Emotional tells work, but not in the way you might think (Image: Alex Webb/Magnum Photos)
From liar鈥檚 smirk to telltale pupils, your face is the blind spot that betrays you
Whether it鈥檚 Pinocchio鈥檚 nose, poker tells or who solve a crime after being tipped off by the flicker of someone鈥檚 eyebrow, much has been made of the messages written across our faces. They are the vulnerable spots that we alone can鈥檛 see, but which can broadcast our feelings to those around us.
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In reality, people can鈥檛 be read as easily as popular culture would have us believe. 鈥淣o verbal or non-verbal behaviours will be Pinocchio鈥檚 nose,鈥� says Leanne ten Brinke of the University of California, Berkeley, who studies body language. Instead, we should look for collections of cues.
People often find it easier to fake positive emotions than negative ones, because they involve only two muscles: the zygomaticus major, which helps curl the mouth when we smile, and the orbicularis oculi that crinkles the skin around the eyes into crow鈥檚 feet. If you want to catch someone out, better to look for crocodile tears. In a landmark study last year, ten Brinke and her team asked volunteers to tell two stories: one about an incident they regretted, and one about an incident they didn鈥檛. Then they were told to convincingly pretend to regret the latter.
Their disingenuous expressions yielded a treasure trove of tells. 鈥淔acial muscles that should have been engaged were suspiciously absent,鈥� says ten Brinke. Looking sad involves the contraction of complex, involuntary muscles in the forehead. Such movements proved too challenging for the subjects, and their efforts appeared closer to cartoonish surprise than sadness.
Conversely, facial muscles that should not have been engaged were. This 鈥渆motional leakage鈥�, as ten Brinke calls it, tripped up all of the participants at least once (). Emotional leakage occurs either when the liar becomes distracted by gleeful feelings of getting away with their deceit, or embarrassed at being unconvincing. Both come across like a smirk, she says.
It is hard to maintain emotional consistency throughout a faked sob story. Liars鈥� faces are emotionally turbulent, swinging between positive and negative expressions, found ten Brinke, in marked contrast to the neutrality often displayed by someone telling the truth.
If all else fails, look to the eyes, says Mariska Kret at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. 鈥淲hen you lie, your pupils dilate,鈥� she says. And with good reason. Although it has long been known that pupils dilate when we are sexually aroused, Kret鈥檚 research shows that they also expand under .
Unless you are a psychopath, she says, 鈥渓ying is not something you do without feeling a bit stressed鈥�. As with any cue, though, it鈥檚 all about context. Pupils dilate in many situations, so it would be risky to assume someone is lying based on their eyes alone, Kret says. But combined with other cues, it could suggest someone is afraid or angry that the game is up.
Read more: 鈥�The invisible issue: The world as you don鈥檛 see it鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淒ead giveaways鈥�
