A personal journey, a long time in the making...
Micro expressions are not 'new'; they did however burst into popular consciousness in a big way due to the series, 'Lie to me'. The series was excellent for one and half series, just great for the rest of the time and got axed after a short third. A victim of the extended writers strike is the main reason it seems. Obviously the whole premise of the show has seen a degree of artistic licence as to the results they get. However, the portrayal of the science behind the show is fairly sound due to the involvement of the research psychologist Paul Ekman. In an interview Ekman states he helped with the pilot episode and then wanted to stay as a consultant to make sure they 'got it right'. His worry being that someone would base real life decisions on what they saw on the program and therefore he was indebted to make sure it was right.
I came across Ekman back in the very early 80's when I was doing my final year thesis at Liverpool University for my degree. I was studying baboons at the local safari park. I wanted to know if the behaviour of baboon females in regard to how they accepted the group hierarchy was innate or learnt. Basically all the female baboons were of a type who tended live in large groups with a dominate male who got to mate with whoever he wanted. Now this was how they lived and had done for at least the time since people started to take notice and note it down, and we can only presume before. Now the safari park had a problem, it needed to introduce males but could only get a type of baboon (highland dwelling) who lived in a very different social set up. These baboons lived in small family groups where one male would have a few females and their offspring living with them. Again this set up seemed to have been going on for at least as long as anyone had taken any notice. Basically the study (which in the end provided someone with a PhD, which I couldn't afford to do when asked) I did was 'ground breaking', more about being daft enough to come up with the idea and being in exactly the right place at the right time if the truth be known. I was angling to do research into the communication of the two dolphins they had at the park, which seemed to have developed quite an unusual vocal communication range. Just as I set it all up and was getting very excited the park sold one of the dolphins as the following year they were shutting down the 'show'. Desperate to be able to spend my final year at Uni basically ensconced in the Safari Park I came up with the idea of working with the baboons. It quickly became evident that most of the research was going to have to revolve around doing very detailed socio-grams of the baboon behaviours as the two life style choices collided. All a lot more exciting than it sounded BUT I had to get heavily into the communication used by the baboons, a lot of which of course was non-verbal.
So this involved working with a variation of Ekman's early Facial Action Coding System (FACS). This led to looking into more of Ekman's work which we had already covered in the Psychology course as it was a favourite of a few of the lead lecturers of mine. Now I wish I had paid more attention and continued on with the whole Body Language/Micro Expression but lack of funds made it imperative to get a job and thus starting the whole 'teaching' road. Not that the two were mutually exclusive of course and originally I was determined to do my mandatory two years of teaching and then become an Educational Psychologist. My impressions of Ed Psychs when down hill rapidly when dealing with them in my first London inner city school and thus I kept to the classroom where I thought I could make more difference. Working as a Consultant Psychologist for 'Lifestyle Management Systems' in Tasmania working as an intermediary for the insurance firms, employers and employees saw me revisit the whole body language question in response to trying to figure out if any of the clients (on all sides) were trying to pull the wool over our eyes with regard to long term work absence due to injury or illness. Again a bit of a flirt with the work of Ekman... Who would have known?
Years past and emotional intelligence became a buzz word in inner city schools like ours with a larger than average amount of kids who had emotional and social difficulties. Micro-expressions never got a mention though. Then a Christmas present from my eldest daughter whose friend reckoned we would like the series revved up the interest yet again. Lie to Me bought it all back. or at least the fact that I had actually forgotten all about micro-expressions anyway. A quick internet search coupled with a book search in the loft and I was off again. So what are micro-expressions?
Years past and emotional intelligence became a buzz word in inner city schools like ours with a larger than average amount of kids who had emotional and social difficulties. Micro-expressions never got a mention though. Then a Christmas present from my eldest daughter whose friend reckoned we would like the series revved up the interest yet again. Lie to Me bought it all back. or at least the fact that I had actually forgotten all about micro-expressions anyway. A quick internet search coupled with a book search in the loft and I was off again. So what are micro-expressions?
Well on the most basic level they are residue emotional leakage on a person's face which less for up to half a second. Linked closely to the seven basic universal emotions they can show stress or a person's real feelings. Not, as Lie to Me implies, a sure fire show of lies, but an indication that there may be something amiss. Couple this with body language tells and a science is born. And it is a science, the micro-expressions are very hard to stifle being mainly involuntary (or at least deeply hidden) actions of certain muscle groups or body functions. Ekman showed conclusively something that had been alluded to since Darwin, this being that the seven base emotional tells are used universally and are not learnt. Research firstly into blind people (who obviously could not learn by mimicry) and then into isolated tribes in PNG (who had not been exposed to any outsiders at all) showed that the seven base emotions are the same. Happiness, Anger, Contempt, Sadness, Fear, Surprise and Disgust.
I decided this would be a very interesting subject to make teachers aware of. Not because of the 'normal' HR aspect or negotiation tells, but as it would help in the everyday running of the classroom. Then of course there is the aspect of enhancing a kids emotional intelligence through being able to recognise meta body language as well as micro-expressions. A bit of well used time researching companies on the old web came up with a firm based in Belgium who offered training and accreditation in the area.
So that's the story so far on my path to doing something new. Hoping when I get the credentials I can devise a series of seminars for school training days as well as covering corporate HR issues and the like.
But to end this first rather long post with... Don't think people really give away what they are feeling/thinking while trying to show something different. Then just take a quick look at the following photos of certain politicians:
So that's the story so far on my path to doing something new. Hoping when I get the credentials I can devise a series of seminars for school training days as well as covering corporate HR issues and the like.
But to end this first rather long post with... Don't think people really give away what they are feeling/thinking while trying to show something different. Then just take a quick look at the following photos of certain politicians:
More of my journey later...
A matter of conscience...
Having found myself looking for micro-expressions everywhere lately and even doing the Q4 and BLINK techniques on people I have already learnt it's going to be important to rein back when and where to do it. Although I don't want to quote Lie to Me (as I'm sure that doesn't add credibility) - there is a line there, not to cross. So quizzing my daughter about her new job at SONY in a way to see that she is disgusted with the commute even if, "It's OK" or seeing that she is happy with her new boss even if he is just, "OK" and that she is vaguely disgusted in the fact she had her first 'expenses' lunch IS CROSSING THAT LINE.
So, I'm thinking, what is fair game?
Will report back later as to what I come up with.
End of the path, start of the road...
Yeh I know pretty cheesey but I eventually got round to braving the exam after scoring a few 100% on the trot on the video test. Think I did OK as I got my certificate...