What are microexpressions?

Microexpressions are brief facial cues that reveal a person's true intentions. Listen in as Chuck and Josh discuss the subtle art of reading faces in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from house Stuffworks dot Com? Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant. Welcome people, and this
is stuff you should have And I'm about to tell
Chuck if you guys should listen to this. Chuck, did

(00:21):
you know there's a theory that there are two kinds
of learning. Spill it. So there's one called cognitive learning,
which book learning where you like, you read, you know,
an article, and you read it again and again and
you try to like make connections and then street smarts.
That's actually yeah, that kind of would fall into the
other category, which is called intuitive learning. Uh And apparently yeah,

(00:45):
some people have more of one than the other. Ultimately,
we would all under this theory of learning, UM do
both simultaneously. UM. So, so you're reading a book and
you're you're taking in knowledge, that's cognitive learning. Intuitive learning
is um where basically we're picking up cues unconsciously from
our environment around us, and we're learning from that. So

(01:08):
what you would call instinct or gut feeling, it would
be the result of in basically an un consciously processed
evaluation of you know, some stimuli in the environment. So
street smarts, street smarts, it is yea. And part of that,
Chuck actually is, um, We're well, we're about to talk

(01:29):
about micro expressions. So I know you've heard of them,
but that's part of this, these unconscious cues and information
that we pick up without knowing about it, which would
make it unconscious. As I said, I really like this
article very good too. It was written by Tom Schaft
of Right BFF. So, Josh, we're gonna talk about micro expressions,
which are in the face. We have to talk about

(01:50):
the expressions you can make facial expressions, the broad plain
ones that we see, right, So yeah, Chuck, is I
understand there's UM seven universal facial expressions right, yes, quickly.
They are happiness, sadness, fear, anger, discussed, surprise, and contempt.

(02:11):
And what was the name of the guy who traveled
the world studying these Ekman, Yeah, yeah, he he went
around the world to a bunch of disparate cultures, UM
all over the place and studied UM facial movements and
found that those seven are universal. Right. He was trying
to basically get to the root of whether or not, um,
it's a learned thing or not. And I thought, I

(02:33):
love this man. I thought it was so cool that
he could go to like the furthest reaches of a
borneo and they perhaps might make the same contempt face
as I do. Yeah, or discussed or discussed I could
see smiling fear. That kind of thing is universal. But
that's kind of strange because that suggests that those are
universal feelings then, right, Yeah, very cool. Okay, So basically

(02:57):
Eckman documented all of these uh these of in universal
facial expressions, but that wasn't enough right now, He and
a guy named W. V. Freezing actually mapped out the
muscles that create facial expressions and what they came up
with is the Facial Action Coding System, which sounds like
it should be like on the front of a comic
book with a fist punching out. Um. And what the

(03:21):
f a CS does is it measures the movements of
facial muscles and expresses them in action union units. Yeah. So, um,
a raised eyebrow is a U one, right, And it
also denotes whether or not the this movement was voluntary
or involuntary, and it also measures intensity, So like a smile,

(03:42):
the strength of a smile is measured in six degrees um.
And so you pop all this stuff together and um,
you you apply to our knowledge of the seven universal expressions,
and you can say just by analysis of these facial
muscles exactly what emotion is going on. It's so cool.
It is very cool, uh and conceivably useful. There's a

(04:05):
stuff called facial scan and facial recognition systems, and right
now as it stands, there kind of hit or miss.
They tried one in in Logan Airport in Boston, UM
and it was like sixty accurate, which isn't enough because
if you're gonna be stopping people based on you know,
their their facial expression, it needs to be a lot
higher than that. Were they studying micro expressions or okay? Yeah,

(04:27):
but also they they their software out there that can
look for fugitives in a crowd, um based on the
f A C s and what what what Aikeman and
Freezing came up with? But yes, no, the one at
Logan Airport, not micro expression. That's that's another one that
I think FEMA, no Homeland Security, Yeah, t s A

(04:50):
is is using. It's like a trailer and you walk through,
and like, I think they show you stuff that's supposed
to create like a facial um or micro EXPRESSI and
if you're uncomfortable. Uh, and I don't think it's in
use commercially yet. I think if they were smart, they
would hire my wife. Oh is she good at that?
Oh she is. Not only does she have a keen

(05:11):
gut instinct on things, which is pretty accurate, I must say,
but uh, yeah, she can read body language and facial
expressions like nobody's business. Well, if she can read micro expressions,
that would make her um part of just ten percent
in estimated ten percent of people who can pick up
on micro expressions when when they're seeing when they're shown them. Yeah,

(05:34):
I would say that's her for sure. Yeah. I cannot
fool her ever. Okay, so Chuck, let's we've got facial
expressions down and we know that not everybody can consciously
pick up on um micro expressions. What are micro expressions? Well,
it's uh, basically it's not one thing, but it's it's
super fast, uh, sometimes as fast as seconds, and it's

(05:55):
just a really really quick facial cue that like you said,
not many people been noticed sometimes, right, But we're still
again we're picking it up on an unconscious level. So
the information is in there right right. Um, So when
you are talking to uh, some just kind of a
slimy guy and you're getting him a slimy impression from him,
you're not quite sure why because he's smiling at you

(06:18):
like I am now exactly. But see right there, right there,
I just saw that look of contempt. So now I
don't trust you, but I'm not quite sure why, which
I think in that, because facial expressions are generally considered, um,
a revelation of the real emotion that's going on, um,
that it lends itself to the idea that you should
trust your instincts. If you get a bad feeling from somebody,

(06:41):
run away or knife them or do something that could
just just listen to like their Plaine expression, right, that
could be the micro expression. If you've ever had that
feeling like, I don't know what it is about that guy,
but something about him that's you may be picking up
on very valid micro expressions. And again they're fast and

(07:01):
second and most people can't pick them up. But that
doesn't mean that they are insignificant, I guess, is my point. No,
they're very significant. Uh not everybody UM is as a
tune to faces as your wife Emily, as though you know, yeah, well,
there's actually a condition, a medical condition. Yes, it's prazo

(07:22):
pagnosia a k A recognition impairment or for just the
ultimate l people us face blindness. And basically this is
it's an actual medical condition. They're not entirely certain what
causes it, but they've seen it. People have been born
with it, UM, and they've seen it as the result
of stroke or brain damage from a car accident, right chuck, UM.

(07:46):
And what they do know is that there is some
sort of impairment in the physic form gyrus, which is
located in the temporal lobe, and this is the area
of the brain that's in charge of processing visual information
of faces. It's that specialized just has to do with
the faces. So people who UM have face blindness UM

(08:08):
actually have been shown under m r I scans to
this area doesn't activate. It's not working, so they can't
tell if someone is pleased or displeased by looking at
their face, Like they don't understand what a frown or
smile means. No, no, no, they'll get that. They'll get that,
and apparently I was. It was a terrible segue. They can.
They can still they're looking at your face and they
can see if you're smiling or frowning. What what they

(08:30):
don't do is make a memory of your face. So, Chuck,
how many times have we seen each other since we
first met one? Too many? Chuck? Thousands of times? Let's
say thousands. Sure, if one of us had face blindness,
it would be like seeing the other one for the
first time right now. Oh, as in, they wouldn't reckon
like I would say, I don't know who this person is. Yeah,

(08:52):
I mean like I would say, it's me Josh. But
you wouldn't know for certain because you can't recall a memory,
a visual memory of my face, even though I saw
you yesterday or earlier in the hall. I'm a total
stranger to you. So of course this makes life kind
of hard for people with face blindness. Um, Like, for example,
a television show or a movie, try keeping up with that,

(09:14):
Like every time you see the main the main character again,
it's like, where is this guy coming from? Right? She'd
be watching your magnum p I And every every episode
you think, who was this handsome mustache guy in the
Ferrari I would, but the thought of not being able
to keep up with magnum p I, it's a hellish thought. Um,
I would never wish that on you. So, but that's
just that's just movies and TV. Let's talk about real life. UM,

(09:37):
they're tricks that people with face blindness have come up with,
like um every morning name tags. Name tags would work, sure,
but at the same time, how do you know that
people aren't playing practical jokes on you? Like the movie Memento.
I love that movie. What a great movie. I'm actually
I'm gonna go watch that after this. Now. One trick

(09:58):
that people do at work, UM, when they have face
blindnesses go around and write down They'll you can look
at the name tag on the on the cubicle, and
then you write down with that person is wearing, and
then you can kind of maybe study it or access
it when you when you need to, when you're talking
to somebody. I have a feeling that people who work
with people with actual face blindness are probably fairly forgiving

(10:21):
because other than that, there's no other disorder, right, it's
I don't know who you are. With family members, you'll
they'll often create UM like a safe word like a password.
So somebody says, hey, it's dad. You know I need uh,
I need to borrow five hundred bucks. Um. He'll also
say like Geronimo or Apache or you know something trigger

(10:43):
pickle Eskimo, something like that. So you know that it's
actually that right, that makes sense? It is. But I mean,
do you know of any more like interesting disorders than that.
That's a pretty good one. That's right out there with
alien hand syndrome, I agree, or jerusale of syndrome, which
we'll get to eventually, I'm sure. Can we talk about
Alex Rodriguez. I'm so proud of you right now, Chuck.

(11:06):
I'm wing because you came up with this year wonderful man.
Look at me, little me making it happen. Dr Ekman,
who is the master from what I can tell at
micro expressions. He uh as everyone knows by now probably
in the sports world. Uh. Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez recently
came out that he uh not came out, but he

(11:26):
revealed that he used steroids for a couple of years,
and he famously had an interview with Katie Kuric before
that that we absolutely said he did not, and that
he never saw him in the clubhouse and he didn't
know much about them, and so good. Dr ekmun Um
recently as last week, actually reviewed his videotape of this

(11:49):
Currik interview and picked up on three micro expressions that
indicated that he was lying. One was a guest dural slip,
which is when one of your shoulders raises slightly. So
it's just a micro expression, obviously, so it's not something
and this isn't even on the face, but his shoulder

(12:09):
raised slightly quite a few times in the interview when
she was asking him, you know, blunt questions, and he
was giving firm denials, and he said that it does
not that kind of expression does not line up with
firm denials. People that are firmly denying something do not
do the guestral slip. One was unilateral contempt. I like
this one. He said that Rodriguez would raise the corner

(12:32):
of his lip just slightly and that indicates arrogance or
a feeling of superiority. And he said he did this
a lot, and he doesn't know if this might just
be a trait that he has. Maybe he thinks he's
better than everyone else. I don't know, but he says
it definitely doesn't fit with what he was saying about,
you know, being humbled with the steroid use. And interestingly,
it's called unilateral because it's the only emotion with the

(12:55):
corresponding facial expression that occurs just on one side of
the face. Everything else anger, surprise, fear, sadness, or biladder
also both sides of your face would react. Yes, So
I thought that was interesting. And the last one was
micro fear, and she pointedly asked him if he had
ever been tempted to use illegal drugs. He answered with
a simple no, And along with that no was a

(13:17):
micro fear expression, which was basically the horizontal stretching of
the lips, and he said that basically he looked like
he was lying, because it's either fear or a fear
being caught when you make this expression, or surprise too.
Aren't fear and surprise often confused? Yes, indeed, which is
actually one of the problems with searching for micro expressions.

(13:40):
People with social anxiety have shown to um launch into
an anxiety attack when they're confronted with micro expressions of
surprise or fear because they mistake the surprise look for
fear and it's a micro expression. They're already socially anxious
that as it is, so all of a sudden there
guts telling him something and interesting, there you go. So yeah,
well he had one more little one with so I
thought was the best. And at the at the end

(14:01):
of the interview, he flatly denied taking trucks, and he
said that he actually slightly nodded his head in the
affirmative as he was saying that, which, there you have it. Yeah,
you can't pull one by Paul Eckman. No, no, I
would not want to be a rod and sit in
front of him and try and tell the truth. So
that's micro expressions, Yes, it is, and there's a lot

(14:21):
more to it. Um. I think anybody would be wise
to go on to our site and read what are
micro expressions? Is this pretty in depth explanation of facial
expressions in the whole shabank? So that's interesting. You can
look that up and chuck, is it is it? Listener
mail time? Not quite? Oh no, what we need to
give a little shout out to our new blog which

(14:42):
is on our website. It's called stuff You should know.
You can find out how stuff works dot com and
Josh and I post once a day each little interesting
news items two bits than uh. We want to engage
the stuff you should know nation, get people talking. Yeah,
and you can get to it on the homepage how
stuff works dot com on the right hand side and
without further ado, he chimes says, listener mail times you ready, Josh,

(15:08):
I was born ready. This is a good one. This
came to us from a writer named Lee, and that
would be the female Lee l E E. And Lee
heard us talk about the one guy who wrote in
talking about that he was possessed by the god Horace,
and she thought we were very accepting of that notion
that sure, who knows, you know, anything could happen. So
she wrote this about her daughter. She says she has

(15:30):
an attractive daughter, very intelligent, lovely and outgoing, and in
high school, her daughter was only attracted to gay men
one after the other. A lot of times they were
not out with their sexuality. Sometimes they didn't even know
it yet. But she had a terrible, terrible time falling
in love with and being mistreated by gay men because

(15:51):
they clearly could not return the love. So um she
was very frustrated by this. She took her daughter to
a card reader. And apparently this card reader said, the
reason that she cannot get over these falling in love
with gay men is because she was possessed. Her spirit
was possessed by a gay man named Jerome from the

(16:14):
eighteen hundreds. And this is what the card reader said.
She said, Jerome is running the show. And the kid
basically says, I don't like this. I'd like to get
rid of this spiritual possession. Jerome's kind of baggage, baggage.
And so the card reader, she said, quote without any
fancy pantsy ceremony, said that Jerome was gone and she

(16:34):
got rid of him. And the lady said after that
her daughter felt different, never fell in love with a
gay man again, had healthy relationships. And I just thought
this was real interesting, is very interesting. And as we
are always our motto is who knows to each his
own or her own? Who knows what's going on out
there in the wacky universe? Just she could have been

(16:54):
possessed by a gay man named Jerome from the eighteen hundreds. Well,
thank you Lee and your daughter and Jerome as well. Um,
And if you have a really cool story to share
with us, or you just want to say Hi no
hi kus uh. Send an email to a stuff podcast
at how stuff works dot com For more on this

(17:18):
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