Face Cover: What does it mean?
We often see athletes and individuals in high stress, emotional situations do what Dr. Matsumoto calls a “face cover”.
But why exactly do people cover their face in emotional and stressful times?
Some individuals believe that the face cover is only a part of social communication, but Dr. Matsumoto believes that it is not. He believes that individuals often cover their face to conceal their emotions and that it is an immediate reaction that most people cannot control.
Dr. Matsumoto also suggests that covering one’s face could also have some evolutionary basis, rooted in not letting enemies see your emotions because it could potentially be a danger to your well-being. Nonetheless, this gesture is immediate and unconscious.
Keep your eye out for this behavior and you’ll surprisingly see it fairly frequently (you may even catch yourself doing it!)
Dr. Matsumoto discussed emotions in sports at the Happiness Conference in Sydney, Australia:
2010 World Cup: Raw Emotions
With the 2010 FIFA World cup taking place at this very moment, the world’s greatest soccer athletes are showcasing not only their amazing athletic ability, but also their raw, uncut emotions.
Dr. Matsumoto’s study of athletes in the 2004 Olympic Games suggested that ” expressions occur in relation to emotionally evocative contexts in people of all cultures, that these expressions correspond to the facial expressions of emotion, that expressions provide information that can reliably differentiate the antecedent situations that produced them, and that expressions that occur without inhibition are different than those that occur in social and interactive settings”.
Since emotions are immediate, automatic and involuntary reactions to events that are important to us, athletes in high stakes situations are usually unable to control their facial expressions of emotion. With only 8 nations left in the tournament, we’ve seen many teams experience the true thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
Take a look at the photo gallery of the FIFA World Cup to see some shots of athletes making great faces.
© Orlando Florin Rosu | Dreamstime.com
Lie to Me, Season 2- Episode 14 “React to Contract”
In another complex and dramatic episode of Lie to Me, microexpressions expert Cal Lightman takes on Jeff Turley, an Iraqi war veteran who seems to be suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Turley seems to be having difficulty recounting events that took place while he was in combat and seeks Lightman’s help to remember.
Lightman and his crew bring Turley back to their office and hook him up to a FMRI machine that measures that change in blood flow related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans. They discover that Jeff reads neutral faces as hostile, a sign of PTSD and that he seems ashamed of the events which led to him being given a silver star.
This episode seemed full of high tech gadgets rather than illustrating what Cal and his team do best, which is read people and detect deceit. In one instance, Foster and Lightman decide to hook Turley up to a virtual reality machine which will re-traumatize him in a controlled way and bring him back to the event he doesn’t want to talk about. After re-enacting the traumatic event, the Lightman Group realizes that there is more to the story that’s being told about what happened in Iraq.
Torres and Foster decide to go visit a man who served with Jeff Turley in Iraq, Captain Renshaw. Although Torres seemed to think that he wasn’t hiding anything, Foster disagrees, stating that the pride in his voice means he’s hiding something. The scientific evidence for this isn’t strong at all- there is no proof that there is such a thing as “pride” that can be detected in one’s voice. Also, just because someone seems to be full of pride, it can’t be directly associated with deceit.
Through many twists and turns, in the end we find out that Turley’s erratic behavior is a result of a cover up initiated by Captain Renshaw, who had accidentally shot another soldier as a result of “friendly fire”.
It was nice to see the interaction between Cal and his daughter Emily in the very last moment of the episode. Particularly poignant was the moment when Cal was describing his father, who had been a soldier.
This moment was quite appropriate given this upcoming July 4th weekend- thank you to all the soldiers, past and present, who dedicate their lives for our country.
Lie to Me Preview 6/28 “React to Contract”
Take a look at tonight’s preview of Lie to Me, airing on FOX at 8/7c…will you be watching?
Helping Visually Impaired Individuals “See” Emotions
A recent article published on the Science Daily website reports a new technology that could help those who are visually impaired to “see” emotions.
For his doctoral thesis at Umea University in Sweden, Shafiq ur Rehman developed a new tool that converts facial emotions into special tactile sensations for the visually impaired.
Rehman’s study is based on the idea that much of communication (up to 90%) is communicated non-verbally and that facial expressions of emotion are one of the most complex signal systems that we have as humans. Other recent studies have suggested that people also imitate other people to interpret their emotions. Because individuals who are visually impaired are not able to see facial expressions, this can create “barriers to social interactions”.
To allow visually impaired individuals to “see” emotions, Rehman and his team have developed a new technology “based on an ordinary web camera, hardware and a tactile display”. Using the webcam to capture certain facial expressions on the face, the hardware converts the emotion into a series of vibrational patters that correspond with the expressed emotion.
The project was funded by the Swedish Research Council and its main focus has been to characterize different emotions and to “find a way to present them by means of advanced biomedical engineering and computer vision technologies”.
Rehman’s complete article, entitled “Vibrotactile Rendering of Human Emotions on the Manifold of Facial Expressions” can be found by clicking here
The Seven Basic Emotions: Do you know them?
Humintell’s microexpression training features images of individuals portraying the 7 basic emotions: Anger, Contempt, Fear, Disgust, Happiness, Sadness and Surprise. But what exactly are basic emotions and where do other emotions such as shame, guilt and pride fit in? Read on to learn more…
Basic emotions are emotions that have been scientifically proven to have a certain facial expression associated with it.
For example, the basic emotion of “Anger” can be recognized by this picture all around the world, no matter what age, religion or gender you are, or what language you speak. Anger can be characterized by these characteristics below:
Similarly, Fear is also a basic emotion. Fear is recognized all around the world by this facial expression of emotion, with the characteristics which can be seen below. Its important to note that other words describing fear are also expressed by this same face (or portions of this face). Emotions such as scared, mortified, horrified and petrified all have characteristics of this expression.
There are other basic emotions such as disgust, contempt, happiness, sadness and surprise. Their characteristics can be seen below:
We often get asked about emotions such as shame, pride, jealously and guilt. While these emotions are important ones, they are still not considered part of the basic emotions set. For example, there is no scientific evidence showing that there is a universal expression of shame that is recognized around the world as shame. Be weary when you see or hear people labeling expressions as emotions not in the basic emotion set. There is little evidence backing up their claims.
*Please note that the images used in this blog post are property of Humintell. Duplicating or using these images are any purpose is strictly prohibited without written consent of Humintell.
Lie to Me- Season 2, Episode 13 “The Whole Truth
This episode starts with the murder of an extremely wealthy, older man and his beautiful, young wife finding his body. Cal’s ex-wife Zoe (Jennifer Beals) takes on the defense’s case when the so-called black widow is charged with her late husband’s murder. Lightman seems to be working for the defense and states that the woman (Clara) is hiding something.
At the very beginning of the episode there is a great moment where Zoe says “I’d like to speak with my ex-husband in private, if that’s all right”. Lightman’s expression of a very over-exaggerated social smile is priceless.
Lightman also does a great half smile with disgust expression at around 3:42 that lasts about 3 or 4 seconds. Hope people caught that. If not, you can see both moments here:
There is also a moment at the beginning of the show were Cal speaks about Clara: “I mean really, she is pushing those tears out really. I mean, she’s faking it”. Its important to note that macroexpressions last the longest on the face (1/2-4 seconds) and are also the easiest expressions to fake:
A dramatic, witty and humorous, but totally unrealistic court scene ensues, with Lightman eventually getting kicked off the stand by the judge. While outside the courtroom Lightman creates a diversion so that he can get into a room alone with Clara. Beal walks in just as Lightman is questioning the suspect and throws Lightman in jail, but releases him after her tells her that her client is in fact, innocent.
Back at the Lightman office, Gillian is working with the son of the murdered man and seems to suspect some suspicious behavior. Lightman proceeds to hook Clara up to a device and notices that she feels contempt toward the son, Damien and also anger towards her friend, Tonya. The crew brings Damien back to the office while Lightman makes out with Clara purposely to get his reaction. Damien shows what looks to be a brief sign of sadness (inner brows drawn up and together slightly, although this isn’t explained in the show):
An intense altercation between the Clara and Damien occurs, with anger flaring up between the two. The actors did a great job of working off each other’s emotions, which often happens in real life as well. When people are angry, they are more vigilant to other people’s anger and feed off of it. Therefore, tensions usually escalate to the point where people can’t remember what they were first arguing about.
The story takes another turn in court when Victor’s (the deceased) close friend testifies that Clara had been stealing $90,000.00 out of Victor’s bank account every month. Lightman confronts Clara’s friend, Tonya, and finds out that Tonya had been blackmailing her. There is a curious expression from Tonya at the end, along with a picture of another girl and Paris Hilton, but not sure exactly what those are trying to depict. The closest thing could be shame, although there is no scientific proof that there is a universal expression of shame.
Lightman’s team figures out the Leo, Victor’s close friend must have killed Victor. If Clara gets convicted, Leo stands to gain millions of dollars. Lightman states that Leo “flashed regret” when Lightman told him he killed his friend, but its important to note that there is no scientific evidence backing up that statement.
While on the stand, we come to find out the Leo was hiding a deep secret of his friends- that he was dying from a brain disease and had asked his friend to kill him. Leo claims that Victor left a video explaining the situation, which Clara sees at the end of the episode back at Lightman’s office.
Overall this episode was clever, entertaining and one of our favorites. What did you think?
Lie to Me Preview 6/21 “The Whole Truth” Preview
Another episode of Lie to Me airs tonight on FOX at 8/7 central. Judging from the preview, it looks like Cal is going to be tempted by a “black widow” and also get into some heated drama with his ex-wife. Should be interesting…
Lie to Me- Season 2, Episode 12 “Sweet Sixteen”
An intricate storyline to say the least, the 12th episode of Lie to Me begins with a flashback to 2003, where we see a man (Jimmy Doyle) struggle with a taxi cab driver after St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with his wife and daughter. Doyle survives, but his wife and daughter aren’t as lucky.
Back to present day, there is a bombing outside the Lightman Group office, killing a man from the Pentagon who was coming to visit Lightman, and injuring Eli Loker. An accused terrorist, Jimmy Doyle becomes the number one suspect.
Throughout this episode we see many flashbacks of when Lightman and Foster first meet, when she began interviewing him at the Pentagon. We get a glimpse into their first encounters and see Lightman questioning Foster’s integrity throughout the show.
After finding out that Doyle did not have anything to do with the bombing outside the Lightman Group office, another bombing occurs when Lightman, Foster and Doyle visit a lawyer who allegedly helped frame two kids for the murder of Doyle’s wife and daughter in 2003. After the second bombing, the government (whom Cal suspects are responsible for the cover up of the 2003 murders) responds with a press conference where Lightman calls out Agent Prosser for lying. He invites Prosser back to his lab to interrogate him.
Back at the laboratory, Prosser breaks and admits to the cover-up. He tells Lightman where he could find the real killer. After some more tense moments, Doyle and Lightman confront the killer, Finch. Doyle comes close to killing his wife and daughter’s true killer, but in the end walks away.
In the final scene of this elaborate episode, we see Lightman and Foster back at the office. In a rather uncharacteristic emotional moment, we see Foster open up and tell Lightman that she was protecting him and his family all along.
These new episodes seem as if they are going further away from the science of microexpressions and nonverbal behavior and into the realm of a serious drama show. Throughout the episode we receive very little reasoning as to how Lightman makes judgments on people’s credibility.
In this episode, we see only a brief, few seconds of where Agent Prosser’s face is compared to other photos of individuals such as Bill Clinton. The only problem with these is that we don’t get an explanation as to why these photos are shown or what they mean. Hopefully in future episodes, we will get a better sense of the science and a better explanation of how Lightman is so effortlessly able to tell truths from lies. At times it seems almost too good to be true, but of course, it is drama.
To view the complete episode see below:
Lie to Me: Sweet Sixteen Preview
An all new episode of Lie to Me airs tonight on FOX at 8/7 central! Take a look at the preview here:
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