What Is She Thinking – The Psychology Behind Facial Expressions?

Being able to understand facial expressions is an important part of nonverbal communication. When you only listen to what a person is saying but ignore what their face is telling you, you only really have half the story.

Words may not match emotions, and the face can act as a window and reveal what someone is actually thinking and feeling. So what can we pick up when we understand a person’s facial expressions better? That’s what we’ll be exploring today,  What is She Thinking? The Psychology Behind Facial Expressions.

When you understand facial expressions, you’re able to gather information about how the other person is feeling, thereby guiding your interactions accordingly and enabling you to have more meaningful conversations. There are experts who study this body language stuff. You may already know that if you’ve ever watched an episode of Lie To Me, the TV show about a leading deception researcher who seeks out criminals by studying facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. But the real-life experts can help with everything from singles trying to figure out how that first date went, to cops in the interrogation room. Research by Dr. Paul Eckman, an American psychologist, deception detection expert, and inspiration behind the TV show Lie To Me, tells us that there are seven emotions, resulting in universal facial expressions that are the same regardless of race or culture.

These are surprise, fear, disgust, contempt, anger, sadness, and happiness. Try this exercise; look into the mirror and practice making the facial expressions that go along with these emotions. Try it a few times and carefully study how you look. This will help you to become better at recognizing them in other people. But what if someone is trying to hide how they genuinely feel? Ok, let’s talk about micro expressions. Microexpressions were first mentioned in a 1966 psychotherapy report by Ernest Haggard and Kenneth Isaacs, and they’re attributed to the seven emotions we just mentioned. A microexpression happens when someone’s trying to conceal their true feelings.

One example could be that woman sitting across the table from you on a first dinner date. She’s trying to be polite by laughing at your jokes but she really doesn’t think you’re funny. Yep, sorry to say, but the truth is if you can recognize those micro-expressions, it’s not always great news.

Microexpressions typically last less than half a second, and sometimes they’re even faster. You can think of them like a hint of a concealed emotion, which leaks out when people are trying to control their feelings. Another example might be a job interview, where someone wants to be perceived as motivated and positive but inside they are experiencing some negative emotions. As hard as they may try, it’s likely that at some point their inner feelings will show up on their face. This is all interesting, but how do we actually spot these expressions when observing a person’s facial movements? We’ve researched some psychology websites to find out more. Let’s dive in and take a look:

Eyebrows – Eyebrows can tell a lot about how a person is feeling. If they’re raised and arched the person is surprised; lowered and knit together, it’s anger; and the inner corners are drawn up, well that hints at sadness. Watch someone’s eyebrows next time you are speaking to them and see if you can get a handle on how that person is feeling.

Eyes can tell us more about a person than other parts of the face. Wide open suggests surprise; staring intensely means anger; people have crow’s feet crinkles when they’re happy; dilated pupils can indicate fear or romantic interest, and rapid blinking suggests dishonesty or stress.

And then there’s the mouth where a dropped jaw is surprised; an open mouth maybe be fear; one side of the mouth raised suggests hate; corners raised means happiness; and the corners drawn down usually suggest someone is sad.

Other signals to look for are, biting of the lip, which means anxious, pursed lips means distaste, and if they’re covering their mouth, then they’re probably hiding something. So those are just a few tips to get you thinking about the facial expressions you might see during a conversation. If you find it tricky to read another person’s emotions by observing their expressions, you may need more practice, as it takes some time to get the hang of.

So what if you’re on a first date; getting to know that special lady over dinner? How can you effectively gage romantic interest? To assess facial expressions it is it generally best to ask direct questions and then observe the responses. But bear in mind, the person might be acting differently from how they feel, so don’t be pushy or aggressive in your questions. The more at ease they are, the more you’ll pick up. Of course, it’s not always polite to ask repeated questions when on a date, so what else can you do? Well, actually the face is only one piece of the puzzle.

There is other body language you can look out for, to confirm the quick smile she gave you, was, in fact, indicating attraction…Someone who’s interested in getting to know you better will have open body language. If standing close by, she may face you rather than shy away. Arms will be open rather than crossed, as crossing the arms is defensive, and playing with hair, or hand to mouth gestures can be seen as positive signs. On the flipside, if your date has at least one of their feet facing the exit, it could be an unconscious hint that they want to end the night and head home alone.

So it seems there’s a lot to learn from facial expressions. In fact, our understanding of the link between physical expression and emotion dates as far back as Charles Darwin, who was known for researching emotion, believing emotion to be biological and universal