Category: Microexpression

Confused body language, Eye Language, Microexpression, Nonthreatening body language, Open facial gestures, Submissive body language

Body Language of Eyebrow Hold

by Chris • October 21, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Eyebrow Hold

Cue: Eyebrow Hold

Synonym(s): Eyebrow Shrug.

Description: Happens when the eyebrows raise and pause for a second before being lowered.

In One Sentence: The eyebrow hold is a signal that a person is dumbfounded and is questioning what they are hearing or seeing.

How To Use it: Hold the eyebrows up when you want to make a nonverbal inquiry. Holding the eyebrows up momentarily, is a way to ask people to complete their thought. In other words, you are holding your eyebrows up awkwardly in hopes they will resolve the problem so you can drop them back down.

Mothers can use this effectively with misbehaving children. Simply raise the eyebrows, cock the head to the side, make your request, and wait for a correct response before lowering them.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m raising my eyebrows and I’m willing to hold them here until someone steps in and fixed my problem.” B) “So, what do you think, have I don’t a good job?”

Variant: See Eyebrow Raise, Eyebrow Cock, Eyebrow Hold, Eyebrow Lowering, Eyebrow Flash, Eyebrows Knit or Oblique Eyebrows Of Grief.

Cue In Action: The speaker would often raise his eyebrows as he told a joke and held them up. He wanted and expected applause.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Eyebrow hold indicates a lack of knowledge or even helplessness. It is a mild form of unpleasant surprise. Eyebrows are held up when someone seeks approval from others. This approval may come nonverbally as a head nod or smile or a verbal agreement.

Politicians and children often raise their eyebrows and hold them up waiting for approval from others.

Cue Cluster: The eyebrow hold is sometimes accompanied by palms up, as if “offering.”

Body Language Category: Confused, Eye Language, Microexpressions, Nonthreatening body language, Open facial gestures, Submissive body language.

Resources:

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.

Grammer, Karl ; Schiefenhövel, Wulf ; Schleidt, Margret ; Lorenz, Beatrice ; Eibl eibesfeldt, Irenäus. Patterns on the Face: The Eyebrow Flash in Crosscultural Comparison. Ethology. 1988. 77(4): 279-299.

Hall, Judith ; LeBeau, Lavonia ; Reinoso, Jeannette ; Thayer, Frank. Status, Gender, and Nonverbal Behavior in Candid and Posed Photographs: A Study of Conversations Between University Employees. Sex Roles. 2001 44(11): 677-692.

Ludden, G. D. S., Schifferstein, H. N. J., & Hekkert, P. (2009). Visual–tactual incongruities in products as sources of surprise. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 27, 63–89.

Martin, David John. 1997. Slaughtering a sacred cow: The eyebrow flash is not a universal social greeting. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering 58(5-B): 2751.

Moore, Monicam. Human Nonverbal Courtship Behavior—A Brief Historical Review. Journal of Sex Research. 2010 47(2-3): 171-180.

Moore, Monica. Courtship Signaling and Adolescents: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Journal of Sex Research. 1995. 32(4): 319-328.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/girls-just-want-to-have-fun-the-origins-of-courtship-cues-in-girls-and-women/

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

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.

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/

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.

Watt, Roger ; Craven, Ben ; Quinn, Sandra. A role for eyebrows in regulating the visibility of eye gaze direction. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 2007. 60(9): 1169-1177.

Wheldall, Kevin ; Mittler, Peter. Eyebrow-raising, eye widening and visual search nursery school children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 1976. 17(1): 57-62.

Aggressive body language, Anger body language, Attentive body language, Closed body language, Closed facial gestures, Confused body language, Dislike (nonverbal), Doubt or disbelief body language, Eye blocking, Eye Language, Microexpression, Micromessaging, Pensive displays, Protective reflexes, Suppressed facial expression, Suspicious body language

Body Language of Eye Squinting or Narrowing Eyes

by Chris • October 21, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Eye Squinting or Narrowing Eyes

Cue: Eye Squinting or Narrowing Eyes

Synonym(s): Narrowing Eyes, Furrowing Eyes, Compressed Eyelids, Wincing Eyes, Eye Constriction, Eye Blocking, Eye Shield, Shielding The Eyes, Squinting.

Description: Eye squinting happens when the eyelids are compressed together serving to constrict the eyes. It can sometimes occur in just a fraction of a second before disappearing.

In One Sentence: Narrowing the eyes is due to physical or emotional pain.

How To Use it: When you do not like what is being said or seen, simply narrow your eyes. This tells others that you do not like what you are seeing or hearing. You may perform this eye language in brief within just fractions of a seconds. While people may not consciously perceive the signal, it will likely still register subconsciously. If the person for whom the cue is intended, notices, they may revisit their proposal and add additional incentives to ease your negative judgment.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “What I’m seeing is causing me emotional or physical pain and to prevent all that negativity from coming into my body I’m going to squint and block to resist.”

Variant: See Anger Facial Expression, Hand To Eye Gesture.

Cue In Action: a) A person will wince when reading objectionable portions of a contract. b) She winced when the student missed the correct note on the piano. It caused her visceral pain.

Meaning and/or Motivation: An eye blocking form of body language designed to prohibit distasteful images or even thoughts from being received at full view. Narrowing eyes indicates contempt, distaste and anger. A person will not only squint from seeing objectionable sights, but also negative thoughts or sounds.

Wincing falls into the category of microexpressions since it can happen in only fractions of a second before disappearing, yet it remains full of meaning.

Wincing can also be due to the sudden approach of projectiles toward the eyes or body as well as the sun’s glare. Eyes can also be squinted in order to help a person see print that is too small. Thus, at times, squinting forms a functional purpose not exclusively driven by emotion.

A delayed opening or prolonged eye closure can be due to negative emotions or displeasure. A full wince with the eyes closed tightly signifies the desire to totally block out information.

Cue Cluster: General tightening of the face will occur such as mouth pursing. We may also see lip biting, hand clenching, shoulders and feet turned away, arms pulled in to protect and arms crossed.

Body Language Category: Attentive, Aggressive body language, Anger, Confused, Closed body language, Closed facial gestures, Dislike (nonverbal), Doubt or disbelief body language, Eye blocking, Eye Language, Microexpressions, Micromessaging, Negative body language, Pensive displays, Protective reflexes, Suppressed facial expression, Suspicious body language.

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/

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/

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.

Brooks, C. I., Church, M. A., & Fraser, L. 1986. Effects of duration of eye contact on judgments of personality characteristics. Journal of Social Psychology. 126: 71–78.

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

Davis 1978. Camera Eye-Contact by the Candidates in the Presidential Debates of 1976 Source: The journalism quarterly. 55 (3): 431 -437.

Ellsworth, Phoebe; Carlsmith, J Merrill. 1973. Eye contact and gaze aversion in an aggressive encounter. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 28(2): 280-292.

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

Gordon, A. K. and A. G. Miller. 2000. Perspective differences in the construal of lies: is deception in the eye of the beholder? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 26 (1): 46-55.

Gilliam, Harold V. B.; Van Den Berg, Sjef. 1980. Different Levels of Eye Contact: Effects on Black and White College Students. Urban Education. 15 (1): 83-92.

Goldman. 1980. Effect of Eye Contact and Distance on the Verbal Reinforcement of Attitude. The Journal of social psychology 111(1): 73 -78.

Greene 1979. Title: Need-Fulfillment and Consistency Theory: Relationships Between Self-Esteem and Eye Contact. Source: Western journal of speech communication. 43(2): 123 -133.

Galin, D. and Ornstein, R., 1974. Individual Differences in Cognitive Style – Reflective Eye Movements; Neuropsychologia, 12: 376-397.

Craig, Kenneth D. ; Patrick, Christopher J. Hogan, Robert (editor). Facial Expression During Induced Pain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1985 48(4): 1080-109.

Frijda, Nico H.. What is pain facial expression for? Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2002. 25(4): 460-460.

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/

Hermann, Christiane; Flor, Herta. Facial expression of pain more than a fuzzy expression of distress? Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2002. 25(4): 462-463.

Kunz, Miriam ; Mylius, Veit ; Schepelmann, Karsten ; Lautenbacher, Stefan. Impact of age on the facial expression of pain. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 2008. 64(3): 311-318.

Keogh, Edmund; Holdcroft, Anita. Sex differences in pain: Evolutionary links to facial pain expression. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2002. 25(4): 465-465.

Kunz, Miriam ; Peter, Jessica ; Huster, Sonja ; Lautenbacher, Stefan Gray, Marcus (Editor). Pain and Disgust: The Facial Signaling of Two Aversive Bodily Experiences (Comparing Facial Expressions of Pain and Disgust). 2013. 8(12): p.e83277

Konopacki 1987. Eye Movement Betrays a Prospect’s Inner Feelings Source: Marketing news 21(10): 4.

Langer, Julia and Rodebaugh, Thomas. Social Anxiety and Gaze Avoidance: Averting Gaze but not Anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 2013, Vol.37(6): 1110-1120.

LeResche, Linda ; Dworkin, Samuel F. Facial expression accompanying pain
Social Science & Medicine. 1984. 19(12): 1325-1330.

Mobbs, N.A. 1968. Eye-contact in Relation to Social Introversion-Extraversion. British Journal of Social Clinical Psychology 7: 305-306.

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

Pantic, Maja; Rothkrantz, Leon J. M. Machine understanding of facial expression of pain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2002. 25(4): 469-470.

Rutter, D.C; D. C. Pennington, M. E. Dewey and J. Swain. 1984. Eye-contact as a chance product of individual looking: Implications for the intimacy model of Argyle and Dean. Source: Journal of nonverbal behavior. 8(4): 250-258.

Richard Tessler and Lisa Sushelsky. 1978. Effects of eye contact and social status on the perception of a job applicant in an employment interviewing situation. Journal of Vocational Behavior 13(3): 338-347.

Sitton, Sarah C; Griffin, Susan T. 1981. Detection of deception from clients’ eye contact patterns. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 28(3): 269-271.

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

Underwood, M. K.. Glares of Contempt, Eye Rolls of Disgust and Turning Away to Exclude: Non-Verbal Forms of Social Aggression among Girls. Feminism & Psychology. 2004 14(3): 371-375.

Vlaeyen, Johan W.S. ; Hanssen, Marjolein ; Goubert, Liesbet ; Vervoort, Tine ; Peters, Madelon ; van Breukelen, Gerard ; Sullivan, Michael J.L. ; Morley, Stephen. Threat of pain influences social context effects on verbal pain report and facial expression. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 2009 47(9): 774-782.

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

Closed facial gestures, Dislike (nonverbal), Emotional body language, Microexpression, Negative body language, Rejection body language, Universal facial expressions

Body Language of The Disgusted Facial Expressions

by Chris • October 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of The Disgusted Facial Expressions

Cue: Disgust Facial Expression

Synonym(s): N/A

Description: One of the six main universal facial expressions characterized by eyebrows that are turned inward, raised upper lip, winkled nose and a rise in cheek muscles.
Here, the lower eyelids rise and lines appear in the skin below them.

In One Sentence: Raising the upper lip in disgust signals a negative visceral reaction to a person, idea, or situation.

How To Use it: The disgust expression can be done quickly as a microexpression in order to convey detest for an idea or person. Disgust usually registers just below the conscious radar of the people seeing it. While brief, however, disgust can send a strong negative nonverbal message.

Conversely, the disgust expression can be held for a longer period of time to send a highly potent message that one is not on board with an idea, policy or even a person. One might use this in a negotiation to influence the offers presented. When viewed, others will see the need to ratify the offer to make it more palatable.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m so turned off by what I’m seeing and hearing that my face is tightening and contracting due to a sickening discomfort.”

Variant: See Contempt Facial Expression, Scorn, Sneering.

Cue In Action: During an office meeting, Debbie, a long time employee would frequently sneer in disdain when the new girl would make particularly intelligent additions to the dialogue. Her jealousy was obvious.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Disgust is one of the six main universal facial expressions: happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger and disgust.

Disgust is a throwback expression to the visceral reaction to eating food that is particularly unpalatable. This is why we see the nose sneer. To replicate this facial expression, just imagine taking a deep breath of rotted flesh that has been plated for a meal!

When disgust is directed to a person with eye contact, its motivation is raw and rooted in deep anger. This person feels repulsed by the situation.

Cue Cluster: Usually coupled with a downward gaze to strengthen the cue and in extreme cases the head comes up making the disgust expression very powerful. If eye contact is added to the disgusted facial expression, it is a salient message that others will find difficult to ignore.

Body Language Category: Closed facial gestures, Dislike (nonverbal), Emotional body language, Microexpressions, Negative body language, Rejection body language, Universal facial expressions.

Resources:

Aranguren, Martin. “Nonverbal interaction patterns in the Delhi Metro: interrogative looks and play-faces in the management of interpersonal distance.” Interaction Studies. 2016. 16(1) forthcoming.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/seriously-stop-touching-use-nonverbal-signaling-manage-unwanted-touching-busy-public-areas/

Aranguren, Martin and Stephane Tonnelat. Emotional Transactions in the Paris Subway: Combining Naturalistic Videotaping, Objective Facial Coding and Sequential Analysis in the Study of Nonverbal Emotional Behavior. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2014. 38:495–521. DOI 10.1007/s10919-014-0193-1

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

Curtis, V., & Biran, A. (2001). Dirt, disgust, and disease: Is hygiene in our genes? Perspectives in biology and medicine, 44(1), 17–31.

Curtis V, Aunger R, Rabie T (2004) Evidence that disgust evolved to protect from risk of disease. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 271: S131–S133. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2003.0144. PubMed: 15252963.

Carroll JM, Russell JA (1996) Do facial expressions signal specific emotions? Judging emotion from the face in context. J Pers Soc Psychol 70: 205–218. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.70.2.205. PubMed: 8636880.

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. & 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.

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.

Gagnon, Mathieu ; Gosselin, Pierre ; Hudon-ven der Buhs, Isabelle ; Larocque, Karine ; Milliard, Karine. Children’s Recognition and Discrimination of Fear and Disgust Facial Expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2010. 34(1): 27-42.

Inbar, Y., & Pizarro, D. Disgust, politics, and responses to threat [commentary]. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2014. 37: 315-316.

Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., Iyer, R., and Haidt, J. (2012). Disgust sensitivity, political conservatism, and voting. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2012. 3: 537-544.

Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., and Bloom Disgusting smells cause decreased liking of gay men. Emotion. 2012. 12: 23-27.

Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., & Bloom, P. Conservatives are more easily disgusted than liberals. Cognition and Emotion. 2009. 23, 714-725.

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

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.

Pizarro, D.A., Inbar, Y., and Helion, C.. On disgust and moral judgment. Emotion Revie2. 2011. 3: 267–268.

David Pizarro (video) talk about the possible evolution of the disgust facial expression: http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/evolution-politics-disgust-ted-talk-david-pizarro/

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.

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., & Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1096–1109. doi:10.1177/0146167208317771.

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/

Underwood, M. K.. Glares of Contempt, Eye Rolls of Disgust and Turning Away to Exclude: Non-Verbal Forms of Social Aggression among Girls. Feminism & Psychology. 2004 14(3): 371-375

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.

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/

Dislike (nonverbal), Indicators of disinterest (IOD), Microexpression, Negative body language, Rejection body language, Suspicious body language, Universal facial expressions

Body Language of The Contempt Facial Expression and Contempt Smile

by Chris • October 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of The Contempt Facial Expression and Contempt Smile

Cue: Contempt Facial Expression and Contempt Smile

Synonym(s): Contempt Smile.

Description: In the contempt facial expression, wrinkles appear on the nose with one lip often raised to form a sneer. The eyes narrow. Lips are frequently pushed forward with a tight mouth raised slightly at the corners. The chin usually drops, or lifts and the head turns to the side.

The contempt smile happens when the corners of the lips are tightened unevenly and one side is lifted slightly higher than the other. In this case, the eyebrows are slightly raised. The smile might also push the lower lip up by the chin muscle and pull the corners of the mouth down. This is often coupled with lowered brows.

In One Sentence: The contempt facial expression is a tensing around the nose with one lip raised and serves to demonstrate disagreement.

How To Use it: Use the expression to show others that you are not in agreement but do not wish to do so overtly in a verbal fashion. A micro-sneer can be sent when you want to give a subtle hint of disapproval. The cue works in any context as it permits one to tow the line of confrontation with a subtle nonverbal expression. In this capacity, people will understand that you are not in agreement, but will not be able to hold you to it as the cue is fleeting and barely noticeable. Therefore, the cue is useful for expressing disapproval and disagreement without being overt.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I really don’t like what you’re saying or doing and so my face is scrunching up as if there is a malodor.”

Variant: Variants exist of high and low contempt smiles. These are demonstrated through degrees of stress across the face.

As high contempt is reached, the cues become more obvious. Disgust is close to Contempt and usually causes people to look downward on other people. Lint picking, avoiding eye contact, turning the body away can all show various degrees of contempt. Contempt can also be a microexpression and flash so quickly that it is barely noticed. Watch for the microexpression of the nose sneer or the eyes narrowing quickly.

Cue In Action: The conversation turned from bad to worse as it shifted onto politics. When they couldn’t see eye-to-eye on the matter, he wrinkled his nose, narrowed his eyes and tightened his lips while shaking his head in disgust. The message was clear.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Contempt is an emotion designed to show disagreement and an inability to see eye-to-eye on matters. Some contempt runs deeper than others and can be amplified with additional cues that come across as attacks. Contempt can be high or low, delivered by the relative strength of the associated cues.

Cue Cluster: Contempt is accompanied by looking downward, palms up in a “what are you doing posture,” sneering, pulled up nose, pursed lips, and head turned away.

Body Language Category: Dislike (nonverbal), Indicators of disinterest (IOD), Microexpressions, Negative body language, Rejection body language, Suspicious body language or suspicion, 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.

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, 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, 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.

Girard, Jeffrey M.; Jeffrey F. Cohna; Mohammad H.Mahoor S.; Mohammad Mavadati;
Zakia Hammal; and Dean P. Rosenwalda. Nonverbal Social Withdrawal In Depression: Evidence From Manual And Automatic Analyses. Image and Vision Computing. 2013.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-language-signals-withdrawal-depression

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. http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-language-signals-withdrawal-depression/

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http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/crocodile-tears-humans-show-greater-range-of-emotions-and-speech-hesitation-during-fake-remorse/

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

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Matsumoto, David. Scalar Ratings Of Contempt Expressions Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2005. 29(2): 91-104.

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.

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Anger body language, Microexpression

Body Language of The Anger Facial Expression

by Chris • October 16, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of The Anger Facial Expression

Cue: Anger Facial Expression

Synonym(s): Facial Expression Of Anger.

Description: The anger face is done by lowering the browridge, lowering the brow, raising the cheekbones, widening (flaring) the nose, raising the mouth, thinning the lips, raising the chin bun, and raising the chin raised. The anger face involves Action Units 4, 5, 7 10, 17, 22, 23, and 24.

In One Sentence: The anger face is a signal of strength and used as a bargaining tool to advance the position of the signaler.

How To Use it: Use the angry facial expression to demonstrate the seriousness of your conviction. Research shows that angry faces are more likely to be taken seriously as they are seen as more dominant. Using an angry face is physical proof that one is actually emotionally invested.

Context: General

Verbal Translation: “I’m angry forcing the muscles in my face to contort my eyes and nose.”

Variant: At times the anger facial expression flashes over the face and quickly disappears. Thus, it is a microexpression that wishes to go unnoticed. If this is noticed, it can be trusted as an honest emotion.

See Contempt Facial Expression, Disgust Facial Expression, Fearful Facial Expression, Sadness Facial Expression, Happiness And Joy, Surprised Facial Expression, Eyebrows Knit or Oblique Eyebrows Of Grief.

Cue In Action: A baseball player looked angrily at the pitcher after being beaned in the leg with a pitch.

Meaning and/or Motivation: The intent of the anger facial expression is obvious and universal.

Cue Cluster: The arms go limp to the sides of the body, the chin juts out taunting, the feet point toward the target, fingers may point, chests might be pounded the voice might be raised. We may also see encroaching or distancing and erratic behaviour.

Body Language Category: Anger, Microexpression.

Resources:

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/

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/

Burgoon, Judee K., David B. Buller, and W. Gill Woodall (1989). Nonverbal Communication: The Unspoken Dialogue (New York: Harper & Row).

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

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/

Darwin, Charles (1872). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, third edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Ekman, Paul, Wallace V. Friesen, and Sylvan S. Tomkins (1971). “Facial Affect Scoring Technique: A First Validity Study.” In Semiotica (Vol. 3), pp. 37-58.