In my ongoing microexpressions and Forensic Emotional Awareness training, as per the hit show Lie to Me, I came across this fleeting microexpression from Tony Blair during the Leveson Enquiry in the first second of this video (hint: you can click the image for a bigger size).
00.01 I didn't concede on policy at all
This one-sided smile is a clear sign of contempt mixed with pleasure. Contempt can, after all, be pleasurable. But is Mr Blair lying here? Difficult to say as we can’t say for certain what he is expressing contempt for, long-forgotten battles, the question, himself or the interrogator perhaps?
What is certain is that many politicians, at all levels, are adept at manipulating the truth, often for political reasons, sometimes because of hidden motives and sometimes just to hide their expenses. So, over the next few weeks I’m going to up my game and dissect the Leveson enquiry and participants, many of whom are adept manipulators of public opinion.
That’s a writer’s way of saying professional liars. Do forgive me.
Tony Blair, for example is a well polished performer. His famously stilting speech patterns, which were a form of controlling what gets processed by the listener’s brain, are curiously absent here. I’ll cover how that speech pattern works in another post. But, just watch the next two minutes of video below and you’ll see a range of mixed emotions, and then we find this little gem after the protestor breaks in to make his claims.
Mr Blair tries to defend himself. First, he says: “I’ve never had a discussion with them (JP Morgan) about that (the bribery accusations).”
Then just after 02.20 we see the following unconscious smile start as he says: “Or any relationship between them and Irag…” And by the time he’s finished this sentence, he’s turned away to hide the smile and what appears to be a momentary cheek flush. Here it is in four frames grabbed in quick succession.
02.21 No smile baseline
02.22-3 Smile begins
02.23-4-The turn away
02.24 back in control post blush
So, is Mr Blair lying here? Again context is everything, he could just be embarrassed at feeling he needs to answer a protestor’s accusations, or he could be hiding something after all.
Then just before Leveson says, “You’re entitled to say what you want,” there’s this little flash of anger:
02.28 You're entitled to say what you want
Note the rolled in lips, a tell-tale sign of anger, and what Dr Paul Ekman calls a very “reliable muscle” as it’s hard to do consciously. But anger at what? Initially my politician-sceptical bias made me think it was Blair reacting to Leveson’s interruption and taking offence. But is that my bias, what was really happening, or something else? I’ll be taking a masterclass on this later in the year with Ekman International and hopefully after that I’ll have a clear structure for getting to the heart of it.
There’s also a possible mix of surprise in this last frame, note the raised brows and the jaw drop (mouth closed).
You can watch the full video below or check out the press release from the original YouTube video-poster on Blair’s relationship with JP Morgan.
The science of emotional awareness and Lie to Me is starting to become second nature. The other night I was watching an old episode of The Actors Studio with Robert Downey Jr (a quality actor). He was being quizzed by James Lipton on his court cases and time in jail. I was busy establishing RDJ’s baseline when something struck me. I could recognize some of the microexpressions that were appearing on his face unbidden as Lipton asked him questions about this painful time.
At around minute 19, when talking about prison, Robert Downey Jr’s first microexpression is anger at the judge’s harsh sentence:
RDJ’s second microexpression is sadness at remembering his time in prison (with a hint of fear perhaps?).
Then on reflection a few moments later this third microexpression which doesn’t fit into the microexpression definitions exactly still tells us a lot.
Paul Ekman’s book Emotions Revealed tells me it’s more of a subtle expression of worry, a mix of expressions. It’s so brief, it took me several goes to catch the frame on youtube. So does this all mean that Robert Downey Jr was lying to James Lipton in this interview? In this case, not at all, it simply reflected his internal emotions about the subject. The angry expression is particularly revealing as he doesn’t say explicitly how he felt about the subject. But is he angry at the judge or the sentence?
My notes tell me that RDJ’s baseline at that moment was: “He has one eyebrow, his right, lower than the other. Looks around suspiciously at the audience half the time and has a tongue tick.” not complete by any measure.
Baselines, subtle expressions and the seven microexpressions are all subjects I’ll be covering in future posts. For now, it’s rewarding to see how these real-life Lie to Me skills are becoming a part of me.
You can watch the full interview below, this segment starts at around 19 minutes.
This video from Penn & Teller’s awesome Bullshit series in the US takes the kids toy that is the lie detector test to task. And all it takes is a clenched muscle to fool it. The sphincter muscle to be precise. No joke!
Penn & Teller, as you’d expect, send up the tests in their own inimitable style. You’ve got to love all the names they come with for the tester-in-chief, it’s like watching Dr Cox tease Dorian in Scrubs. It’s a good reminder that when you’re studying deception of any kind you should be on the lookout for people trying to con money out of you, just like any other skill. That’s why I’ve opted for Dr Ekman’s work, he has validated his work in both clinical and real-world settings.
Watch, laugh, and learn.
Test Yourself
If you fancy taking a little practice first you can buy one from the kids section on Amazon. Just click the image below:
For those of you who are curious this is what the certificate from the Paul Ekman Group looks like for completing the Microexpressions Training Tool (METT). It’s three months before I can take it again when I’ll be aiming for my expert 95% grade.
On a lighter note. I just retook my microexpressions training tool test and got it up to 82%, which is certification level. I worked hard on it during a recent holiday and can get 100% in the practice sessions but my main problems still stem from mis-recognizing sadness as anger and understanding the differences between genetic types and individual emotional baselines.
Which means I can’t see the wood for the trees sometimes! But hey, practice will make perfect, and I’m aiming for my 95% expert completion in the next test window three months from now. I’ve been chatting on this blog with Cliff Lansley – Director of the Emotional Intelligence Academy here in the UK – Dr Ekman’s affiliate – and came across this Youtube video of one of his early seminars. It makes for very interesting reading. And has got me thinking about how lying shows up in writing. Many of the things he lists here as signs of lying in verbal and body language are also signs of lying in written English, I’ll write more on this in coming posts, but for now enjoy the video of the illustrious Mr Lansley in action.
Cal Lightman visits underground fights so that he can stay sharp on how people express or hide their emotions. There’s good reason for this, emotional awareness skills need to be refined and refreshed regularly.
For example, one thing that becomes apparent when you use the microexpressions training tool (METT) over time is that each person’s neutral expression is slightly different and sometimes their neutral baseline can even look like an emotion.
How is that possible? Well, some people have naturally droopy faces and so look naturally more sad, or more rounded eyes and lips that can easily mimic surprise.
Genetic types also throw up their problems. It could be that the fuller lips of someone of african origin make you mis-read sadness (the downward turn can be less obvious than in thin lips). Or that the sometimes non-existent eye brows of Asians, or even fanatical pluckers, hide the same emotion because you can’t see the brows coming together. And it’s just as easy to miss anger in the thin lips of many caucasian genetic types.
This woman's neutral expression has hints of other emotions. Could you tell the difference?
The only way I’ve found to get round this is to familiarize yourself with specific genetic facial features. If you live and work in an environment where one genetic group dominates you may find this difficult. The METT tool can help if this is the case as you can freeze emotions you’re uncertain of and rapidly click them on and off to train your unconscious what to look for.
Alternatively you can find cultural mixes and good people to watch in a range of different places…
Holiday resorts
Hospitals
Libraries
Public Transport – trains, planes, buses and so on.
Cafes and bars
I’ve particularly found the first two to be excellent. The first because of the range of different cultures on display – it very quickly became obvious at a resort in Crete recently that the Russian guests, as a social group, have a more serious, even slightly angry, baseline. There could be many reasons for this, from the social class/history of Russians that can afford such holidays, to their regional backgrounds or the amount of sleep they take. Definitely an area for more study.
Hospitals, I only found out today, are particularly good. There are lots of great studies in those waiting rooms, from lots of cultures, classes and of varying ages. They each have their own way of handling anxiety if they are patients, some get angry, others happy, others scared. And if they are partners or family their support style differ as well – some just spout BS and platitudes, some genuinely care.
What was obvious from this morning’s range of emotions is that anywhere where you can find strong emotive environments is going to be productive, usually where there is risk, danger, fear or social masking are probably the best places to try. Now, I wonder if there are any underground fights in my local area?
Sometimes you've just gotta get your hands dirty
So do Russians smile? You bet they do, when I’ve worked with Russians in their own territory, all the time. But as expats or tourists outside their comfort zone I’m not so sure.
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Cal Lightman visits underground fights so that he can stay sharp on how people express or hide their emotions. There’s good reason for this, emotional awareness skills need to be refined and refreshed regularly.
Writer, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Father.
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