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The Devil is in the Details. A Guide to Lie Catching.

Guest blog by Craig James Baxter of Understanding Body Language. Liars, Cheats and Happy Feet

During a trip to my local garden centre, I noticed this sign for sale. We didn’t buy it, but I did mention to my wife that this statement is often correct and promised that I would write an article about why that is. So here it is! The theory that the longer the explanation the bigger the lie does indeed have research attached to it, with many eminent psychologists suggesting there are often more verbal than visual clues to deceit when the stakes (consequences) are high.

When you’re assessing credibility (or a lack of it) listen for someone struggling to recall very basic information and keep an ear out for someone giving you an abundance of irrelevant information rather than focusing on what actually happened, as this form of ‘attempted behavioral control’ helps to keep you distracted away from wherein their story the deceit occurs (as in the longer the story, the more creative they’ve been in hiding the truth from you).

Furthermore, as the irrelevant details mount up, this can make them appear ‘chatty’ and can give the impression that they seem ‘credible’, especially if their delivery is flamboyant and well spoken. It’s worth remembering that many liars simply do get away with their deceit because their target is more focused on LOOKING for deceit (such as observing for eye movements/aversion) and may simply forget to actively LISTEN to the actual spoken content.

With this in mind, when you are assessing the credibility of a story, be sure to remember that skilled and habitual (practiced) liars will often conceal information rather than present false information as if it were true. This method is frequently preferred by liars, as this allows them to tell the truth up to the certain point, skip over their indiscretion (the lie) and resume telling the truth. This is known as a ‘text bridge’ and these are key words that can indicate that there might be a gap in their story, I.e. the information they don’t want you to know. Key words such as ‘and then’, ‘shortly after’, ‘later on’, ‘the next thing I remember’ all help span time and skip over and keep something hidden without sounding suspicious. The next time you have your suspicions, shrewdly listen for these words, they could help you pin point an area which they have intentionally left out.

A special mention needs to be given to eye movements. Focusing on eye movements will seriously impair your ability to detect deceit. Modern day research (Vrij, Porter, DePaulo) have all concluded that the eyes themselves do not provide reliable information regarding deception. Examining the wrong cues to deception could have serious ramifications, such as labelling a truth teller as a liar because they habitually looked ‘up and right’ when in fact their statement was honest. Many lie catching guides enthusiastically claim that eye movements can reveal the difference between a fictitious event and a truthful memory; however these claims have again been widely disputed by eminent professors of psychology.

Remember, truthful people simply convey facts. Liars have to remember the facts, distort or conceal them & appear credible in their delivery.

Never forget, the devil is in the details!

How many basic emotions are there?

many-expressions-facial-expressions

If you ask Google “how many basic emotions are there” you could be overwhelmed since there are many different answers. It may even seem like science and scientists themselves may be confused. In reality, there isn’t one simple answer. There are many different models of basic emotions and thus, each model has different numbers for what they call “basic emotions”.

Dr. Matsumoto believes that one model of basic emotions does not necessarily have to argue against another. We can try to understand that all the various model are unique and correct.

But how?

It starts by examining exactly what aspect about emotion (and maybe even what type of emotion) each model is based on.

For example, one popular model of basic emotions suggests there are 4: happiness, sadness, fear and anger. In general, if you examine the research that is based on the 4 emotion model, much of it discusses neurocircuitry. By examining the neuro-wiring of emotions, studies have shown there are 4 main circuitries in the brain that are related to these emotional states. Thus, if you study the neurocircuitry of the brain, you may conclude there’s 4 basic emotions.

However, if you examine the face as the domain of emotion, it’s clear that there are 7 basic emotions: anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise. These emotions have been scientifically proven to have a certain facial expression associated with it. Thus, if you anchor your theorizing of basic emotions in the domain of facial expressions, you end up with 7.

Read our past blog on addressing arguments against facial expressions of emotion

If you anchor your model of basic emotions on something even more primitive, like basic affective measures, then one may conclude that everything comes down to 2 basic emotions: pleasure and pain. That’s a two dimensional model.

In actuality, all these models may be correct

On some level, humans share with very simply organized animals a two dimensional of affect (pleasure and pain).

Roughly speaking, at some point the evolution of the brain evolved for a 4 model neurocircuitry to emerge. This is probably related to the life complexity of the organism- that as that organism got more complex, they needed to have their emotional states differentiated more than just pleasure and pain in order to deal with an increased social hierarchy as well as other kinds of things.

As social life became more complex facial expressions became differentiated to have the seven that we have now.

Even if you go beyond the face, there’s researchers that currently examine expressions of emotional states that are based not only in face, but also face and head movements or face and body movements. Using these combinations of face and body movements, you’ll then get expressions of pride, triumph, embarrassment and shame that are not just facial movements.

Why do we focus on the face?

We are interested in helping people improve their reading people skills. So despite what the neurocircuitry may be doing, we’re focused on what you can see. Facial expressions are something you can observe and thus, we train this specific area.

Basic emotions vs how many emotions

How many different basic emotions there are is different than how many emotions humans have. Humans have a lot of different emotions that clearly go beyond the basic. Some researchers suggest that all the other emotions are based on these more primitive and basic emotional states. There are other researchers who believe there are other emotions are not really related to anything elemental- that they are truly emerging from cultural and individual learning.

Dr. Matsumoto does not believe the research is definitive about which perspective is correct. Regardless, it’s clear that humans have many, many more emotions that we carve into words that go beyond the 2, 4, or 7 basic emotions.

What about contempt?

Early research on the universality of facial expressions of emotion was conducted largely by Dr. Paul Ekman and Dr. Carol Izaard. Even they differed in the number of universal facial expressions that existed but they both agreed on this one facial expression called disgust/contempt. In fact if you look at the original research and writings, that emotional state was called disgust/contempt. Both researchers did not differentiate between those two emotions or expressions.

It was not until the mid 1980s that Ekman conducted a study that included a number of expressions that Ekman and his colleagues all thought would be culture specific expressions of contempt. They thought the unilateral, one sided lip tightener would be perceived as contempt only in the US but not elsewhere. They also included two other versions of contempt in their study that they thought similarly about. The study involved taking those expressions all around the world to those countries and obtaining judgements on them. Despite the fact that they predicated those emotions to be culture specific, in fact all of the cultures in the unilateral lip tightener as contempt at greater than chance accuracies. That became the first evidence that separated disgust from contempt because the expressions are very different.

Subsequently many researchers have replicated that original study in various ways to show more evidence that contempt is a basic emotion. In 1992 Dr. Matsumoto himself conducted more research on the contempt expression and it was published in Motivation in Emotion.

Will there be more basic emotions added in the future?

While there will likely not be any more emotions added to the 7 basic ones that exist now, Dr. Matsumoto anticipates where we will see more research one day is people taking the variations of an expression and mapping those to specific words in the language. That is, there may be some variation of an expression that is corresponding to a type of related word that exists. He believes there will be more research that maps the differentiation of an expression within it’s family.

Innovative research continues in this field of emotion, facial expressions and basic emotions. What is clear is that there will continue to be great research conducted that demonstrates face and body combinations as well as face and head combinations that go beyond the 7 we have now.

Can Zoom Fatigue Be Related To Your Personality?

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we’re on video calls more than ever before – and many are finding it exhausting.

There have been many articles addressing this “zoom fatigue” and the potential reasons for it. One reason often cited is the mental work and effort it takes to process nonverbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. But can our exhaustion from remote meetings somehow be tied to our personality?

Many researchers today believe that there are five core personality traits that speak to the characteristics or qualities of an individual. These traits have been found by research to exist in humans all around the world, though the degrees to which people possess each trait differs.

One may find it helpful to use the acronym OCEAN (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) when trying to remember the big five traits.

Extraversion is one of these cross culturally universal underlying personality traits. A person who is extroverted is generally outgoing, friendly, sociable and happier more of the time than others. In contrast, a person who is introverted may be shy, quiet, reserved, and typically don’t seek out social events.

How introverted or extroverted are you? Find out here with a FREE test!

One suggested characteristic that’s associated with extroverted individuals is that when they meet people, they receive energy. When they meet people, teach classes, or socialize with others, they become energized. Whereas an introverted person uses energy when interacting with others, which can leave them drained. So how does this all relate to zoom fatigue?

Extroverted individuals may find themselves particularly drained after a remote meeting or class. Dr. Matsumoto suggests that although they may be interacting and seeing people they normally interact with, they’re likely not receiving the energy transfer they would in real life that normally invigorates them. Thus, these digital interactions leave them more exhausted than if the same interaction happened in real life.

The remoteness eliminates the interaction quality that allows them to give and receive energy.

Interestingly, there’s cultural differences in mean levels for extroversion as well. Americans generally have high extroversion, low neuroticism, higher conscientiousness, high agreeableness and high openness. Which means as a society as a whole, Americans may be suffering more from Zoom fatigue than other countries who have lower rates of extroversion such as Malaysia (see table below)

 

In addition to the many emotional consequences of digital communication we’ve covered, being remote may also eliminate the possibility of energy transfer we normally get in live interactions.

What are your thoughts? As an extrovert do you find this to be true? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

Want to learn more about the role of culture in shaping personality? View the video below to learn more!