Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

The Struggle For Emotional Recognition

Emotional and facial expression recognition are particularly interesting phenomena. Not only are they both incredibly fundamental to our interactions, but we are rarely even aware of performing them. While we rely heavily on our ability to recognize each other’s faces and emotions, this reliance makes life that much harder for those who struggle with these processes.

A few months ago, we sought to bring attention to those who live with Moebius Syndrome, a type of facial paralysis that prevents any sort of facial expression. Now, it is important to shift the focus to the opposite case: those who can display emotions but cannot recognize them in others.

A recent study from the University of Bristol’s School of Experimental Psychology fueled the growing body of literature which finds that those with autism, and especially children with autism, struggle to accurately recognize emotions in other people.

These researchers showed a group of children, aged six to sixteen, a series of images displaying basic emotional expressions, such as happiness, disgust, or anger. Perhaps unsurprisingly, those with autism had more difficulty identifying which emotions were being displayed.

While those on the autism spectrum are generally viewed as having trouble with emotional recognition, the study authors went further, suggesting that they could be taught to cultivate this skill. As Dr. Chris Jarrold said “For those who do struggle with recognizing emotions from faces, teaching emotion recognition may be helpful for learning to navigate social situations.”

This is an exciting suggestion, as we have probably all heard the common notion that autism is characterized by a lack of empathy and emotional intelligence. If those with autism simply cannot feel empathy, how can they learn to do so? This is especially challenging given the role of empathy in emotional recognition.

In fact, a 2016 study attempted to debunk this stereotype by contrasting autism with alexithymia, the latter of which is characterized explicitly by a lack of empathy. The study author, Dr. Rebecca Brewer, found that alexithymia is not particularly more likely amongst those who also live with autism. In fact, many of the autistic people studied showed an unusually high level of empathetic awareness.

Instead, the inability to identify emotions may have more to do with the difficulties that autistic people have in recognizing faces. Numerous studies, including this one from 2015, have found a strong instance of face-blindness in autistic populations, as high as two thirds. It remains unclear why this is the case, but this potential explanation for autism-related difficulties in emotional recognition helps solve our puzzle.

The problem for those with autism is not based in emotions but based in an underdeveloped skill. Facial recognition is a critical part of emotional recognition, because it allows us to contrast our knowledge of another person’s face with the current emotion being displayed. Instead of recognizing emotions in this almost instantaneous fashion, those with autism can better learn the characteristic features of different basic emotions.

The team at Bristol’s School of Experimental Psychology is attempting to do just that, by developing an iPad app that can teach emotional recognition to those with autism and to those who’s ability is simply underdeveloped.

For more information on basic emotions, click here, or visit this page to see how you can improve your own recognition skills!

Our Emotional Eyes

People make a lot of fuss over the cliché that “eyes are the windows of the soul,” but emerging research indicates that this saying may be even more accurate than we think.

While emotions are displayed throughout all parts of our face, including the mouth and nostrils, a new study by Dr. Adam Anderson from Cornell University found that eyes are perhaps the most important indicators of our inner emotional states. Dr. Anderson connected these findings into a broader discussion over how our universal expressions evolved.

Questions concerning the origin of our facial expressions are as old as the theory of evolution itself. While Darwin is most famous for pioneering concepts of natural selection, he also initially proposed the notion that humans, across cultures, share a small set of universal emotions. He contended that the universality of these emotions was dependent on evolutionary factors, but subsequent generations of psychologists have struggled to back up these claims.

Eventually, as Humintell’s own Dr. David Matsumoto writes, research has begun to confirm Darwin’s suspicions, finding over and over again that humans across the planet recognize some of the same emotions via the same expressions. These seven basic emotions include anger, contempt, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, and surprise.

While research has established the existence of these emotions, it remains to be seen how and why they evolved the way they did. It was this question that Dr. Anderson attempted to answer.

In his recent study, he and co-author Dr. Daniel H. Lee created digital images of the eyes while expressing six emotions (the basic emotions minus contempt) and asked participants to compare these models with a selection of potentially unrelated words signifying mental states, such as “discriminating, curious, bored, etc.”

Consistently, the participants were able to successfully match the words to their expression. This demonstrated a widespread ability to recognize emotions based on the eyes alone. Interestingly, the authors compared this performance with participants’ abilities to read emotional cues from other parts of the face and found that the eyes were a much better avenue to success.

While discussing his conclusions, Dr. Anderson explained “The eyes are windows to the soul likely because they are first conduits for sight. Emotional expressive changes around the eye influence how we see, and in turn, this communicates to others how we think and feel.”

In fact, there are some intuitive connections between the shape of the eye and the emotion expressed. For example, emotions related to disgust or contempt feature narrowed eyes, as though individuals are trying to block out negative images, while emotions like fear correlate with widened eyes, allowing us to better capture the details of a threatening environment.

These findings built on Dr. Anderson’s earlier 2013 research which found that facial expressions arose out of reactions to the outside environment, rather than having a primarily social function.

While this study helps reveal the evolutionary history of our emotional recognition, what are the practical implications? Certainly, these findings show that we need to focus on people’s eyes, but we will not benefit from the prompting of having relevant words attached.

In reality, this makes reading emotions much harder, though Humintell is focused on making this process easier, not only by promoting helpful information in this blog but through our top-quality professional training programs.

For more information on emotional recognition and basic emotions, check out our pages here and here!

What is Your Boss Feeling?

Do you know if your boss is happy or sad?

Many managers try to stay professional and prevent their emotions from impacting the workplace, but new research suggests that this is simply not possible. We inevitably pick up on our managers’ emotions, and this recognition can have major effects within the workplace, for both floor managers and top executives.

Dr. Annie Haver, of the Norwegian School of Hotel Management recently completed her doctoral thesis by interviewing hundreds of managers and leadership experts on the role of emotion in the office.

She concluded that suppressed emotions can have a significant impact on workplace culture, because they cannot be fully suppressed: “Emotions are infectious. This means that it is important to equip managers with knowledge about ways of handling their emotions, and how their emotions affect those around them.”

The infectious nature of emotions is no surprise. Five long years ago, we at Humintell wrote about the ways in which groups develop shared emotions. Not only do we begin to feel the same way as our peers, but our brains will actually begin to synchronize at the neurological level.

It is very common, Dr. Haver claimed, for managers to attempt to conceal their emotions, creating a façade that they were in control. This was especially true during the tough times, such as when the organization and management were changing or when the company was cutting costs and staff.

Naturally, both of these situations can have severe impacts on not just the managers, but their employees as well. Perhaps it is natural to put on a face of strength, showing one’s prowess as a leader and protecting employees from uncertainties outside of their control, but this research certainly casts doubt on this tendency.

Not only can employees easily see through such attempts, but it is unhealthy for managers to even try! Dr. Haver asserted that attempting to suppress emotions over time can lead to health problems like high blood pressure and heart disease and can actually compromise professional performance.

But what is to be done? Dr. Haver contends that it is necessary to stop suppressing emotions and to create a workplace where emotional discussion and openness become normal. This would involve allowing employees, such as lower level managers, to be open with superiors about negative emotions. She envisioned a workplace where employees can openly discuss concerns they have over, for example, cutting staff.

When managers respond well to such emotion expression, it opens the door to more effectively implementing difficult decisions or handling changing management structures. This also prevents emotional suppression, enhancing work performance and cooperation.