FBI Micro-Expression Psychology

Chapter 3 Eyes: What the FBI Tells You About Your Mental State in the Blink

1
How to use doubt to tear apart the appearance

Generally speaking, when people talk face to face, the eyes of both parties will always look at each other sometimes and look elsewhere.This way, both sides of the conversation will appear natural.However, when FBI agents interrogate criminal suspects, such a situation often occurs: when some criminal suspects are being questioned by FBI agents, they will look straight into the eyes of the agents.

Psychologist Herman Luzai believes that when a criminal suspect appears in this situation, there are often three possibilities: first, this is an honest person, because he has never done anything bad, so he will Second, this person has been specially trained to lie without blinking his eyes; third, this person is extremely unconfident.

In reality, the vast majority of men usually dare not look each other in the eye when they are lying, especially when they are questioned by their wives.When this happens, the wife usually says, "If you didn't lie to me, just look me in the eyes and repeat what you just said." At this time, if the man is lying, then he is repeating himself When speaking, whether it is in body behavior, facial expression, or speaking tone, it will show a certain degree of unnaturalness.However, Kelly, a senior FBI special agent, believes that there is an exception to this situation.Lies come naturally when someone is a highly trained special agent, such as a senior agent or spy who has received special training at the FBI's National Academy.

Most of these liars are women.

Psychologist Herman Luzai believes that in real life, this often happens when a woman does something wrong.They will look directly into each other's eyes and say some tactful words in order to get the other's understanding.But what they say is usually not an analysis of the reasons for what they did wrong. The behavior of staring at the other person's eyes is also purely to know in time whether the other person is angry or angry through the changes in the other person's expression. , so that I can make a timely decision on whether to continue to apologize to the other party.This is due to the unique nature of women. In fact, it is just a show in front of men.

For those who are not confident in their hearts, their inner feelings are often far from those of ordinary people, but they don't feel it themselves.The reason why they look directly at each other's eyes is to frighten off those who disagree with them, and to make the person being stared at feel threatened so that they can make concessions to themselves.

If a similar situation occurs during the interrogation of criminal suspects by FBI agents, what hints can the agents get from it?

FBI agent Mark Rush said: "This is equivalent to the other party telling you clearly that he is lying. No matter how he uses language or physical behavior in front of you to explain that he has nothing to do with this case, as a qualified You must not believe their performances. As long as you see this person has been watching you and talking, it is enough to explain everything.” Dealing with this type of suspect is actually not difficult, Mark Rush said: "As long as you keep blinking at him, all the lies will slowly disappear."

In September 2011, the manager of a hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, has often received complaints from guests recently that they encountered thieves during their stay at the hotel.Because all that was stolen was cash, and other valuables were not lost or damaged, so many guests just complained to the hotel.Sometimes the staff would always ask back: "Sir, what else did you lose?" The guest shook his head.The staff member said: "Then you must have made a mistake. You may have put the cash in your bag, or spent it."

After hearing this, many customers thought about it, maybe it was really spent, otherwise why didn't they take away other valuable things?I didn't care about it any more.But the guests of the hotel are in rotation almost every day, and new ones come after the old ones. The guests may mistakenly think that there is something wrong with their memory, but the hotel manager is becoming more and more restless.It is possible for guests to have memory errors, but it is impossible for every guest who stays in the hotel to have this illusion of memory.The manager felt that thieves must be frequenting his hotel, so he immediately called the police.

After receiving the report, the police immediately launched an investigation.The hotel is located in a bustling area. After careful observation of the surveillance video around the hotel and inside the hotel, the police did not find any suspicious persons entering or leaving the hotel, so they sent police officers to conduct a secret investigation around the hotel.The police found that some Christians came and went or stayed in the hotel almost every day. This discovery immediately alerted the police.Because Tennessee is an area where almost all the people have religious beliefs, 85% of them believe in Christianity, and Nashville, the capital of the state, is where many people gather, so the police notified the FBI of the situation, and the FBI immediately Senior Agent Cohen was dispatched to assist the police in the investigation.With the permission of the hotel manager, Cohen disguised himself as a salesman and entered the hotel in order to have some positive contact with the thief.

But unexpectedly, Cohen met a colleague in the hotel—a woman who sold insurance to staying guests.This woman sneaked into the hotel disguised as a believer, and treated Cohen very fiercely, as if Cohen robbed her site.

Cohen immediately launched an undercover investigation of the woman.During the investigation, Cohen learned that the woman's name was Portman, and she was indeed a salesman of the insurance company. However, Cohen found that Portman's performance in the insurance company was very mediocre, but judging from her credit card consumption records, she spent It is very large, and the income and expenditure are obviously unbalanced.All indications are that Portman is the biggest suspect in the theft of hotel guests.So, Cohen decided to start a positive contact with Portman.

Portman did not recognize Cohen when questioning began.Cohen found that this was a very talkative woman—if Cohen asked a question, she would have ten sentences waiting for him there, especially after recognizing that Cohen was the salesman who went to the hotel to compete with him for customers, Portman even more so. It was the eloquent talk, which made Cohen a little passive, as if Portman was asking Cohen.But soon Cohen adjusted his emotions. He found that this woman was not only very talkative, but also kept her eyes firmly fixed on him when she spoke, as if asking, "Isn't it like this?" The opposite is richer body movements and facial expressions.And it was at this moment that Cohen realized that the woman was lying.So whenever Portman stared at him with a questioning expression, Cohen shrugged, and then blinked at Portman with a questioning look.After several such confrontations, Portman's emotions gradually became agitated, and sometimes he even wanted to yell.At this time, Cohen took out Portman's bank card consumption records and her salary income records.Seeing this, Portman immediately stopped talking and lowered her head, and then she told the whole story: she was not a thief, but was responsible for going to the hotel to get the money.Later, when she heard about the hotel guests being stolen, she was terrified, but she had no choice but to board a thief ship.

According to Portman's identification, the FBI captured a waiter in the hotel.The waiter confessed that he was responsible for stealing money from the guest's room, and Portman was responsible for transferring the stolen money.

It is undeniable that if Cohen continued to bite Portman, who was selling insurance, he would also be able to find a flaw, but Cohen discovered her abnormality from Portman only through one inquiry.On the surface, she seems to be staring at other people's eyes and talking continuously, as if she is very sincere, but in fact she is using this method to cover up her inner panic, so Cohen adopts a questioning attitude to answer each other's expressions. Cohen only produced indirect evidence when the other party’s mood swings were almost unbearable, so that the other party could no longer hide their lies.If Cohen had produced the receipts and expenditures of the other party at the beginning, since the other party's emotions were still in a relatively stable state at that time, she could easily push away these seemingly evidences.In this way, even if Cohen knew that the other party was lying, he could not immediately bring her to justice.

2
The psychological characteristics reflected by the change of eyelid beating frequency
The eyes are known as the "window of the soul", but many people ignore that the eyelids are the "gate" that opens this "window". FBI agents can spy on the suspect's psychological activities through eye contact with the suspect. This is also a way of communication that is often used in real social life.In fact, humans themselves are visual animals.People's vision can affect people's psychological phenomena, and conversely, the psychological state can also be extended from the eyes to the outside world.Just as people often say "your eyes are piercing" when describing a person's eyes, this "spirit" is Shen Yun, which is the expression of people's psychological characteristics.However, if the eyelids are not opened to the maximum extent, the eyes cannot reach the state of brilliance.

The movement of the eyelids is no less than that of other parts.For example, blinking is a common movement of people's eyes. Just such a common movement represents many meanings.Generally, blinking can be divided into two types: one is conscious blinking, and the other is unconscious blinking.Conscious blinking is very obvious and is an action directed by the brain; while unconscious blinking is done unconsciously. The FBI pointed out that under normal circumstances, when people are in a relaxed state, the eyelids will blink 6 to 8 times per minute, while the time for the eyelids to open and close is only one tenth of a second.This kind of interval time is usually a relatively normal frequency, and once this frequency is broken, it means that the other party's psychology has fluctuated and started to be abnormal.The so-called abnormal mental state refers to changes in people's mood, such as tension, panic, happiness, etc. At this time, the frequency of eyelid beating will change significantly.

According to the FBI's analysis, the reason for this situation may be that people can't calm down because they hide some secrets.For example, when the suspect is lying, he is worried that the police officer will see through his lie. Under this kind of worry and pressure, people may be able to control their verbal words, but they cannot control the beating of their eyelids.Therefore, because of the influence of mental state and emotion, liars will always blink continuously.Obviously, it is not normal for the eyelids to keep beating, and when this happens, the best explanation is: the other party wants to hide something.Therefore, when FBI agents conduct some investigations or interrogations, they often judge the credibility of the other party's confession by the frequency of the eyelids of the person being investigated.When dealing with some difficult cases, FBI agents often use the frequency of the beating of the suspect's eyelids to grasp the key information.

One day, a nasty arson incident occurred in a hotel in Puerto Rico, killing more than [-] people in the fire, which aroused the great attention of the FBI police department.Soon, a hotel security guard became the suspect of FBI agents, because the place where the fire first started was the area that the security guard was responsible for.

As a result, FBI agents questioned the security guard in detail to determine whether he was at the scene of the crime.

The FBI agent asked, "Where were you before the fire?"

"At that time, I went to the bathroom because my stomach was uncomfortable," the security guard said.

The FBI agent then asked, "Can anyone prove that you were in the bathroom?"

The security guard thought for a while and said, "Sorry, probably not, because when I went in, I didn't see any acquaintances."

The FBI agent asked directly: "Did you participate in the arson?"

The security guard opened his eyes wide in an instant, and said, "How is it possible, I would never do such a thing."

The FBI agent asked again: "So, where were you when the fire started?"

The security guard said: "I, I was washing my hands in the bathroom, and I ran out immediately when I heard the exclamation outside."

Although the security guard's expression didn't change much during the answering process, the careful FBI agent still found that he blinked a little faster when he answered the question "where was the crime?" There is no change in the problem.It was immediately clear to the interrogating agents that there was a lie in what the security guard said.In the end, under strong pressure from the FBI, the security guard had to admit that when the incident happened, he did not take a little time to go to the bathroom as he said, but stayed in the room with his girlfriend in the hotel for more than an hour.Unfortunately, it was during his absence that two arsonists stepped in to bring about this tragic outcome.The security guard lied to the detective because he was afraid of taking responsibility for his negligence.

During the interrogation, the FBI agent did not let go of any actions of the security guard. Moreover, when he observed the special beating signal of the security guard's eyelids when facing some sensitive issues, the FBI agent knew that he should take advantage of the victory and pursue it.Although the practice of security guards did not cause direct crimes, they were subject to the punishment of absenteeism. The FBI found through research that the frequent movement of eyelids is not only caused by lying, but also that people blink frequently when they are threatened.For example, when the FBI treats stubborn suspects with intimidation methods, it can also see such movements in their eyes.In this case, usually the interval between eyelid blinking will be lengthened, and this action is also a subconscious physical response of people.

In daily life, you can also follow the changes in your eyelids and analyze other people's mental attitudes.For example, in interpersonal communication, when you are talking, the other person blinks his eyelids frequently, which means that he doesn't want to continue talking with you at all, so his eyelids usually close for three seconds, or even longer. For a long time, as if to say "quickly disappear from my eyes".If the other person's eyelids are lowered, the back of the head is down, the jaw is slightly raised, and the eyelids are half-opened to stare at you, it shows that the other person is contemptuous of you.

In addition, when a person feels that he is not valued, he will also make the eye movement of half-opening the eyelids.In short, when you see the other party making such a gesture, you should analyze it according to the actual situation of the matter.

In interpersonal communication, if the frequency of the eyelids of the other party becomes procrastinated, it means that what you said is not exciting enough to attract the other party's attention and arouse the other party's interest.If you think that others are disrespecting you, then you can respond accordingly, or pause the conversation deliberately to meet the other person's eyes.At this time, the other party will understand that you want him to cheer up and listen to you.It should be noted that the blinking of the eyelids of women is different from that of men.For example, in real life, such a situation often occurs: on some occasions, when a woman passes by a man, she smiles and winks at the man, or raises her eyelids.Such women are usually more confident, and they believe in their own charm, and this practice is also to show their charm to the opposite sex.

Compared with confident women, if a man blinks his eyelids frequently at the opposite sex, he subconsciously regards himself as a handsome guy, is very complacent about his appearance or identity background, and believes that he is attractive and can impress female.Therefore, even if a man does not have a "handsome" external image, but he dares to show himself in front of others, coupled with the influence and appeal of his eye movements, he can gain more popularity and win some women of favor.In addition, whether male or female, people who like to wink at others and raise their eyebrows are usually avant-garde, confident, chasing trends and fashions, and like to be treated like stars and become the focus of the crowd.

The FBI has encountered all kinds of criminals, and there are also some playboys or prostitutes. During the interrogation process, they will also frequently blink their eyelids.

In the FBI's view, although frequent eyelid blinking is a way to enhance personal charm, people who make such movements can also make people feel too conceited.When FBI agents communicate with the person under investigation, most of them will analyze and judge the inner quality of the person based on the frequency of the other person's eyelids beating, combined with his speech and behavior.

3
Feel the mystery of psychological changes from the dilation and contraction of pupils

The pupil is the most important part of the eye, and it hides many secrets that are not known to ordinary people.The pupil is the opening in the center of the iris through which light enters, and it can also be enlarged or narrowed to control the amount of light entering the eye.When it's dark, the pupils dilate to let as much light as possible into the eye.The pupil's automatic adjustment allows just the right amount of light to enter the eye to keep objects on the retina sharp without causing excess light to burn the eye.

In addition to the pupil can become larger or smaller with the intensity of light, it is also closely related to psychological changes.There is such a psychological story about pupils: cunning gamblers first bet with a small amount of chips, and once they made a bet, they found that the pupils of the banker suddenly became larger, so they boldly increased the bet, and the banker Lost badly and don't know why.It turns out that when people are excited or surprised, their pupils become dilated.The reason why the dealers lost miserably was because these cunning gamblers had already seen the secret behind them from the dilated pupils of the dealers.Scientific research has long confirmed that pupils can best reflect the real changes in a person's heart.What is the reason?It turns out that when a person is still in the embryonic stage, the eye is an extension of the brain. Later, with the development and growth of the embryo, the eye is differentiated into an independent organ. Only then can the pupil be formed, and the eye can begin to perceive light from then on. Stimulus to accept all kinds of information.In clinical medicine, the pupil is used as a sensitive indicator for diagnosing vital functions.The pupil's response to light is controlled by the brainstem. When a patient's brainstem function is damaged, the pupil's light reflex becomes dull or even completely lost, which means that the patient's life is in danger of death.This is why many doctors usually open their eyelids to observe the pupils of people who are seriously ill or in a coma.

Normally, the dilation and constriction of the pupil is not controlled.But under certain conditions, you can change your pupil size.In the past, in order to make their eyes look more charming, some prostitutes would drop some special potions in their eyes to artificially dilate their pupils.Pupil size is also closely related to age.In general, age is inversely proportional to the size of the pupil, and as the age increases, a person's pupil will gradually narrow.Pupils are the largest during infancy and toddlerhood, while the pupils are the smallest in old age.

A person's pupil size can be influenced by a person's mood in certain lighting conditions.When a person is passionate or extremely fearful, the pupils may dilate about three times than usual; That kind of "goldfish eye" or "corn eye".In addition, people's pupils will also change with the intensity of interest. For example, when some men and women see nude photos of the opposite sex, their pupils will be enlarged by one-fifth than usual; when seeing pictures of babies, almost all women Men with children and children will dilate their pupils; when faced with some ordinary landscape photos, almost all of them have no reaction, and some even have a tendency to constrict their pupils.

In addition, changes in pupils also represent different meanings.Pupils dilate when people are talking intimately; they narrow when people's mind wanders.It is precisely because changes in pupils can reveal inner secrets that the FBI often uses this to investigate cases.On one occasion, FBI agents captured a spy.He was cooperative, but he just refused to name his accomplice.And the FBI must find out the accomplices of this person, because the existence of these people poses a great threat to the United States.So, the FBI tried to get the information it wanted through non-verbal behavior.They put dozens of cards in front of the spy, each with the names of people who had worked with the spy and who were most likely his accomplices. The FBI asked him to state what he knew about each card he saw.In fact, the FBI did not pay much attention to what he said, because they already knew that he would not tell the truth. The FBI found that when the spy saw a person's name, his eyes suddenly widened, then his pupils contracted rapidly, and he narrowed his eyes slightly.Obviously, he didn't want to see the name of this person at this time, so this became an important clue. Finally, the accomplice was caught and confessed to his participation in the crime during interrogation.It can be judged from this that when people are stimulated or encounter something that surprises them, their eyes will suddenly become larger and their pupils will dilate rapidly.This is done to absorb as much light as possible and transmit enough information to the brain.However, when people process this information and develop a negative attitude, the pupils immediately shrink.

The FBI notes that dilated pupils express inner contentment, or a positive state of mind.When people are genuinely happy to see someone or something, their pupils dilate and their eyes widen, an expression often referred to as "flare eye."In life, when a man and a woman are dating, if the woman really likes the man, then when she looks at the man, her pupils will dilate significantly, and she will look at him with her round watery eyes.At this time, after the man comprehends the eyes of the woman, the pupils will also dilate, and both parties have charming charm in each other's eyes.It is for this reason that many men and women in love will choose places with dim light when choosing a date place, because the dim light will make the pupils of both parties appear larger.In addition, at work, when the leader looks at you with wide eyes, you can infer that he is satisfied with what you do or likes how you behave.Generally speaking, the bigger the eyes are, the more favorable feelings you have; on the contrary, when someone squints at you or the pupils shrink, you should think about whether it is time to make a change.

Many people know that when communicating with others, look them in the eye to show respect.The FBI tells people that if you look into each other's eyes and their pupils, you will know their truest thoughts.

However, not all pupil changes are related to emotional or psychological changes, such as light adjustments, physical conditions or some drugs can cause pupil changes, so everyone should make inferences carefully, so as not to be misled and do inappropriate things .

4
Through the "secret language" between the eyebrows,
See through the unstoppable lies
The famous American criminal psychologist John Douglas, known as "Modern Sherlock Holmes", believes that eyes and eyebrows are important reference factors for the FBI to observe whether a person is honest and reliable in actual combat, and they are also the "secret weapons" for capturing criminals.Generally speaking, the FBI will not interpret or evaluate a person's true psychology based on general physiognomy.In actual combat, FBI agents have been hoping to find a more reasonable explanation for this topic.In fact, the information conveyed between people's eyebrows and eyes is comparable to that of limbs.John Douglas once did such an interesting experiment: he designed several different dating locations for some young lovers, and observed the changes in the eyebrows of these people at the same time.The result of Douglas observation is that most couples prefer those dark corners - there are few tourists here, and the researchers found that the pupils of those girls' eyes are relatively large in dimly lit places, which means It made them look more beautiful, so when choosing a date location, they all chose the corner with darker light, and the boys naturally followed their female companions.This shows that people use multiple channels for their own eyes.Through continuous research and summary in actual combat, John Douglas concluded the following "eyebrows":
(1) "Uncooperative" eyes
When the FBI is investigating and hearing some cases, it will pay great attention to the changes in the eyes of the suspects.Many times, when responsible for investigating some spies, FBI agents will face uncooperative situations because these people try to avoid the FBI's questioning with drooping eyes.For ordinary people, drooping eyes more refer to "retreat" and "humility", but the situation is different for criminals captured by the FBI.John Douglas believes that drooping eyelids sometimes have connotations of contempt, and lowering the eyelids can effectively conceal the message of one's eyes.From this, it can be concluded that this kind of look is the favorite of stubborn and cunning criminals.Therefore, as soon as they look calm and stare straight at the land under their feet, the FBI agents will realize that they need to fight such criminals for a long time. The FBI needs to break down the other party's psychological defense first, so that the two parties can become a "cooperative" relationship, otherwise everything will be in vain.

(2) Show "weak" eyes
In actual combat, some criminal suspects often make such an action when they are forced to question: raise their eyebrows upwards, and shrink their entire forehead into a ball.From the perspective of the FBI, the action made by criminals has two meanings.The first meaning is that he is telling you, I don't understand what you are talking about, I am innocent, don't treat me as a suspect; Observe the questioner.Obviously, the initiator of this action is weak, he is either ulterior motives, or timid.In other words, what such an action conveys is the message that criminals have a weak psychological defense.

(3) The true meaning behind pupil changes
John Douglas's research also found that a person's pupils also change differently with their emotions.That is to say, when a person is excited or happy because he hears something or is influenced by the outside world, his pupils will dilate; Shrink; if it is something he is indifferent to, the pupils of the person will "stand still".Generally speaking, it is impossible to see the changes in people's pupils without professional equipment, but for those federal agents who can see everything in an instant, this is not very difficult.In 2000, federal police captured a thief on a commercial street in California, but the thief refused to name his accomplice.Since the federal police had some information about the gang in advance, they showed the thief photos of many suspects and asked the thief to make a brief evaluation of the people in the photos.

The FBI took out photos of hundreds of people. When the thief described the characters in the photos, experienced body language experts carefully observed the changes in his eyes.When 10 of the photos came into the eyes of the thief, his pupils began to change-he was startled at first, the pupils dilated, and then quickly narrowed.Based on this change in eyes, the FBI finally followed the clues and successfully took down the theft gang.

(4) Eyes that can "lie"
Combining long-term research results and actual combat experience, the FBI has found out a relatively scientific "secret language".According to John Douglas, a person turns their eyes up and to the left when they are lying.This is not "empirical theory". He found that the process of people lying is that they first imagine a picture in their minds, and then retell the picture in their minds.In other words, when people tell a lie, they need to keep thinking.Among the two brain hemispheres of the human body, the right brain is biased towards imagination, and the right side of the human brain is in charge of the left trunk of the human body, while the left half is in charge of the right trunk.So, when a person starts trying to cover up the truth with a lie, the right side of his brain starts to "work", and at the same time, his eyes will look to the upper left.With such a theory as a basis, federal agents will appear to be handy in actual combat, but the FBI uses more polygraph tests and interrogation of criminal suspects in this regard.

In the late 20s, the FBI caught a criminal who attempted three terrorist bombings.At the beginning, the criminals not only did not admit their crimes at all, but also behaved very calmly.In this case, the FBI conducted a polygraph test on him: FBI agents attached some connected sensor chips to the suspect's chest, waist, and back, and then started asking questions.On the question of "Have you ever caused a terrorist bombing?", the two sides have disagreed.

The criminal said: "Frankly speaking, I don't know who carried out the terrorist bombing attack. Although I did go to the scene, it can't be judged that I carried out a terrorist bombing just because I have a criminal record before? If If you want to think that way, I can’t help it. But I really feel innocent, and I just want to tell you that I didn’t carry out a terrorist bombing.” The suspect passed the FBI’s polygraph with ease. Tests, and the test data of the polygraph instrument also showed that this person "has no problem".When the suspect was informed of the test result, his face was filled with joy like victory, and he said: "I said it a long time ago, I didn't lie. Does this prove my innocence?"

"I'm sorry to tell you that the connection between you and the terrorist bombing cannot be ruled out at present. Although the lie detector test proves your innocence, we will continue to investigate you." The FBI agent who participated in the investigation of the suspect said calmly Said.

In fact, the FBI's suspicion is justified.During the questioning, the detective kept staring carefully into the suspect's eyes, and the suspect also looked into the detective's eyes to prove that he was "not guilty."But when he replied "no", the detective noticed that the suspect raised his eyes and rolled them, and glanced up and to the left.Under normal circumstances, a person's heart rate, pulse, body heat, etc. can be controlled through his psychological quality. He's a guy with a strong mentality.But fabricating lies has nothing to do with psychological quality, which is controlled by the human brain system, so he stumbled on this-the FBI conducted an in-depth investigation based on the changes in his eyes, and finally found in relevant evidence He had no choice but to confess his criminal process.

From the analysis of John Douglas, it can be seen that there are indeed some "secret words" between a person's eyebrows, and understanding the meaning in them undoubtedly provides the necessary premise for a deeper understanding of a person.Therefore, it can be said that the "secret language" between the eyebrows is an indispensable "secret weapon" to understand the changes in a person's inner world and capture people's hearts.

(End of this chapter)