Sergeant Harris emphasizes that coercive interview techniques are ineffective when trying to illicit information from a suspect: “I treat them with dignity,” he told ABC News’ Chris Cuomo. “If they can see me as a person that views them with dignity, the chances of communicating are starting to open up.”

Indeed it’s true: when trying to illicit information from someone, research shows that non-coercive interview techniques based on rapport building have been proven to be the most effective.  One extremely important part of rapport building involves reading emotions and then reacting to those emotions appropriately.

Take a look at the video below for Part 1 of “Inside the Interrogation Room”.

Also, don’t forget to take a look at Dr. Matsumoto, Dr. Hwang and Dr. Frank’s front cover article “The Role of Emotion in Predicting Violence” in this month’s edition of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.

Reading tells in poker is as much science as it is art form. While many poker pros will tell you that physical tells mean very little at the highest levels of the games, for the everyday poker player, they can still provide a valuable resource.

There are a few common microexpressions (or facial expression) that you will spot in many lower stakes and inexperienced poker players. Let’s look at a few.

A common microexpression that can be picked up on is when a player catches a card on the board that makes their hand.  If you look carefully their eyes just slightly open wider as to say “that’s it!” (Perhaps an expression of surprise?) It is very brief and if you are not watching them, you will miss it.  Something that goes in tandem with this microexpression is that the player may either look instinctively at their chips or may quickly glance at you.  However, for those that just continue to stare ahead, the slight “bingo look” will give them away.

Adversely, another tell similar to the “bingo look” is when a player misses their intended card on the board.  Let’s assume they are drawing to a straight or a flush and their draw fails to get there.  When the river card hits, they might ever so slightly squint or slightly frown their brow. Another variation could be a hard blink that is noticeably different and in some cases may be hard enough to make them nod a bit.  This is many times a clear indication that they missed their draw and are disappointed in the result.

One final expression is commonly seen in conjunction with bluffing. The river card comes and as the player bets, they let an ever so slight smirk.  Chances are that they are bluffing.  Some people when they lie will give off a slight smile like they are getting away with something.

Keep in mind that the above microexpression tells are best used at lower limits and against truly inexperienced players.  Those types of players are not taking poker games seriously and are not truly worried over profits.  As you come across more experienced players, they will tend to not exhibit these traits as frequently, and if they do, you then have to figure out whether they are using them to try and fool you.

*Our MiX 2 or MiX Elite multiple angle training may be the most beneficial to poker players, who view individuals from all angles. To learn more, take a look at this page

*For more information on poker tells, visit our affiliate Tells Kitchen

We’ve taken the time in this blog post to compile some past blogs which feature video footage where you can practice your deception detection skills.

Don’t forget that we’re also open to suggestions. If there is a video that you would like us to take a look at, don’t hesitate to contact us. Your suggestion may even become the feature of our next blog post!

Microexpression Examples

Spelling Bee

Michael Astorga

Chris Brown on Good Morning America

Hot Spotting

Jonathan Edwards

Balloon Boy, Salahis, Scott Peterson

Roger Clemens

Gestures

Habit or gestural slip?

A Christmas Story

Emotion

Bill O’Reilly on The View

LeBron James

The fascination of how the brain process objective information is not new to the scientific scene.  Many TV shows such as Lie to Me and court drama series have been zeroing in on this via micro facial expressions of emotion and body language.

Assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, Ming Meng has come up with some interesting findings in regards to the brain’s organization of these two categories and the possible role they play in autism.

Meng uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), computer vision, and psychophysics to delve into the function of the brain and the processes of our visual world.

EurekaAlert.com commented on Meng and his colleague’s reserach, which was published on January 4th in the Proceedings of Royal Society B (online edition).  Meng’s research focused on how the brain is organized to process visual information particularly the human face.

“We needed to study the full spectrum; the stimuli that make an image look like a face but not necessarily a face. These results would show the subtle differences between the left and right side of the brain as they dealt with this range of images.” Meng noted.  Looking at how the brain processes faces is Meng’s key to unlocking the mysteries of the left brain/right brain paradigm.

The findings of his study as well as similar studies on the face shed light into the complex world of autism, people with face processing deficits, which also make understanding and recognizing emotions difficult.  Meng posits that the reason for social interaction problems especially among autistic children could be a problem with face perception.

“Our results suggest the left side of the brain is processing the external physical input which resolves into a ‘grey scale’ while the right brain is underlying the final decision of whether or not it is a face.”

What are your thoughts on this study?  Do you think it is compounding upon new information or just restating old facts?

Blind-sight:  A phenomena where some blind people can “see” emotions in others faces was analyzed.  The research revealed that some emotions are deeply rooted in our brain and not just available to our visual sense of sight.

In September, we wrote a blog entitled “Eyeless Emotions“  about this research by Tilburg scientists.  Watch the video below to learn more about this fascinating revelation.

Thanks to Non-Verbal.info for the video idea!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Researchers from Oxford University as well as Oulu University (Finland) are developing software that can detect an individual’s micro facial expressions.

Microexpressions are concealed signs of emotion that flash on and off a face when a person is trying to hide their emotions.  According to Vision Systems Design this product can be used to train government and airport officials to detect suspicious behavior.

While having the ability (or software) to recognize micro facial expressions is one thing, it is a completely different thing to use that information to detect deception and uncover the truth.

Dr. Matsumoto affirms that microexpressions are not indicators of lying but are clues that a person is hiding something and there is more to the story than is being conveyed.

A sociologist from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania led a study on men’s outward display of confidence while experiencing fear.  The study focused on mixed martial art competitors.

According to newswise, the findings, which appear in the December issue of American Sociological Association’s Social Psychology Quarterly, purport that successful management of fear may “create an emotional orientation that primes men to subordinate and harm others.”

Co-author of the study Dr. Christian A. Vaccaro goes on to state, “By signifying masculine selves through evoking fear and shame in others, such men are likely to more easily secure others’ deference and accrue rewards and status. Managing emotional manhood, whether it occurs in a locker room or boardroom, at home or the Oval Office, likely plays a key role in maintaining unequal social arrangements.”

The researchers affirm that managing emotional manhood, a term used in their study, “ is an interactional strategy for managing emotion and a means for conveying a social identity to others.”

To learn more about fear read this article from the Association of Psychological Sciences (aps) on existential fear.

On Dec. 12th a Canadian court official, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, ruled that Muslim women must remove their face covering such as the burka or niqab before reciting the Canadian oath of citizenship.

cbcnews Canada describes how the decisions regarding head dressings is effecting Canada’s  entire legal system.

An Ontario woman, whose name has been withheld, is waiting to hear if she can testify in a case with her niqab.  She is the complainant in a sexual assault case. The defending lawyers say that they want to and should be allowed to see her facial expressions.

Do you agree or disagree that she should be allowed to testify with her face veil?

In Quebec there is a “reasonable accommodation”  debate going on regarding face veils.  A woman was barred this past summer from being a Lac St. Louis Regional Soccer Association referee simply because she wears a niqab.

Read the rest of the article to see how this controversy is affecting other countries as well.

The EU recently announced that it will ban x-ray body scanners at airports.  This was reported on last month by CNN.  But don’t jump for joy yet- there will be another security measure to take their place.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has delineated its vision for the future of airport security.  They plan on implementing a series of neon lit tunnels.  This sounds exciting and at least colorful, but it is more than just aesthetically enhancing airports of the future.

These neon-lit tunnels come equipped with eye scanners, x-ray machines and metal and liquid detectors.  Travelers will be issued a ‘travel profile”, which might prove to be the most controversial and time-consuming part to implement, and then escorted into one of the various tunnels in airports throughout the globe.

Think this sounds impressive.  Well the time-line to implementation is even more impressive.  The IATA is hoping to have these features in airports within the next 5-7 years.

What are your insights on the airport of the future?

This new idea sounds like it would make long security lines  a thing of the past.  It would be more ascetically pleasing not to mention futuristic.  After-all most airports do need updating (it is the 21st century).

The question is, is this less intrusive than what is available now?  Probably not, but with its new ascetics and  low key security features passengers might not mind it as much as the time consuming body scanners in place right now.  It could  alleviate anxiety surrounding ethnic profiling as well.

For more information about airport security read the rest of “The Future of Airport Security”.

Do you think that this is more intrusive than what is in place now? Or do you think it is speedier and more customer friendly?

“This [study] shows infants will imitate behavior from a reliable adult,” says second author Ivy Brooker, “In contrast, the same behavior performed by an unreliable adult is interpreted as irrational or inefficient, therefore not worth imitating.”

The babies were divided in two groups; with reliable or unreliable testers.  To determine the reliability of experimenters they looked into a container with a reaction of excitement.  Then the infants were invited to discover if the container actually had a toy in it or was empty.

The follow up experiment then had the experimenter use their forehead in lieu of their hands to turn on a light.  The researchers recorded whether the infants would imitate the experimenter.  The study findings, only 34% of infants of unreliable testers followed the strange assignment.

“Like older children, infants keep track of an individual’s history of being accurate or inaccurate and use this information to guide their subsequent learning,” says senior researcher Diane Poulin-Dubois.