FBI super mind-reading technique: teach you instant insight into people's hearts

Chapter 20 Not a Mouth, But It Can Talk (4)
Actors observe people's micro-expressions most carefully, and they create characters by simulating the micro-expressions of people with different personalities.We can find in film and television dramas that people with more jaw movements are generally police detectives, thinkers, or people engaged in occupations that require high logical thinking ability. Their common character traits are caution and a strong sense of alertness.The chin is almost the starting point for people to look at the world with a cold eye.Compared with people with this personality trait, many people with relaxed emotions and simple thinking do not pay too much attention to their chins. Their chins tend to remain relaxed and respond to smiles.Such people generally have a more cheerful personality, are easy to accept other people's suggestions, and will not be stubborn, but also appear to have no opinions.

underrated smiley
Among the common expressions, the smiling face is undoubtedly the most lovable one.But you must not know that the smiling face is the most special one among all expressions, because other expressions at least need to involve three to five muscles, but a funny smile only needs one muscle.And even if it is tens of meters away, it can be seen at a glance, and the recognition degree is higher than other expressions.Not only that, but a smile is the most irresistible expression, if someone smiles at you, you will smile back.

The seemingly simple smiley face is the most complicated in expression.It may be hard for you to imagine that there are dozens of kinds of smiles, each of which has a different expression on the face and a different meaning behind it.People laugh when they're happy, they laugh when they first bond with someone, they laugh when they're having fun, they laugh when they're sad, they laugh when they're duplicity, they laugh when they're fake... In fact, so many kinds of smiles can basically be classified as real smiles and fake smiles.

Many people are confident that they can tell the type of smile, but it turns out that this is difficult to do.Paul Ekman once conducted an experiment in which he invited more than a dozen college students to the observation room to identify different smiling faces.Some of these smiling faces are enjoying the sweet talk of love, some are laughing after watching a comedy movie, and some are laughing to cover up the bloody horror movie just watched.As a result, the answers given by the college students were basically the same as the answers given by random guesses, and it was difficult to put the emojis in place.The biggest reason for this result is that students don't know the types of smiles and the differences between them, let alone distinguish between real and fake smiles.

When it comes to smiling, you have to mention the zygomatic major muscle, because most of the smiles are inseparable from its function.The zygomaticus major muscle is located under the cheekbones to the corner of the mouth. Its only function is to lift the corners of the mouth upwards and to the sides to present a smiling face.When the zygomaticus major is contracted, the corners of the mouth are raised.When the degree of contraction is strong, the muscles above the cheekbones will be lifted, and the skin under the eyes will be squeezed to form folds, and what we often call crow's feet will appear.When other muscles are involved, a wide variety of smiles can be formed.

Smiles produced by changes in the zygomaticus major alone, with no other muscles involved, are usually genuine smiles.The deeper the level of positive stimulation, the longer the smile lasted.A genuine smile is the basis of all smiles generated by positive stimuli, so it must be recognized clearly.

complicated smile

Although smiling faces are very common, the meanings expressed are often "wrong by a tiny bit, and thousands of miles away".Therefore, only by understanding different smiles can we better understand people's hearts.

contemptuous smile
Although this kind of laughter is also called laughter, it is not produced by positive stimuli, so it is not the same as laughter in the ordinary definition.But it is not a fake smile, because the purpose of a fake smile is to mislead others, but it has no scruples to show people's true inner thoughts.A contemptuous smile is somewhat similar to a smile, with the corners of the mouth raised slightly. The difference is that the muscles at the corners of the mouth of the former are tensed, producing protruding muscles, and sometimes appear on one side, that is, only one side of the mouth is tensed and raised.

laugh of fear
This smile is the result of the smile muscles stretching the corners of the mouth to the sides, causing the corners of the mouth to rise slightly.There is a slight lifting change in the brow, and the eyes want to open wide, but creases form at the upper eyelid due to depression of the brow tip.

Suppressed laugh
The first thing to point out is that suppressed laughter comes from the stimulation of positive emotions, which is completely different from the first two.However, due to various reasons, the parties could not release all their positive emotions, so they could only choose to suppress them, resulting in a suppressed smile.The facial features of this kind of smile are: tight lips, tense and drooping muscles at the corners of the mouth, puffed lower lip, and uneven wrinkles on the chin.This kind of smile comes from the heart, but it is weakened.For example, during a meeting, the supervisor made some ridiculous moves, because due to the supervisor's face, the employees could not laugh out loud, which would form a suppressed laugh.

Wry smile
When people are depressed or feel miserable, they often show a forbearing smile, which is a wry smile.The appearance of this smile means that the person concerned has accepted and admitted the painful fact, but he does not want to vent his negative emotions immediately, but intends to endure it for a while and wait until the right time to erupt.This kind of smile is a typical asymmetrical expression, and it is usually accompanied by or immediately followed by an expression that represents negative emotions.Because they are all about controlling an emotion, its characteristics are similar to those of a suppressed smile, with tight lips and uneven wrinkles in the chin.The biggest difference between the two is that a suppressed smile produces wrinkles around the eyes, such as crow's feet, while a wry smile does not.

grin
The main emotion expressed by this kind of smile is anger, so the characteristics of anger are more obvious: the brow is furrowed and depressed; Slightly down, chin retracted, typical of an aggressive posture.The corners of the mouth are slightly turned up, sometimes revealing the upper teeth, which is characteristic of a smile.If there is an action of biting the lip with the upper teeth, it proves that the person concerned is suppressing anger.If it doesn't appear, it means that the person concerned is going to explode immediately. A smile is an optimistic affirmation of the result of the attack, and it is also a manifestation of self-confidence.

sad smile
This kind of smile is more complex, combining two emotions of sadness and joy.This kind of expression usually appears when you finally achieve success after going through all kinds of difficulties. For example, when a couple who loves each other deeply but have to separate due to practical reasons, this kind of smile will appear when they finally get together.Another example is that after a long wait and countless failures, you finally get affirmation and rewards, and this kind of smile will also appear.Its biggest feature is that the upper half of the face is concentrated in sadness, and the lower half of the face is concentrated in joy.That is, the brows are raised, the brows are creased due to the contraction of the corrugator supercilii, the eyes are closed, the corners of the mouth are raised, and the muscles on the cheekbones are lifted.

coquettish smile
Psychologists call the most classic and representative smile, which is the "Mona Lisa's smile" written by Leonardo da Vinci.Because the face in the painting is facing one side, but the eyes are looking at the other side, and the corners of the mouth are slightly raised, which is pleasing to the eye.The biggest characteristic of a charming smile is the movement of the eyes. If a girl has a crush on a certain opposite sex, and hopes that the other party pays attention to herself but is shy to express herself, she will usually smile and keep her eyes on the other party for a while, and then move away quickly. After a while, it moved to the opponent.This repetition represents the impulse and suppression in the heart of the person concerned.

Most of the coquettish smiles appear on girls, representing "I want to be close to you" and "I want to be conquered".Here is a simple example: in many film and television dramas, we can see the smiles of prostitutes when they solicit customers, that is the standard amorous smile.If you are a man, and you see a girl smiling at you in the crowd, and then quickly move her eyes to the ground, you might as well go over and say hello.

awkward smile
When people are praised in public, they often have this kind of smile, which means that the person concerned is not used to or likes this kind of attention, and they don't know how to deal with it, and want to escape from everyone's sight.Therefore, one of the biggest characteristics of awkward laughter is the escape and dodge of the line of sight, and the person concerned will look down or to the other side.In addition to the gaze, the mentalis muscles contract, causing a tiny crease in the jaw, representing embarrassment.At the same time, the upper teeth will nibble on the lower lip, representing suppression.

confident smile
The facial features of this kind of smile are: the eyebrows are raised overall, but the upper eyelids are not raised, which is a typical confident expression; the line of sight is to the right; the lower eyelid is raised; Under the action of the mentalis muscle, it is lifted up, and the chin has uneven folds, and the mouth is in a "line shape".The action of the mental muscle can show the restraint of this kind of smile, which means that the person involved does not want to show a smile in public.

When an interviewer accepted the interviewer's questions, he always behaved very decently, cautiously, and smiled all the way.When the interviewer asked about his major, he showed a typical smug smile. Although he didn't talk eloquently, he just answered the question carefully, but from his smile, it can be seen that he is confident in his major. The subtext is: " This question hits the nail on the head.”

The above smiles all have their own characteristics, but in reality, many smiles have the same expression characteristics, but they have different meanings when placed in different environments.For example, a knowing smile, a helpless smile, and a leader's smile. These three kinds of smiles are characterized by a smile with the corners of the mouth slightly raised.The difference is that the leader's smile will be accompanied by head movements, such as lowering the head slightly, a feeling of looking down; a knowing smile will often be accompanied by nodding and other movements to express recognition, approval, empathy and encouragement, including Encouraging smiles and smiles of the listener; helpless smiles do not have head movements, but there will be short frowning movements (this time is very short and easy to miss), sometimes accompanied by bodily reactions such as shrugging and sighing.

fake smile
A fake smile is a kind of mask we often wear. It is obviously not stimulated by positive emotions, but we have to put on a smile to make others think we are happy.A fake smile is not a cover-up. It is completely different from a wry smile or a fearful smile. Its purpose is to induce others to believe their emotions, which has a certain deceptive nature.

In order to find out the cue characteristics of fake smiles, Paul Ekman asked a group of students to conduct a small experiment.He took the students to a small film and television hall, and told everyone in advance that he would play a warm movie for everyone, and asked everyone to talk about their impressions after watching the movie.He especially emphasized that this film has been carefully selected and hopes to get everyone's serious feedback.In fact, this is a psychological pressure. He wants to do a psychological construction in the hearts of the students, which is "not to disappoint Paul."

One-third of the time the film played, the students discovered that it was not a sentimental film at all but a horror film, but they did not raise any doubts, but watched the whole film in silence.After the end, Paul met with the students one-on-one and asked them how they felt after watching the film.Some of the students raised questions: Why is it a horror film?Did I take the wrong film?A small number of students did not question, but developed their own views on the film.Paul found that most of the smiles that appeared in the subsequent description process of the students who asked questions were real smiles.The students who did not ask questions, when describing some horror scenes, showed a smile without the participation of the orbicularis oculi muscle, and even wrinkled their noses and tightened the corners of their mouths, which represented disgust and being deceived, and it was a fake smile.Because these students didn't want to embarrass Paul, they deliberately avoided the issue of turning a warm movie into a horror movie, but went directly to the topic, hoping to tactfully let Paul know that the movie was misplaced.They didn't know that it was this kind of psychological drive that made them smirk unknowingly when describing the horror plot.

Let us now summarize the characteristics of a fake smile:

1. The facial expression of a fake smile is asymmetrical. If you take a picture of a fake smile, you will obviously feel the difference in the left and right facial expressions of the fake smiler.

2. The fake smile does not involve the orbicularis oculi muscle.In the facial expressions of the upper half of the face, the participation of the orbicularis oculi muscle is almost indispensable. It is the key to the changes of the eyebrows, eyes and the muscles around the eyes.With a sincere smile, the eyebrows will be pressed down, the upper eyelid will be lowered, the lower eyelid will be raised, and the zygomaticus major muscle will pull the cheeks, resulting in crow's feet.But in a fake smile, the changes in the eyes and eyebrows are not visible.Even if the person who faked the smile notices the change in the eyes, they will never be able to control the downward depression of the eyebrows.Therefore, a general degree of fake smile will not cause changes in the eyes.For an exaggerated fake smile, although the eyes will change, the position of the eyebrows will definitely not change.Therefore, observing whether the eyebrows change is the best way to distinguish real smiles from fake smiles.

3. The disappearance of a real smile is usually slow, from strong to weak until it disappears, like a smooth and gentle parabola.The fake smile appears very stiff in the process of disappearing, either disappearing instantly, or freezing for a period of time, like a jagged line.

4. Fake smiles can turn into complex expressions in some cases, for example, the smiles are mixed with some real emotions that cannot be concealed. Just like the experiment mentioned before, fake smiles will be accompanied by signals of negative emotions such as wrinkled noses .

Learning to spot fake smiles isn't for you to show off.Never point to a friend, family member or co-worker and say, "Hey, look at your fake smile, you haven't moved your orbicularis muscle." People are forced to put on a fake smile a lot of the time , Once exposed, there will be strong negative emotions. For those who exposed them, they will definitely hold grudges.You have to use what you have learned to protect yourself, and if you can, you can also protect others subtly. Don't let this knowledge become a tool for you to hurt others.

(End of this chapter)