liar? American Psychologist. 46, 913-920.

Ekman, Paul. 1994. Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions: A reply to Russell’s mistaken critique Psychological Bulletin. 115(2): 268-287.

Ekman, Paul. 1986. A new pan-cultural facial expression of emotion. Source: Motivation and Emotion Ekman. 10(2): 159-168.

Ekman, Paul and Friesen, W. V. 1987. Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 53(4): 712-717.

Ekman, Paul; Friesen, Wallace V. 1971. Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 17(2): 124-129.

Ekman, Paul. 1972. Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In J. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1971. 19: 207-282. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Ekman, P., Levenson, R. W., & Friesen, W. V. (1983). Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions. Science, 221(4616), 1208-1210.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991a). Confusions about context in the judgment of facial expression: A reply to “The contempt expression and the relativity thesis.”. Motivation & Emotion, 15(2), 169-176.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991b). Contradictions in the study of contempt: What’s it all about? Reply to Russell. Motivation & Emotion, 15(4), 293-296.

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Matsumoto, D., & Ekman, P. (1989). American-Japanese cultural differences in intensity ratings of facial expressions of emotion. Motivation & Emotion, 13(2), 143-157.

Matsumoto, D., Keltner, D., Shiota, M. N., Frank, M. G., & O’Sullivan, M. (2008). What’s in a face? Facial expressions as signals of discrete emotions. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland & L. Feldman Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 211-234). New York: Guilford Press.

Matsumoto, D., & Willingham, B. (2009). Spontaneous Facial Expressions of Emotion of Congenitally and Non-Congenitally Blind Individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(1), 1-10.

Mesquita, B., & Frijda, N. H. (1992). Cultural variations in emotions: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 197-204.

McClure, Erin B 2000. A meta-analytic review of sex differences in facial expression processing and their development in infants, children, and adolescents
Psychological Bulletin. 126(3): 424-453.

Mead, M. 1975. Review of “Darwin and facial expression.” Journal of Communication, 25: 209-213.

Peleg, G., Katzir, G., Peleg, O., Kamara, M., Brodsky, L., Hel-Or, H., et al. (2006). Heriditary family signature of facial expression. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 103(43), 15921-15926.

Parzuchowski, Michal ; Szymkow-Sudziarska, Aleksandra. Well, slap my thigh: expression of surprise facilitates memory of surprising material. Emotion. 2008. 8(3): 430-4.

Reisenzein, R. (2000). Exploring the strength of association between the components of emotion syndromes: the case of surprise. Cognition and Emotion, 14, 1–38.

Reisenzein, R., Bördgen, S., Holtbernd, T., & Matz, D. (2006). Evidence for strong dissociation between emotion and facial displays: the case of surprise. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 295–315.

Reisenzein, R., & Studtmann, M. (2007). On the expression and experience of surprise: no evidence for facial feedback, but evidence for a reverse self-inference effect. Emotion, 7, 612–627.

Scherer, K. R., Zentner, M. R., & Stern, D. (2004). Beyond surprise: the puzzle of infants’ expressive reactions to expectancy violation. Emotion, 4, 389–402.

Schützwohl, Achim ; Reisenzein, Rainer. Facial expressions in response to a highly surprising event exceeding the field of vision: a test of Darwin’s theory of surprise. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2012. 33(6): 657-664.

Vrticka, Pascal ; Lordier, Lara ; Bediou, Benoît ; Sander, David Desteno, David (editor). Human Amygdala Response to Dynamic Facial Expressions of Positive and Negative Surprise. Emotion. 2014. 14(1): 161-169.

Vanhamme, J. (2000). The link between surprise and satisfaction: an exploratory research on how to best measure surprise. Journal of Marketing Management, 16, 565–582.

Body Language of The Frown or Downturned Smile

Body Language of The Frown or Downturned Smile

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Frown (the) or Downturned SmileCue: The Frown or Downturned Smile

Synonym(s): Reverse Smile, Upside Down Smile, Inverted Smile, Downturned Smile.

Description: Happens when the mouth is inverted into a down-facing “u” shape. It is a downward pull of the corners of the mouth and eyelids.

In One Sentence: The downturned smile signals high stress, unhappiness, anger, displeasure, grief, sadness and other negative thoughts such as disapproval.

How To Use it: Use the downturned smile to show others that you are not happy with the situation you find yourself. When done to a receptive audience, the downturned smile can evoke protective feelings by signaling grief or sadness. This can help you by motivating them to resolve your displeasure.

Context: General

Verbal Translation: “I’m so stressed and unhappy that my smiling face has been turned upside down.”

Variant: Lip compression (See Compressed Lips) is a close relative to the down-turned smile. While smiling the corners of the mouth curl downwards momentarily displaying a caught/suppressed frown. See Smiling, Fear Smile, Friendly Smile, Frown (the) or Downturned Smile, Honest Smile or Duchenne Smile, Jaw Drop Smile, Nervous Smile, Polite Smile (the), Uneven Smile Or Lopsided Smile, Upper Lip Smile, Artificial Smile or Fake Smile, Nervous Smile, Honest Smile or Duchenne Smile, Contempt Facial Expression.

Cue In Action: When confronted with bad news, his lips turned from a smile to the complete opposite as his lips moved into an inverted u-shape.

Meaning and/or Motivation: It indicates high stress, unhappiness, anger, displeasure, grief, sadness and other negative thoughts as well as disapproval. Additionally, the down-turned smile can show unhappiness, anger, and depression when held for any permanent length of time. When it flashes quickly as a micro expression, it usually signifies stress.

It has been shown that frowning requires more muscles and effort than does smiling and so naturally our default facial expression is the smile, but when frowning does happen, it has true meaning due to its required effort.

Cue Cluster: The relative negativity of the cue is amplified or minimized by associated cues. Dominant people will use disapproving frowns, snarls or pursed lips to control other people. They might squint while in conversation, or avoid eye contact altogether, or even hold prolonged unblinking eye contact. When people are truly sad, they will hunch or slump over, sooth themselves by stroking various parts of their body and will orient away from people.

Body Language Category: Anger, Closed facial gestures, Depressive body language, Dislike (nonverbal), Negative body language, Rejection body language, Stressful body language, Suppressed facial expression.

Resources:

Aviezer, Hillel; Ran R. Hassin; Jennifer Ryan; Cheryl Grady; Josh Susskind; Adam Anderson; Morris Moscovitch and Shlomo Bentin. Angry, Disgusted, or Afraid? Studies on the Malleability of Emotion Perception. Psychological Science. 2008. 19(7): 724-732.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/emotions-read-context-study/

Bard, K. A. (2003). Development of emotional expressions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Vol. 1000, pp. 88-90). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173-1882.

Biehl, M., Matsumoto, D., Ekman, P., Hearn, V., Heider, K., Kudoh, T., et al. (1997). Matsumoto and Ekman’s Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion (JACFEE): Reliability Data and Cross-National Differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 21, 3-21.

de Waal, F. B. M. (2003). Darwin’s legacy and the study of primate visual communication. In P. Ekman, J. Campos, R. J. Davidson & F. B. M. De Waal (Eds.), Emotions inside out: 130 years after Darwin’s The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (pp. 7-31). New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

Dosmukhambetova, Dina and Antony S. R. Manstead. Fear Attenuated and Affection Augmented: Male Self-Presentation in a Romantic Context. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2012. 36:135–147. DOI 10.1007/s10919-011-0126-1.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/stifle-frown-expression-hot-chick-watching/

De Morree, Helma M ; Marcora, Samuele M. The face of effort: frowning muscle activity reflects effort during a physical task. Biological psychology. 2010. 85(3): 377-82.

Edward R. Morrison; Paul H. Morris and Kim A. Bard. The Stability of Facial Attractiveness: Is It What You’ve Got or What You Do with It? Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2013; 37:59–67 DOI 10.1007/s10919-013-0145-1.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/got-use-studying-facial-attractiveness-emotional-expression/

Ekman, P. (1994). Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions: A reply to Russell’s mistaken critique. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 268-287.

Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., O’Sullivan, M., Chan, A., Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis, I., Heider, K., et al. (1987). Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 53(4), 712-717.

Ekman, P., Levenson, R. W., & Friesen, W. V. (1983). Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions. Science, 221(4616), 1208-1210.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991a). Confusions about context in the judgment of facial expression: A reply to “The contempt expression and the relativity thesis.”. Motivation & Emotion, 15(2), 169-176.

Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Matsumoto, D. (1991b). Contradictions in the study of contempt: What’s it all about? Reply to Russell. Motivation & Emotion, 15(4), 293-296.

Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128(2), 205-235.

Fernandez-Dols, Jose-Miguel; Pilar Carrera and Carlos Crivelli. Facial Behavior While Experiencing Sexual Excitement. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2011. 35: 63–71
DOI 10.1007/s10919-010-0097-7.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-language-orgasm-face-pained-face/

Gehricke, Jean-Guido ; Fridlund, Alan J. Smiling, frowning, and autonomic activity in mildly depressed and nondepressed men in response to emotional imagery of social contexts. Perceptual and motor skills. 2002. 94(1): 141-51.

Humphries, Courtney. Not raving but frowning.(Viewpoint essay). New Scientist. 2012. 215(2874): 42(4).

Huang, Ding-Hau; Shih-Wei Chou; Yi-Lang Chen and Wen-Ko Chiou. Frowning and Jaw Clenching Muscle Activity Reflects the Perception of Effort During Incremental Workload Cycling. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2014. 13: 921-928.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/physical-strain-leads-jaw-clenching-frowning-body-language/

Ichikawa, Hiroko ; Makino, Junshiro. Function of congruent facial responses to smiling and frowning. Perceptual and motor skills. 2007. 105(3 Pt 1): 838-51.

Johnson, Richard R. and Jasmine L. Aaron. Adults’ Beliefs Regarding Nonverbal Cues Predictive of Violence. Criminal Justice and Behavior. 2013. 40 (8): 881-894. DOI: 10.1177/0093854813475347.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/wanna-fight-nonverbal-cues-believed-indicate-violence/

Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). Voluntary facial action generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity. Psychophysiology, 27(4), 363-384.

Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., Heider, K., & Friesen, W. V. (1992). Emotion and autonomic nervous system activity in the Minangkabau of West Sumatra. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 62(6), 972-988.

Leanne Brinke, Sarah MacDonald, Stephen Porter, Brian O’Connor. Crocodile Tears: Facial, Verbal and Body Language Behaviours Associated with Genuine and Fabricated Remorse. Law and Human Behavior, 2012; 36(1): 51-59.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/crocodile-tears-humans-show-greater-range-of-emotions-and-speech-hesitation-during-fake-remorse/

Marzoli, Daniele; Mariagrazia Custodero, Alessandra Pagliara, and Luca Tommasi. Sun-Induced Frowning Fosters Aggressive Feelings. Cognition And Emotion. 2013; 27 (8): 1513-1521.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/the-sun-can-produce-feelings-of-anger-and-aggression-it-makes-us-frown/

Morree, Helma ; Marcora, Samuele. Frowning muscle activity and perception of effort during constant-workload cycling. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2012. 112(5): 1967-1972.

Matsumoto, D. (1989). Cultural influences on the perception of emotion. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 20(1), 92-105.

Matsumoto, D. (1992). American-Japanese cultural differences in the recognition of universal facial expressions. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 23(1), 72-84.

Matsumoto, D. (2001). Culture and Emotion. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), The Handbook of Culture and Psychology (pp. 171-194). New York: Oxford University Press.

Matsumoto, D., & Ekman, P. (1989). American-Japanese cultural differences in intensity ratings of facial expressions of emotion. Motivation & Emotion, 13(2), 143-157.

Matsumoto, D., Keltner, D., Shiota, M. N., Frank, M. G., & O’Sullivan, M. (2008). What’s in a face? Facial expressions as signals of discrete emotions. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland & L. Feldman Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 211-234). New York:
Guilford Press.

Matsumoto, D., & Willingham, B. (2009). Spontaneous Facial Expressions of Emotion of Congenitally and Non-Congenitally Blind Individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(1), 1-10.

Mesquita, B., & Frijda, N. H. (1992). Cultural variations in emotions: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 197-204.

Peleg, G., Katzir, G., Peleg, O., Kamara, M., Brodsky, L., Hel-Or, H., et al. (2006). Heriditary family signature of facial expression. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 103(43), 15921-15926.

Penton-Voak, Ian S; Jamie Thomas; Suzanne H. Gage; Mary McMurran; Sarah McDonald; and Marcus R. Munafò. Increasing Recognition of Happiness in Ambiguous Facial Expressions Reduces Anger and Aggressive Behavior. Psychological Science. 2013; 24(5): 688-697.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/retraining-brain-for-smiles-lowers-aggression/

Rothman, Naomi B. Steering Sheep: How Expressed Emotional Ambivalence Elicits Dominance in Interdependent Decision Making Contexts. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 2011. 116: 66-82.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/ambivalent-facial-expression-form-dominance-study/

Teixeira Fiquer, Juliana; Paulo Sérgio Boggio and Clarice Gorenstein. Talking Bodies: Nonverbal Behavior in the Assessment of Depression Severity. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2013. 150: 1114-1119.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/using-nonverbal-behaviour-to-assess-depression-severity/

Body Language of Eyes Defocused or Eyes Unfocused

Body Language of Eyes Defocused or Eyes Unfocused

No picCue: Eyes Defocused or Eyes Unfocused

Synonym(s): Unfocused Eyes, Glazing Over.

Description: When the eyes are unmoving and stare blankly seemingly looking through people and things.

In One Sentence: Defocused eyes signals that a person is internalizing emotions and thoughts.

How To Use it: Use defocused eyes to escape and reflect. This can be useful when trying to free one’s self of particularly stressful situation or when one needs time to reflect. Permitting the eyes to lose their intensity is useful while in busy or congested areas of cities as it allows the mind to rest. When you find yourself daydreaming, go along with it, as this can help recharge the mind. Often, daydreaming produces unique ideas and solutions.

Defocused eyes can also be used to signal to presenters that they should improve their delivery.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m dealing with something internally. My thoughts are focused and intense or contrarily, daydreaming, thus my eyes are relaxed and unfocused as I think inwardly rather than deal with the external world.”

Variant: Staring or The Evil Eye.

Cue In Action: She tried to get the little boy’s attention, but he stared blankly out the window. His mind had drifted off to an imaginary world of dinosaurs.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Indicates that attention is focused inward rather than outward.

Unfocused eyes can be as much the result of boredom as a desire to seek stimulation from inner thoughts and ideas, instead of what the real world has to offer. Other times, unfocused eyes are due to a need to escape for some time alone to reflect without external inputs. Additionally, people may escape particularly stressful situations through unfocused eyes as a method of coping stoically.

Cue Cluster: The head and body will remain still and be relaxed, the face will be open up and remain calm and blank. The body will seem to lose it’s flex and enter a sort of dormant or zombie state.

Body Language Category: Boredom, Closed facial gestures, Defensive, Disengagement, Distancing or moving away, Escape movements, Indicators of disinterest (IOD), Pensive displays.

Resources:

Carvajal, Fernando ; Rubio, Sandra ; Serrano, Juan ; Ríos-Lago, Marcos ; Alvarez-Linera, Juan ; Pacheco, Lara ; Martín, Pilar. Is a neutral expression also a neutral stimulus? A study with functional magnetic resonance. Experimental Brain Research, 2013. 228(4): 467-479.

Channell, Marie Moore ; Barth, Joan M. Individual differences in preschoolers’ emotion content memory: the role of emotion knowledge. Journal of experimental child psychology. 2013. 115(3): 552-61.

Ekas, Naomi V. ; Haltigan, John D. ; Messinger, Daniel S. The Dynamic Still-Face Effect: Do Infants Decrease Bidding over Time when Parents Are Not Responsive? Developmental Psychology. 2013. 49(6): 1027-1035.

Giuseppe Blasi; Ahmad R. Hariri; Guilna Alce; Paolo Taurisano; Fabio Sambataro; Saumitra Das; Alessandro Bertolino; Daniel R. Weinberger and Venkata S. Mattay. Preferential Amygdala Reactivity to the Negative Assessment of Neutral Faces. 2009. 6(9): 847-853.

Heisel, Marnin ; Mongrain, Myriam. Facial Expressions and Ambivalence: Looking for Conflict in All the Right Faces. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2004. 28(1): 35-52.

King, Laura A. Ambivalence over emotional expression and reading emotions in situations and faces. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1998 74(3): 753(10)

Kraft, Tara L ; Pressman, Sarah D. Grin and Bear It. Psychological Science. 2012. 23(11): 1372-1378.

Heisel, Marnin ; Mongrain, Myriam. Facial Expressions and Ambivalence: Looking for Conflict in All the Right Faces. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2004. 28(1): 35-52.

Matsumoto, David ; Hwang, Hyisung C. Desteno, David (editor). Judgments of Subtle Facial Expressions of Emotion. Emotion. 2014. 14(2): 349-357.

Pinkham, Amy E. ; Brensinger, Colleen ; Kohler, Christian ; Gur, Raquel E. ; Gur, Ruben C. Actively paranoid patients with schizophrenia over attribute anger to neutral faces. Schizophrenia Research. 2011 125(2): 174-178.

Rothman, Naomi B. Steering Sheep: How Expressed Emotional Ambivalence Elicits Dominance in Interdependent Decision Making Contexts. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 2011. 116: 66-82.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/ambivalent-facial-expression-form-dominance-study

Shah, Rebecca ; Lewis, Michael. Locating the neutral expression in the facial-emotion space. Visual Cognition. 2003. 10(5): 549-566.

Weisfeld, Glenn E. and Jody M. Beresford. Erectness of Posture as an Indicator of Dominance or Success in Humans. Motivation and Emotion. 1982. 6(2): 113-130.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-language-cues-dominance-submission-children/

Wolf K, Mass R, Ingenbleek T, Kiefer F, Naber D et al. (2005) The facial pattern of disgust, appetence, excited joy and relaxed joy: an improved facial EMG study. Scand J Psychol 46: 403-409. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2005.00471.x. PubMed: 16179022.

Woud, Marcella L. ; Becker, Eni S. ; Lange, Wolf – Gero ; Rinck, Mike. Effects of approach-avoidance training on implicit and explicit evaluations of neutral, angry, and smiling face stimuli.(Relationships & Communications). Psychological Reports. 2013. 113(1): 1211(18).

Vanderhasselt, Marie – Anne ; Kühn, Simone ; De Raedt, Rudi. Put on your poker face’: neural systems supporting the anticipation for expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 2013 8(8): 903-910.