Are we missing the joke, Joran?

He is all over the news, Joran van der Sloot. He confessed in court today, or did he? I saw the video of the confession today and I had already noticed some contempt when his lawyer was explaining the meanings of post-traumatic stress syndrome. That did not feel good to me, that's why I decided to do some research. I found a video of Joran, in this video he is laughing with his lawyer and some other people. Now we can wonder why he does this. Is it because he is nervous, happy or simply because he does not give a thing about what happens to him. It could be a form of stress release, laughing or crying can be signs of this. Not everybody does handle stress the same way. Or did he do it because he is happy that everybody is buying his lie? You never know what's going to happen next when it comes to Joran. One thing is sure, we are going to hear a lot from his trials, especially because America is after him as well. To be continued...

Six Word story

"How do YOU KNOW I'm ANGRY!"

Misinterpretations

Emotions don't only come to show when we talk to someone, I could be transferring a lot of emotions right now through writing. I am sure that you all have had moments where you text someone and that you get an unexpected reaction in return. This means that the other person has misinterpreted your message and did not get the emotion you were trying to transfer. The internet is filled with mistakes like this. I will show you one I thought was hilarious:

Misinterpretation can happen quickly and bring along a lot of trouble. So read something at least twice before you react like this, or ask what he meant. In this case, the relationship might have been saved if she had just asked: "What do you mean?"

Put it to the test

We now know the background of the micro-expressions and the way we should interpret our knowledge, but how do we gain the knowledge? With a lot of practice of course! Since the boring part is over we can go straight to the fun part of micro-expressions, recognizing the emotions and putting your knowledge to the test! I will give you some examples to practice your new found wisdom.

Disgust

The emotion that is shown on this woman’s face is, if you haven’t guessed it yet, disgust. We all feel and know this emotion. It is in our nature to recognize it. With a still frame it is a lot easier, imagine it coming by with a 25th of a second. The way we recognize disgust is by the wrinkling of the nose and the raised upper lip.

Anger

O, how he is green and angry (not to mention ugly). We all know who this guy, with serious anger management problems, is. The Hulk, a regular guy who turns green and ugly when he gets angry. I’m sure we all know our own hulks and therefore it is important to recognize this emotion. You will recognize anger by the glare in the eyes, narrowing of the lips and the down and together eyebrows.

Fear

A very unpleasant emotion, you might experience it after seeing a horror movie or when you walk alone in the dark. You can recognize fear by raised and pulled together eyebrows, raised upper eyelids, tensed lower eyelid, lips slightly stretched horizontally back to the ears.

Sadness

Everybody is sad some days, maybe after watching a sad movie, or you might be sad because of something that has happened to you. When you interact with people, such as your friends or family, sadness is important to recognize. You can often feel when someone is sad, and we all notice the slight trembling in the lips, but there is so much more to this emotion. The drooping upper eyelids, losing the focus in the eyes, the pulling down the lip corners slightly.

Happiness

Desired by many,achieved by some, happiness. A look that fits everybody, we all know it when we see it, but what’s the science behind it? We recognize happiness by the crow’s feet wrinkles, pushed up cheeks and the movement from the muscle that orbits the eye.

Surprise

When I was searching for an example for this emotion, all I could find were surprised kids. Maybe that’s because when we get older we have seen so much, so much that we don’t get surprised as fast as kids. But when we do get surprised we sure do show it! How can you see the difference between happiness and surprise? Easy, by the raised eyebrows, widened eyes and the open mouth (which you can see clearly on thispicture).

Contempt

Apparently, former president of the United States, George W. Bush was very contempt about something. About what we don’t know, but we can clearly see the emotion on his face on this still frame. How can you recognize it in others you ask? Well it’s actually pretty easy.You simply look for the following things: The lip corner is tightened and raised on only one side of the face. It might sound simple, but this emotion does not require a lot of muscles. Therefore it will not be shown very long. Pay attention while you are talking to someone and you might catch something that they are contempt about.

I hope that this was useful for many of you, recognizing emotions in the faces of others may help you with your social skills, relationships, jobs and many other things. Practice and enjoy!

Quote of the day: "Art is a lie that makes us realize truth", Pablo Picasso.

Sneek preview micro-expressions

Today I would like to share a video with you. The video shows Paul Ekman and John Cleese discussing subjects such as: Lying, emotions and micro-expressions. Paul Ekman provides us with some examples and tells us where we have to look to see a micro-expression. We learn what it tells us and how we can interpret them.

John Cleese provides a lighter side to the subject, with his humor and charisma he tells the story to make sure anyone can understand. This video is an excerpt from a miniseries which aired on BBC, called "The human face". You can watch the entire show on YouTube (following this link)

You should see this video as a hint of what's to come tomorrow. I will be talking about tricks on how to catch a liar. This involves micro-expressions, which just happens to be the subject of the short clip. So stay tuned and check in again tomorrow to learn more about micro-expressions and the use of micro-expressions.

I would like to leave you with a quote that you can think about during your day, wherever you may be in the world. "Lying is done with words and also with silence," a quote by Adrienne Rich. Have a nice day and enjoy the video. 

Welcome! Tell me, how are you?

Ladies and gentlemen let me welcome you to my first blog and blogpost. My name is Simone and I will be your host for quite some time, if you’ll let me. We will take a tour together through the world of emotions. Together we are going to take a look at those lying bastards in our lives and learn from them. Yes, I said learn from them! I am going to teach you how to catch them in the act and even outsmart them. So stick around and check in every now and again to catch up with me to understand and influence the emotions that surround you.