The Humintell Blog, Author at Social Engineering Blogs

The Humintell Blog November 3, 2023

Research Shows Cats Have Nearly 300 Facial Expressions

If you’re a cat lover, you probably already know that your feline friend uses subtle body language and nonverbal cues to communicate with you.

You may even know that cats usually don’t meow to each other, only to humans (a tactic developed through adaptation and evolution).

But how do cats communicate with each other?

Recent research that studied domestic cats in a cat cafe in California shows they do “talk” to each other and that their means of communication amongst themselves are even more complex than we originally thought.

The study entitled “Feline Faces: Unraveling the Social Function of Domestic Cat Facial Signals” was recently published in Behavioural Processes.

In it researchers tallied nearly 300 different feline facial expressions (276 to be exact), used to communicate hostile and friendly intent and everything in between.

What’s even more fascinating, researchers believe cats may have evolved this range of sneers, smiles, and grimaces over the course of their 10,000-year history with humans.

The Cat Study Methodology

Over 10 months, researchers Lauren Scott and Brittany N. Florkiewicz observed 53 domestic shorthair cats in a Los Angeles cat cafe and recorded 186 separate meetings between the animals.

The team recorded 194 minutes of footage after the café closed to visitors for the day and focused specifically on recording and reviewing the cats’ facial expressions when interacting with each other.

After obtaining the recordings, they used the Facial Action Coding Systems designed for cats and compared the complexity and compositionality of facial signals produced in affiliative and non-affiliative contexts.

To measure complexity and compositionality, they examined the number and types of facial muscle movements (AUs) observed in each signal.

Similarly, research scientists who study facial expressions of emotion in humans also use FACS and AUs to code faces and facial muscles specifically.

276 Unique Cat Facial Expressions Found

After observing, recording, coding and studying the cats’ facial expressions, researchers found 276 unique facial expressions (which is not far removed from the 357 expressions produced by chimpanzees).

These different expressions were sorted into 2 major categories

Friendly: which constituted 45% of the expressions
Aggressive: which made up 37% of the expressions

The remaining 18% were too ambiguous to clearly categorize.

According to Florkiewicz, each cat expression combined about four of 26 unique facial movements, including parted lips, jaw drops, dilated or constricted pupils, blinks and half blinks, pulled lip corners, nose licks, protracted or retracted whiskers, and/or various ear positions.

By comparison, the human face includes over 40 structurally and functionally anatomically independent muscles, each of which can innervate independently of each other. This makes the face one of the most complex signal systems available to humans.

According to Science Magazine, what exactly the felines were “saying” to one another with these expressions remains unclear, Florkiewicz says. But overall, cats tend to move their ears and whiskers toward another cat during friendly interactions, and to move them away from their compatriot during unfriendly interactions. Constricted pupils and licking lips also tend to accompany such rivalrous encounters.

Interestingly, some of the cats’ friendly expressions resemble those made by people, dogs, monkeys, and other animals. This suggests that these species may share “a common play face.”

Although the researchers haven’t been able to compare their results with those of wild felines, they do know that all close relatives of the domestic cat are ferociously solitary animals.

Pet cats might have retained some of that defensive communication, Florkiewicz says, but these domestic descendants probably started to pick up friendly facial expressions as they gathered to await humans’ dinner leftovers.

Historically cats have received less research attention than their canine counterparts and their cognitive abilities were less recognized. However, in the last 10 years, research focusing on trying to better understand our feline companions has grown.

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The Humintell Blog October 6, 2023

The Latest Science about Behavioral Indicators of Deception

A Message for Professional Interviewers, Investigators, Therapists, and Negotiators

I wanted to let our Humintell community know of a recent paper that was published in a top-tier, scientific journal on behavioral indicators of deception.

In the scientific community, there have been debates about whether behavior can reliably differentiate truths from lies, and if so, which ones.

Fortunately, many studies published in the last two decades have demonstrated that nonverbal behavior (NVB) can differentiate truth-tellers and liars fairly well.

One reason for the emergence of the wealth of these findings is that these studies have examined situations in which people are actually interviewed about meaningful events and where there’s consequences for not being believed.

These are precisely the types of situations in which professionals – investigators, therapists, counselors, negotiators – work and need to make the best evaluations they can possibly make.

In the remainder of this article, I summarize three main take-aways of the latest paper, and interested readers can read the paper here.

1. Professionals should focus on clusters of NVB produced in multiple channels of behavior

Across the face, voice, hands, and whole body. Examining clusters makes more sense than examining only single behavior because NVB are part of a total communication package that occurs across multiple channels, with and without words.

Four facts support this suggestion:

Human bodies are wired to connect our thoughts, feelings, and behavior (think embodied cognition)
Our thoughts and feelings are blended at any one time and across time
We verbalize only a portion of what’s in our heads at any one time
Different mental states (cognitions, emotions, etc.) map onto different NVB channels (face, voice, gesture, etc.)

2. Professionals should focus on behavioral indicators that have been validated in science and vetted in the field.

Our Humintell community knows that certain NVB have been scientifically validated as deception indicators while others have not.

On one hand, facial expressions of emotion and microexpressions, some types of gestures, fidgeting (in some contexts), and some aspects of voice differentiate truth-tellers from liars.

On the other hand, looking away when answering questions (gaze aversion) has not been scientifically validated as a deception cue. Astute professionals will know not to believe everything about NVB that they may hear or read about.

3. NVB are also important indicators of many other mental states that can be helpful for interviewers.

Our Humintell community also knows that NVB can signal many different mental states, all of which can be useful to professionals as landmarks of meaningful topics and themes.

These include specific, discrete emotions such as anger, disgust, or fear; general affective states such as open or closed, relaxed or tense; specific verbal words or phrases; cognitive processes, confusion, concentration; and others.

Identifying these behaviors can give professionals additional insights to people’s mindsets.

Experienced professionals all develop their own customized interview strategies and tactics. The accurate and reliable observation and classification of NVB can be a crucial aid, and focusing on NVB clusters that have been validated in science and vetted in field work is key.

Equally important is to ignore NVB that have not been validated. By knowing which behaviors have been validated and vetted and which not, professionals can become more efficient by distinguishing meaningful signals from noise in the behavioral mess that occurs in interviews.

Here at Humintell, we base all our trainings on behavioral indicators of mental states that have been validated in science and vetted in the field by practitioners. Thus, please rest assured that we practice what we preach.

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The Humintell Blog October 1, 2023

What Do Boundaries Have To Do With Emotional Wellbeing?

October is Emotional Wellness Month. Emotional wellness, which is also known as emotional health or emotional wellbeing, is a person’s ability to handle their emotions and the varied experiences they encounter in life.

Enjoy this Guest Blog Post By Derya Ozes, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Operational Leader & Executive Coach

As a therapist, organizational leader, and executive coach, balance and boundaries are the first words that come to mind when I think about emotional wellbeing.

Humintell is an APA Approved CE provider for psychologists and therapists. Find out more about our CE Course offerings here.

Being in balance with what we need is about self-awareness and responsiveness to what you’re attuned with. For example, when we are hungry or thirsty, we respond by eating and drinking. We do this automatically. However, we don’t respond as automatically when we have boundary-related needs.

Our culture does not always help us respond to these needs as we should. When we are tired or sleepless, we learn to push through to get more errands and work done.

Instead of learning how to set boundaries that work for us (including saying “no” to what depletes us), we tend to say “yes” to invitations without really questioning our “why”. This does not make us weak or irresponsible, it makes us human.

In our humanity we invest in taking care of other people and fulfilling our roles as parents, colleagues, friends, siblings, etc. As we take care of others, we need to learn skills that help us take care of ourselves.

We need to normalize and celebrate asking ourselves questions that consider,

For whom am I making this decision?
Am I fully aware of the consequences of this decision?
Am I saying yes when I really mean, no?
Do I feel empowered to assert my preferences?

When we respond to these questions, we consider whether we are behaving within our boundaries and capacities or outside of them.

Emotional wellbeing is not about “doing” something in order to check the box. It is about creating a system that honors your needs. This means monitoring your own attention management and the reasons behind your decisions.

Whether the consequence of a decision is nourishing versus depleting of your energy is about being attuned to your boundaries.

Some common boundaries are, physical boundaries, sexual boundaries, emotional or mental boundaries, spiritual or religious boundaries, financial or material boundaries, time boundaries, and non-negotiable boundaries (i.e., values).

Here is one example where multiple boundaries are in competition: you know you should get eight hours of sleep every night (emotional and physical boundary); but, you haven’t made any modifications to your schedule (time boundary).

Congruence is demonstrated by recognizing that you’re depleted, then identifying what you need to do to address this and then committing to that strategy.

If you’re someone who has a packed schedule, mapping out every hour of your day to explore what can be delegated, or what you need to say “no” to can be one way of taking proactive measures toward congruence.

When we align what we are aware of with what we actually do, we create sustainable ways of living that can promote balance and stability with our emotions.

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