The Simple Trick to Reading People's Minds | Annie Särnblad

how many facial expressions are there Darwin was wrote in 1872 about the expressions of man and animals and he realized that going from tribe to tribe where people had no connection to each other that he could start into years and years of going into civilizations where people didn't have connection to much of the outside world he started to write down and chart and dissect the different muscle combinations in human expression because he started to notice even if he didn't understand the language he could see if someone was angry if they were happy if they were afraid if they were feeling um surprise for example and but those facial expressions were the same so the work that I'm doing it's ironic because I'm an anthropologist so I should be looking at culture right but the work that I'm doing is hardwired into us it's the universal language of humans us as a species doesn't matter geography doesn't matter um your age your socialization even people who are born blind make the same facial expressions it's Universal Universal doesn't matter what language you speak doesn't matter where you're from in the world we all make similar facial expressions is is facial expression do we all make similar body Expressions too and are they different facial expression and Body Language so body language varies from person to person you and your um brother could react differently with your body language and and um but your facial expressions will be the same really yes the facial expressions are all the same so think about it so look more at the face not the body right so I can talk about body language a little bit when we get further into this um but think about it when you're scared I mean right now I'm a little nervous because we've just met for the first time and and we're being filmed and this is kind of exciting and I've read your books seen your podcast so my hands are cold well it's also cold in the room I'm making cold in here bab on purpose yeah so but but the reality is that the blood when I'm afraid or nervous the blood rushes down to my legs and my feet so that I can run ah interesting when we're angry it pumps into our fists so that we are ready to fight when we human beings are sad we cry when we're nervous we sweat Palms of our hands in our arm P pits sometimes on the brow right when we're aroused the blood PS pulls into the middle of our bodies we would not survive as a species if this were not true interesting okay so that was like the oh crap that was oh crap and here she goes but the reality is that every emotion leads to a change in blood flow and muscle movement in our bodies and on our faces we have a physiological response to emotion so what influences the emotion is it a thought that we generate or a thought that we wellow that's a really good question so like if I have a really hot cup of coffee and I touch the coffee the first thing that happens is I move my fingers back I don't think oh my goodness this is hot with my brain my body the muscle movement comes first the micro Expressions preced the thought process so I can't even after my years and years and years of training I can't stop myself from making micro Expressions unless I change what I'm thinking about unless you're intentional about the thought you're like okay I'm going to there's going to be loud noises I'm going to act calm and relaxed even though my body would probably Flinch or react or turn around or see what's happening around me right the body reacts based on its environment sounds words Expressions right right which is why those of us who experienced trauma we get triggered really really quickly very easily right and so when I said that trauma you you did the rectangle of your mouth your the tendons of your neck jump that's that's fear that's oh crap right that's a response and you pulled your upper eyelids back okay so that's also fear we we make this full facial expression of fear the macro we pull our upper eyelids way back we show the Scaro which is the white above our eyes and we make our mouth into to this giant rectangle why is it okay so the pulling back of the upper eyelids is so that we gauge our exits and the opening our mouth into a huge rectangle is so that we can scream for help and so what I call the O crap is just that little piece of the rectangle yeah and it's the only expression that makes the tendons of our next jump really so even if I'm looking eye to eye and I see that little tendon something was unsettling to you now is this an observation of us you know mirroring and iing our parents or siblings when we were younger or watching expressions of others or if we weren't able to see anyone when we constantly create this intuitively in our DNA all day long it's hardwired into us so it's not a mimic because we mimic a lot of body language and languages yeah we mirror a lot of body language and mirror and so we're like parrots right right but so if you are really stressed and you come in and you keep puckering your chin CU you're having a really really hard time and they say Lou how are you doing today and you say say great I'm like oh honeyy do you need a hug even though your word said great you're pucking your chin cuz you're feeling sad and vulnerable right so I know that micro expressions are the very deepest of listening skills wow so I see you can tell easily if someone's lying based on facial expression yes because a facial expression won't match the words so that's what we're always looking at so for example if you say great when you show vulnerability well you're not feeling so great you're not you're maybe not trying to deceive me on a deep level you're just trying to kind of fake it till you make it right so you say I hate broccoli and you show disgust right when we have little children when we have little children this is what I call I call the no face but it's got three main pieces the macro it's big expression it's got the wrinkles next to the nose the deepening of the nasal lavial furl and the pulling of the upper lip did you have that girl in seventh grade is like are you going to wear that are you going to wear that like really so I take the micro expressions and the way that I have been able to advance the field of science is I teach the one thing that's significant to each expression each emotion so with disgust if you just look for nostril Shadows I mean I'm at I speak all these different languages so my thing is translating so I needed to take this entire field and teach it to my little kids so they could protect themselves yeah keep safe and so we call the no face and so if you have Shadows right next to your nose that's no I don't want to that smells bad I know that's icky and the big expression of disgust actually shuts off our nasal passages up to about 80% that's what it's there for but we make that same expression when something is socially toxic and the problem for so many of us especially those of us who who've experienced trauma in our in our childhoods is that our pain was intentionally or sometimes not intentionally dismissed and we have been taught that our emotions aren't real and we can control everything and