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Exciting new research about microexpressions!

Although microexpressions are analogous to longer-lasting ones in many ways, it is in their differences that much of the latest exciting science dwells.

Humintell’s Drs. David Matsumoto and Hyisung Hwang recently published an analysis of a major study, Shen et al. (2016), which sought to contrast fleeting microexpressions from those that lasted longer than 200 milliseconds. This analysis helps situate readers into the contemporary research on microexpressions and the importance of seeing them as a discrete phenomenon from longer-lasting expressions.

Shen et al. found that microexpressions, i.e. those that only lasted 40 to 120 milliseconds, were perceived quite similarly but were perceived quite distinctly from expressions which lasted longer. Of course, longer is relative here at only 200 milliseconds!

These findings, as Drs. Matsumoto and Hwang contend, have four major implications on the study of emotions and microexpressions.

The first of these is the importance of the 200 millisecond threshold. This fits well with research Drs. Matsumoto and Hwang completed two decades ago which emphasized that that once an expression is held for 200 ms it tends to be processed in observers’ short-term memories. This is one of the crucial distinction between everyday expressions and the more fleeting and unconscious microexpressions which Humintell studies.

Both this study and Humintell’s work support a definition of microexpressions that includes only those expressions which occur more quickly than half a second. While this has been controversial in the literature for some time, it seems clear that around this threshold stand distinctive psychological phenomena. Another interesting thing to note: Humintell was prescient in this by defining microexpressions more than a decade ago as those that occurred less than half a second. Humintell’s definition has been different from claims used by others that are not validated.

Second, this research contributes to the importance of finding neurological correlates to the perception of microexpressions. This has been extensively studied for longer-lasting facial expressions, but only a handful of studies have looked at the neurological reaction to fleeting microexpressions.

Shen et al. found that even hard-wired universal emotions, which we know have a significant biological basis, are still processed through culturally-taught rules, values, and associations, even when processing microexpressions.

Third, these neurological correlates also show how distinctive microexpressions are. Shen et al.’s research concluded that the neurological correlates for microexpressions differ significantly from longer lasting expressions. This leads to lasting questions about how expression duration can be used to study different types of expressions, such as the difference between voluntary or involuntary expressions, for instance.

Finally, this study and many others contribute to a growing field that seeks to understand deception detection. Microexpressions can often betray those seeking to lie. The ability to see those microexpressions is hard and demands training or practice. Still, it is important to note that individual differences, such as personality characteristics, can make this harder or easier.

Overall, this piece is an important addition to a growing body of literature seeking to understand microexpressions and their ramifications for deception detection.

We are very interested to hear what you think! What do you find compelling in terms of future questions? Where would you drive this research if you could? What do you think about these assertions?

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Russian Smiles?

It is almost a cliché, even among Russian-Americans, to joke about how little Russians smile. But does that reflect differing happiness levels?

There is some evidence that Russians are less happy than Americans, but current research suggests that this is not due to huge underling differences. Instead, it can be better explained by differing cultural expectations. While Americans are encouraged to smile in public, Russians are strongly discouraged from doing so.

As Humintell’s Dr. David Matsumoto explains, Russians, like many collectivist societies, live under stricter expectations of emotional control. This is mostly true with strangers, as it helps to emphasize the differences between friends and strangers.

Despite the often frosty demeanor, Dr. Matsumoto emphasized that this does not mean the Russians can never be expressive. You just have to get to know them and wait for them to open up.

In fact, Dr. Matsumoto remarked “Once you’re drinking vodka shots together, they’re more expressive than anyone else.”

This may seem odd to many Americans, where we are encouraged to smile in everyday contexts, but our smiles seem quite strange to other cultures! Many Russians may see our expressiveness as a sign of a disingenuous attitude.

In our blog a few weeks ago, we discussed how Japanese culture encourages smiles in public and with strangers but still in different ways than Americans. Many people from Japan may smile to hide other emotions, rather than to express happiness or cordiality. This is notably different from Russians who will maintain a neutral expression in those contexts.

How can smiling boost one’s mood?

In the video below, Dr. Matsumoto chose to address a question submitted to us for National Smile Month: How can smiling boost one’s mood? This is actually true, and smiling helps boost our mood by interfacing with central physical and emotional processes in our brain.

Dr. Matsumoto describes these emotional processes as sort of a central command system which controls both the physical and psychological sides of our reactions. When we perceive something that triggers emotions, this central command then activates both types of reactions. One of these physical manifestations are facial expressions like smiles.

So, when we smile, we begin to activate that process. This tells our central command system that a part of our body is having an emotion that corresponds with that smile. This then activates similar processes related to smiling and associated emotions.

It is almost as though the smile tells our brain that something is wrong. We are smiling but not feeling happy, which isn’t how that relationship should work! Instead, the body can respond by actually making us happier, trying to correct the incongruence between emotion and smile.

He continued by elaborating on the idea of “emotional contagion.” Sometimes when another person is smiling, we will subconsciously find ourselves smiling and becoming happier. This can even happen when we look at advertisements! Thus, the social and emotional contagion can augment or start this same process of actually making us happier.

This need not work for everyone, but since 1980 this phenomenon has been studied by psychologists and found to be relatively common. This has even led empirical psychologists to use this as a technique to induce emotional reactions among participants.

Yet, in a word of caution, this would be very unlikely to counteract a strong countervailing emotion, like deep sadness. For instance, Dr. Matsumoto has found that people with depression will not be able to induce such a feeling of happiness.