Malcolm
Gladwell, in his annals records how our face is an excellent instrument of
communication. We can interpret a lot just by glancing at the facial
expressions.
Paul
Ekman, a Francisco psychologist discovered the rules that govern the way we
study and interpret these expressions. We use our face as per the learned
social conventions, and not only us humans, but also other mammals, as per
Charles Dickens.
Ekman
travelled various countries to study how various people living in urban and
rural settings recognize facial expressions. He inferred that no external
interferences like television or other cultural rules are responsible for how
we perceive expressions. They’re the ‘universal products of the evolution.’ The
face could teach us rudimentary lessons, only if we know where to look.
Ekman
treated face like an adventure and explored every nook of it to an extent where
he was able to pick up even a flicker of emotions which passes through a
person’s face, even if for a second. He decided to explain something, most of
us have but don’t necessarily trust; our hunches.
Paul
Ekman owes his start in the face-reading business to Silvan Tomkins, probably
the best face reader world has ever seen and a legendary speaker. Tomkins,
during an experiment was able to distinguish two distinct communities as kind
and cruel only on the basis of their facial expressions. And his accuracy rate
was an impressive 100 per-cent.
After
this experiment, Ekman realized what a gold mine of information our face
actually is. He wondered if Tomkins could do it, maybe everyone else could too.
And this inspired him to study facial muscles, how they move and how they
combine with each other to form different expressions; some useful, others
useless.
He
spent a considerable amount of time studying movement of lips, eyes, eyebrows,
cheek muscles and so on to form expressions which varied from raising outer
half of an eyebrow to wiggling of ears. He studied more complex expressions
like happiness, fear etc. Ekman along with a fellow researcher, Friesen finally
gathered all these expressions in a 500 page binder and interpreted it as FACS
(Facial Action Coding System).
The
document is very captivating and is full of information, which has been used in
many animation movies like The Shrek, Toy Story etc., and also has changed the
ways in which people look at each other. Ekman was able to dissect personalities
of various people, from Bill Clinton to suicidal patients, through this system
which only studies facial expressions.
Ekman
studied voluntary and non-voluntary expressions. Our face can make expressions
without us explicitly knowing about them. Our face has a mind of its own but it
doesn’t mean we have no control over it. He suggests that having no control
over our emotions is not always a bad thing and can be especially beneficial
like in case of babies, where their expressions are the only way for them to
convey how they’re actually feeling.
Paul
Ekman claims that there is nothing magical about his face-reading abilities, it
is only practice. He has a training tape which people find really useful and
enthralling. It is all about paying attention. Ekman teamed up with J.J.
Newbury, an ex- A.T.F. agent to educate law-enforcement officials about how to
detect lies during interviews and investigations.
Ekman
during this time period also found how our expressions can affect our nervous
system. The facial expressions we made can drastically affect our mood. A
German study inferred that emotions don’t go from inside out, rather they go
from outside in. An expression we don’t even know we have created can make us
feel emotions involuntarily. Face reading not only depends on seeing facial
expressions but also about taking them seriously.
Why
a normal person may fail or avoid face reading is because we don’t want to add
the extra effort and the extra attention which needs to be paid. People often
end up listening to words, ignoring the expressions. However, face reading is
not always a boon as when you start understanding a person’s state of mind, you
often feel responsible towards them. With face reading, comes responsibility
because you can actually understand what’s behind the words.
But
all this doesn’t make this skill out of our reach, if sincere efforts are put
in, the skill can be learned and put to use effectively.
Ruchika Verma
You can read the original article here
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