Social Engineering Blogs

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Perceptions of Fake and Legitimate Laughter

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Science World Report comments on a new study that purports that the human brain can distinguish between genuine and manufactured laughter.

In a paper entitled “Individual Differences in Laughter Perception Reveal Roles for Mentalizing and Sensorimotor Systems in the Evaluation of Emotional Authenticity” published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, Dr. Carolyn McGettigan of Royal Holloway University of London makes the case that there is a link between the parts of the brain actively involved in laughter perception and the kind of laughter being perceived.

Two kinds of laughter were looked at in the study evoked laughter and emitted laughter.  Evoked (“real”) laughter was perceived as being more contagious, than Emitted (“fake”) laughter, and the two kinds of laughter (Evoked vs. Emitted, or “fake”) elicited responses in different areas of the brain when fMRI results are analyzed.

Furthermore, the behavioral post-test indicated that “participants were able to classify the laughs in “Real” and “Posed” categories with a high degree of accuracy.” This high degree of accuracy indicates that participants are aware of the differences in how their brains perceive the two varieties of laughter. Such awareness is essential to a person’s navigation of social cues. The study further analyzed the amount and the kind of brain activity that goes into recognizing Emitted (fake) laughter, “it is the social-emotional ambiguity of the Emitted laughter that leads to the stronger engagement of mentalizing processes.”

In other words, our brains are working harder to distinguish the non-genuine laughter from its authentic counterpart. This causes humans to be more aware of their own responses when they are in the presence of laughter that they do not perceive as authentic.

Dr. McGettigan summarizes the researchers findings, “Our brains are very sensitive to the social and emotional significance of laughter, which is the social glue that promotes and maintains affiliations and group memberships. During our study, when participants heard a laugh that was posed, they activated regions of the brain associated with mentalizing in an attempt to understand the other person’s emotional and mental state.”

Mapping Feelings

Feelings are often associated with physical reactions: terror can send chills down your spine, and love can leave you weak in the knees.  A recent study has linked specific emotions to physical sensations. Researchers at the Academy of Finland and Aalto University tested emotional responses in hundreds of subjects and then created maps identifying locations in the body where emotions cause physical changes.

They found that common emotions trigger strong sensations in specific parts of our bodies. The study was conducted with over 700 participants from Finland, Sweden and Taiwan. The findings indicate that emotions and their bodily responses have a biological basis.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Where Do You Feel Your Strongest Emotion ?

Hot Spot The Liar

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The New York Times recently published an short article about people’s ability on recognize and interpret Hot Spots.  Hot Spots are inconsistencies between what people say and what their non-verbals are displaying.

An example of a hot spot would be, if you ask a person how they like your dress and they say “I love it!” but they flash a micorexpression of disgust, this would be a hot spot. What they said and what their body said are inconsistent with each other.

Many layman, outside of government agencies,  especially poker players refer to hot spots as “tells”.  In a University of Chicago study on body language and lying, subjects  were asked several general questions while being videotaped.  They were concurrently told off camera to lie or tell the truth when answering.

The videos, although entertaining do not necessarily depict true Hot Spots.  According to microexpression expert Dr. David Matsumoto, if you just have an individual tell a truth or lie without any high-stakes (gaining or losing something significant)  involved, they will not elicit the same behavior as they naturally would if put in a high-stakes situation where they really wanted to conceal their true feelings.

Its important to understand that hot spots are not a definitive sign that someone is lying, but often times are circumstances where there is an underlying or hidden message (i.e. more to the story than is being told).   If you see a hot spot, you should ask more questions, or find out why that individual has hidden feelings about that particular topic.

To watch the videos and see for yourself, take a look at the entire article.

 What are your thoughts on Determining Veracity from Deception?