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Microexpression

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A microexpression is a brief, involuntary facial expression shown on the face of humans according to emotions experienced. They usually occur in high-stakes situations, where people have something to lose or gain. Unlike regular facial expressions, it is difficult to hide microexpression reactions. Microexpressions express the seven universal emotions: disgust, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, and contempt. Nevertheless, in the 1990s, Paul Ekman expanded his list of basic emotions, including a range of positive and negative emotions not all of which are encoded in facial muscles. These emotions are amusement, contempt, embarrassment, excitement, guilt, pride, relief, satisfaction, pleasure, and shame.[1][2] They are very brief in duration, lasting only 1/25 to 1/15 of a second.[3]

History

Microexpressions were first discovered by Haggard and Isaacs. In their 1966 study, Haggard and Isaacs outlined how they discovered these "micromomentary" expressions while "scanning motion picture films of psychotherapy hours, searching for indications of non-verbal communication between therapist and patient"[4]This reprint edition of Ekman and Friesen's breakthrough research on the facial expression of emotion uses scores of photographs showing emotions of surprise, fear, disgust, contempt, anger, happiness, and sadness. The authors of Unmasking the Face explain how to identify these basic emotions correctly and how to tell when people try to mask, simulate, or neutralize them.

In the 1960s, William S. Condon pioneered the study of interactions at the fraction-of-a-second level. In his famous research project, he scrutinized a four-and-a-half-second film segment frame by frame, where each frame represented 1/25th second. After studying this film segment for a year and a half, he discerned interactional micromovements, such as the wife moving her shoulder exactly as the husband's hands came up, which combined yielded microrhythms.[5]

Years after Condon's study, American psychologist John Gottman began video-recording living relationships to study how couples interact. By studying participants' facial expressions, Gottman was able to correlate expressions with which relationships would last and which would not.[6] Gottman's 2002 paper makes no claims to accuracy in terms of binary classification, and is instead a regression analysis of a two factor model where skin conductance levels and oral history narratives encodings are the only two statistically significant variables. Facial expressions using Ekman's encoding scheme were not statistically significant.[7] In Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink", Gottman states that there are four major emotional reactions that are destructive to a marriage: defensiveness, stonewalling, criticism, and contempt. Among these four, Gottman considers contempt the most important of them all.[8]

Types

  • Simulated expressions: When a microexpression is not accompanied by a genuine expression.
  • Neutralized expressions: When a genuine expression is suppressed and the face remains neutral.
  • Masked expressions: When a genuine expression is completely masked by a falsified expression.[9]

Facial Action Coding System

Main article: Facial Action Coding System

The Facial Action Coding System or FACS is used to identify facial expression. This identifies the muscles that produce the facial expressions. To measure the muscle movements the action unit (AU) was developed. This system measures the relaxation or contraction of each individual muscle and assigns a unit. More than one muscle can be grouped into an Action Unit or the muscle may be divided into separate action units. The score consists of duration, intensity and asymmetry. This can be useful in identifying depression or measurement of pain in patients that are unable to express themselves.

The Facial Action Coding System training manual, first published in 1978 with multimedia supplements, is designed to teach individuals how to detect and categorize facial movements. The guide provides lessons and practice for memorizing action units and combinations of action units. The manual's purpose is to enable practitioners to recognize different physiological attributes of facial expressions, but leaves the interpretation of this data up to other works. Users should not expect to become face-reading experts. It can be particularly useful to behavioral scientists, CG animators, or computer scientists when they need to know the exact movements that the face can perform, and what muscles produce them. It also has potential to be a valuable tool for psychotherapists, interviewers, and other practitioners who must penetrate deeply into interpersonal communications. [1] A new version (2002) of FACS by Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen, and Joseph C. Hager is now available with several core improvements, including more accurate representations of facial behaviors and cleaner, digital images. Other related tools for facial expression recognition training include the Micro Expression Training Tool (METT) and Subtle Expression Training Tool (SETT), both developed by Paul Ekman. [2]

Wizards Project

Main article: Wizards Project

Most people do not seem to perceive microexpressions in themselves or others. In the Wizards Project, previously called the "Diogenes Project", Drs. Paul Ekman and Maureen O'Sullivan studied the ability of people to detect deception. Of the thousands of people tested, only a select few were able to accurately detect when someone was lying. The Wizards Project researchers named these people "Truth Wizards". To date, the Wizards Project has identified just over 50 people with this ability after testing nearly 20,000 people.[10] Truth Wizards use microexpressions, among many other cues, to determine if someone is being truthful. Scientists hope by studying wizards that they can further advance the techniques used to identify deception.

Microexpressions and associated science are the central premise for the 2009 television series Lie to Me, in which the main character uses his acute awareness of microexpressions and other body language clues to determine when someone is lying or hiding something.

They also play a central role in Robert Ludlum's posthumously published The Ambler Warning, in which the central character, Harrison Ambler, is an intelligence agent who is able to see them. Similarly, one of the main characters in Alastair Reynolds science fiction novel, Absolution Gap, Aura, can easily read microexpressions.

See also

References

  1. ^ Paul Ekman (1999). Basic Emotions. In T. Dalgleish and M. Power (Eds.). Handbook of Cognition and Emotion. Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
  2. ^ P. Ekman, “Facial Expressions of Emotion: an Old Controversy and New Findings”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, B335:63--69, 1992
  3. ^ http://face.paulekman.com/aboutmett2.aspx
  4. ^ Haggard, E. A., & Isaacs, K. S. (1966). Micro-momentary facial expressions as indicators of ego mechanisms in psychotherapy. In L. A. Gottschalk & A. H. Auerbach (Eds.), Methods of Research in Psychotherapy (pp. 154-165). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
  5. ^ http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Citation/1966/10000/Sound_Film_Analysis_of_Normal_and_Pathological.5.aspx Sound Film Analysis of Normal and Pathological Behavior Patterns, CONDON, W. S.; OGSTON, W. D., Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease. 143(4):338-347, October 1966.
  6. ^ http://www.gottman.com/49853/Research-FAQs.html
  7. ^ Gottman, J. and Levenson, R.W., (2002). A Two-Factor Model for Predicting When a Couple Will Divorce: Exploratory Analyses Using 14-Year Longitudinal Data, Family Process, 41 (1), p. 83-96
  8. ^ Gladwell, Malcolm (2005). Blink, Chapter 1, Section 3, The Importance of Contempt
  9. ^ Godavarthy, Sridhar. "Microexpression spotting in video using optical strain". Web. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  10. ^ Camilleri, J., Truth Wizard knows when you've been lying", Chicago Sun-Times, January 21, 2009
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