Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could detect when someone was being untruthful? Well luckily, although these tells are not foolproof they are proven through various research in most cases. Dr. Leanne ten Brinke, a forensic psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that our instincts for judging liars are quite strong.
Micro expressions are facial expressions that occur within a fraction of a second. This involuntary emotional leakage exposes a person’s true emotions. Microexpressions occur in everyone, often without their knowledge.
Former FBI agent Joe Navarro states “And people who prattle that and say well, we can detect deception because the person touches their nose or covers their mouth. That’s just sheer nonsense”. There’s so much we can infer from the face itself.
Let’s start with psychological comfort. When we’re very comfortable, the muscles of our face become very relaxed, smiling, laughing, and our pupils are slightly wider. The lips are full and usually, the chin tends to be further out.
As soon as someone is psychologically uncomfortable, the muscles get tense and it starts to register in several areas. There could be furrowing of the forehead or squinting. And the tucking down of the chin. For very emotional situations you’ll see the chin begin to quiver. Covering your eyes is also a sign of discomfort. When the forehead is smooth, it tells us that everything is well and placid, when it’s furrowed, we begin to notice that perhaps there’s some sort of discomfort. The glabella for instance, when someone says something we don’t like, we might squint at them in question. When we emphasize, the fingers are wide. When we lack emphasis, our fingers come together.
Why do we put so much focus on the face and nonverbals is because of necessity because through our faces we can show that we care. It is something that is always telegraphing our emotions, sentiments, and sometimes even desires. We never stop communicating with our faces.
