When public figures are caught in the middle of a lie, it draws an incredible amount of attention and former Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards has done just that.

The public has come to know that not only was he untruthful about his affair, he has recently confessed to fathering a child with his mistress Rielle Hunter. What makes this matter worse is that Edwards intitially vehemently denied having an affair and fathering a child with Hunter. While he did come clean about his affair on an interview on Nightline, Edwards still denied knowing anything about the baby.

There are 2 parts to the John Edwards interview on Nightline, which can be seen below.

In the first video, pay particular attention to Edward’s behavior when he is denying the affair (which is shown leading up to the featured interview)

In the second video, pay particular attention to when Edwards is denying knowing anything about the baby we know know he fathered with Rielle Hunter.

Look for discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal actions, hot spots and micro and subtle expressions.

Let us know what you see!

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Please see below for the videos and click here for a link to our products!

SubX Demo:

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MiX 2 Demo:

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1) Do your research.

Understand that there is no tell-tale sign that allows you to know when a person is lying. However, it is important to know that up to 90% of messages communicated in a conversation are nonverbal and that the most common place where these nonverbal messages are seen is on their face.

2) Learn Microexpressions through our MiX Training

Microexpressions are scientifically documented concealed signs of emotion. Everyone has them and they can’t be faked. They occur at less than 1/2 a second usually when people are trying to conceal or repress an emotion.

Take our MiX Microexpression Training- with images from just the frontal view. You can also take our Advanced Microexpression Training- which features images from all angles- frontal, profile and 3/4 side views.

Our training has been scientifically proven to improve your ability to recognize microexpressions in about an hour and has been proven to last even 3 weeks after you have completed the training.

3) Learn Subtle Expressions through our SubX Training

Subtle Expressions are expressions of a low intensity that occur in less intense emotional situations. They are oftentimes not full expressions, such as microexpressions, but rather partial more subtle expressions.

Our SubX Subtle Expression Training was originally developed for and funded by the US Government and recent research suggests that subtle expressions may be the key to learning how to detect deception.

4) Attend the Humintell Webinar

Many people often ask us what the next step is in detecting deception once they have learned micro and subtle expressions.

While learning these hidden signs of emotion is crucial to understanding how people really feel, it is important to know what other nonverbal behaviors to look for in order to evaluate truthfulness.

During our 2-Hour Evaluating Truthfulness Webinar, participants will learn how to improve their skills in reading emotions and other nonverbal behaviors.

Space is limited, so sign up today!

5) Practice!

Once you’ve learned to detect the hidden signs of emotion, practice them everywhere you go. A particularly good way to improve your ability is to watch television- particularly interviews. Try to spot the concealed signs of emotion that you’ve learned!

New research in a paper called Detecting Deception from Emotional and Unemotional Cues by Gemma Warren, Elizabeth Schertler and Peter Bull suggests that subtle expressions, not microexpressions, could be a more accurate tool in detecting deception.

Many people know that microexpressions are hidden signs of emotions that are uncontrollable and last a fraction of a second. These microexpressions were once thought to be an effective method to detecting deception, yet this new study suggests that subtle expressions, not microexpressions, could be the key to catching liars.

In their study, Warren, et. al recorded videos of individuals being either truthful or deceptive. This video footage was designed to generate an emotional or unemotional response. Individuals were then asked to evaluate the level of honesty in those videos and complete the Microexpression Training Tool (developed by myself and Dr. Paul Ekman) and the Subtle Expression Training Tool (SETT). They concluded that the overall performance for emotional lie detection was “significantly positively correlated with reported use of facial expressions and with performance on the Subtle Expression Training Tool (SETT), but not on the Microexpression Training Tool (METT).” This study implies that subtle expression training is positively correlated with emotional lie detection.

What are subtle expressions and how are they different than microexpressions?

Subtle expressions are just as their name suggests: subtle. They occur when a person’s emotional response to a situation, to another person or to the environment around them is of low intensity. They also occur when a person is just starting to feel an emotion.

Learning to see subtle expressions is different than learning to see microexpressions. Being able to see microexpressions of emotion requires that you learn to spot a full expression of emotion visible on the face for a short time: micros “flash” for ½ second or less.  Contrary to this, when you study subtle expressions, you learn how to identify the emotion a person is feeling from slight, subtle variations of the expression being shown.

Want to learn how to detect subtle expressions? Try our SubX Professional Training or our SubX Lite- Our unique training tool is one-of-a-kind and found nowhere else. Complete with 70 practice images, SubX was originally funded by and developed for governmental agencies in the United States. Learning subtle expressions really is the “next step” in learning how to detect deception. If you would like additional training after you’ve taken SubX or SubX Lite, try our SubX Additional Training. Complete with 70 practice images, you can set the speed to adjust your needs and improve your ability to detect subtle expressions.

How is our training different than SETT?

SubX features a baseline test, 13 instructional videos, a practice test with 70 color images and a post test. SETT features no baseline or post test and contains only 37 practice images in black and white.

SubX features instructional videos complete with full video and audio capabilities whereas SETT training contains only written verbiage.

SubX also contains better images-representing multiple ethnicities, genders and age groups whereas SETT features images from only one individual.

SubX contains an instructional video on how to identify expressions when portions of the face are hidden or covered. SETT does not contain this feature.

SubX training was developed for and funded by top governmental agencies in the United States.

Want to try a FREE demo of our SubX Training? Click Here!

About Face

It is not only the first thing we see when we encounter each other; the face is also a pop icon – heavily referenced in our jargon and slang. Think about it: we talk about losing face, saving face, getting face time, getting s*** faced, shopping your face off. Etc.

Why the face? It’s because faces are recognized by many scientists as being the most important communication tool that our body has. Our faces are more important than our voices or the words we speak. We have many ways to express nonverbal behavior: what we do with our hands, feet, gestures, gaze and posture tells a story about what we are thinking and how we are feeling even if our lips are not moving. But if you want to know what is really going on with someone, keep your eyes on their face. Learn to see what you’ve been missing.

Faces are also unbelievably complex. Any idea how many muscles your face has? Over 40 of them, all moving independently of each other. This means that we can produce literally thousands of different expressions. What is even more amazing in light of these thousands of possible expressions, is that we know that for certain emotions – the seven emotions that we call universal (more on that in another blog) – every person on the planet expresses them on their face in exactly the same way.
Here’s a question for you. When someone’s words say one thing and their face says another, which are you likely to believe? The face wins, hands down (no pun intended).  Every time. It is simply our favorite body part.

Lie Spy?

So what about those people on television that read faces and solve crime and other cool stuff? While what you see on television is drama, there is some truth to the methods that the characters use.  It is a real life case of science meeting fiction. Research has shown that people can learn to observe and understand the signs of facial nonverbal communication. In fact, our approach to training has been scientifically proven to improve a person’s ability to detect these signs of facial nonverbal communication. These are the same powerful observation tools – based on the Matsumoto Method – that U.S. Government agencies and Fortune 500 companies use everyday. Scientifically proven, field-tested. It works.

Microexpressions, Macroexpressions and Subtle Expressions?

So you want to become an expert? Welcome to my world! Let’s start with a quick definition of facial nonverbal communication. These expressions of emotion can be categorized as follows:

Macroexpressions. These last from ½ second to 4 seconds: we see them in our daily interactions with people all of the time. It is the face that people show when they have nothing to hide.

Microexpressions last less than ½ second and occur when people are consciously or unconsciously trying to conceal or repress what they are feeling. Most people miss microexpressions, all though there are a few people in the world who are naturals and can spot them without training. Want to know if you are one of them? Go to the Play and Discover section of this website and take the pre-test. If you aren’t a natural, don’t worry.  We know that people can be taught to spot microexpressions relatively easily with about an hour of training.

Subtle expressions are a little different.  We don’t identify them by the amount of time it takes them to move on and off the face; subtle expressions are associated with the intensity of the emotion.  They occur when a person is just starting to feel an emotion, or when their emotional response to a situation, another person or the environment around them is of low intensity. Recently published research showed a high correlation between recognizing subtle expressions and being able to detect deceit. Stay tuned for more on that…

Here’s looking at you.  And everyone else.