Tag Archive for: Paul Ekman

Happiness: Are you feeling it?

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There have been so many cases lately that are emotionally gut-wrenching, I thought it would be nice to take a look at a photo of happiness.

Portrait of a young woman smiling Model Release: Yes Property Release: NA

Read moreIn Dr. Paul Ekman’s research on facial expressions, he found that when he mimicked negative emotions like frowning, he started to feel down, and when he mimicked happy emotions, he started to feel better. If my memory serves me right, he talks about it in his book, Emotions Revealed.

Dr. David Matsumoto, another leading expert on facial expressions, writes about a related topic in National Geographic magazine, (in their Spanish edition, he translates it for you) about how our emotions are “bio-psycho-social reactions”. It’s fascinating reading how our emotions are connected to our biological responses!

So, now that you see a happy face, do you feel better? I hope so! If not, maybe her smile didn’t make you smile? (edited).

I needed a pick me up and I suspect you could use one, too.

Smiling Makes You Feel Good

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Here is an article about the work of Dr. Paul Ekman: You Feel the Way you Look

Dr. Paul Ekman noticed when he did his research on facial muscles and he tried to replicate emotions in other people, he started to feel them, himself. If, for instance, he frowned for a period, he began to feel down.

Explore this. It’s amazing. Make an angry face. Keep in there a couple of minutes. Do you feel anything? Does your heart rate go up? Do you feel angry?

Next time you don’t know what someone is feeling and they make a funny facial expression, try to replicate it. It may give you some insight into how someone else is feeling.

I must say since I read this, I find myself doing gestures, making faces and general trying to physically put myself into other people’s bodies, and the information is often quite revealing. At a minimum, it gives me feedback if I am thinking in the right direction or not.

You can read more in Dr. Paul Ekman’s book “Emotions Revealed”.

Behind the Scenes Video of ‘Lie to Me’

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I’d be fibbing if I told you I wasn’t looking forward to the new show on FOX coming out this month called Lie to Me. I am really excited for the concepts and work of Dr. Paul Ekman and his colleague Dr. Maureen O’Sullivan to finally get mainstream media attention so that the average person understands what human lie detection is all about.

So many times when I’ve shared my biggest passion in life with people that I have a talent to spot deception (that was studied by Ekman/O’Sullivan), I get a response of “Oh my sister is in to psychic stuff, too.” You don’t know how exasperating that is! I’m not into psychic stuff, and find that comment annoying because it shows a total lack of understanding of the concepts I just spoke about. But of course, with anything new, it takes time for new knowledge to be understood and respected.

I have no doubt in 100 years this science will be vital to all societies who seek justice and truth, but at this time, we are on the infant stages of recognizing this as a science. So I am hoping this show is a whopping success because it will help people open their mind to a new concept — a concept I am very passionate about, a topic I have put my heart and soul into for 4 years.

Are you planning on watching the show?

‘Lie to Me’ Cast Talks about the Show

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See more about the show here.

Deception Blog Commentary

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One blog I check out from time-to-time is Deception Blog. This blog’s purpose is to “collate information about psychological research on deception, and the applications of this research.” Yes, it is for the most part academic, but it is quite interesting nonetheless. If you haven’t visited there, I highly recommend it.

It was a pleasure to see Deception Blog post a commentary on my post about TSA Behavior Detection Officers. It is always nice to get support of other people who study deception detection.

On that note, at the bottom of the post, you will see a link to a YouTube video where Dr. Paul Ekman talks about “Why We Lie”. For those of you deception detection junkies, you will enjoy this video!