[Rainey]

Try this interesting test to see if you can identify people who are genuinely smiling and people who are faking it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml

You might be surprised.
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God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

[Donna]

Very neat! I had a lot of fun with this. This identified Paul Eckman as one of the major researchers in facial expression studies. Three (or is it four?) years ago I was part of a research study at University of California run by Paul Eckman! He is a VERY interesting guy and has worked with the Dalai Lama for years on some of the Dalai Lama's intiatives. He's also studied Bhuddist monks physiology before, during and after meditation.

The study I participated in was looking at the effect of teaching meditation to people in high stress jobs - and the first go-round they used teachers! We had a 3 day retreat with intensive Bhuddist meditiation training from a guy (a Westerner)who was one of the Dali Lama's translators! Then we had weekly classes where we talked about what was stressing us and strategized about how to reduce it. They did pre & post testing where they put us through a variety of stress inducing exercises - counting backwards from one hundred by 17, a job interview with VERY antagonistic interviwers (for state superintendent of education)(I'm so perfect for that job!). They even had us bring in our spouse to discuss a "problem" issue (only one?).

The pre-test we did cold and the post test we did after having thirty minutes to meditate. They also took saliva swabs to measure hormones and hooked us up to electrodes to measure galvanic skin response.

They also taught us about facial expressions. Paul Eckman is THE definitive expert on facial expression recognition. He works with film people, the FBI and CIA, corporate execs - you name it.

I don't meditate on a regular basis any more, but everytime I think about it, I know I need to set up something ROUTINE and start doing it. One problem is the dogs, who want to sit on me when I'm sitting down. But I could leave them in another room and do it.

Anyway - neat stuff! I got MOST of them correct - 11 out of 20. I was CERTAIN I'd be higher than that. Eckman maintains that you should be able to identify these emotions by facial expressionss - including sorting out genuine from fake - in a split second. This test seemed too fast for me!
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L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

[Griffin]

Coo! I actually got 13 of them... I was looking at the eyes, for the 'giggle' in the eyes. But I did notice that some of the genuine ones made me smile or chuckle, so maybe that's part of it.
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Confusion comes fitted as standard.

[gingerpale]

Well, I got 12 out of 20-- thank goodness these friends don't lie: ... ... !!

Donna, if someone tried to stress me by making me count backwards by 17 I would be laughing so hard I'd de-stress myself for the rest of my life.
Everybody, quick: 94 minus 17 = ?


There are so so many many variables in facial expressions!--is the Mona Lisa smiling slyly because she knows she's pregnant, or because she knows she isn't ?

[Griffin]

Gingerpale,

[Rainey]

Unfortunately, I got that link from a place that gave a very important clue so I have no idea what my results would have been if I hadn't read that first. But by the end I was deciding even before the video and still made pretty good predictions.

For me, it was how much/quickly they recovered from the smile as much as the energy in it or the general facial response. And I don't know how that reflects on me, the subject or the videographer who may have been more careful about where the video stopped and started.

Yes, this business of facial expressions is very interesting. I read in a Psychology Today many many years ago, that you can interpret a facial expression from across a football field without even being able to actually identify the face. I suppose some allowance would have to be made for people's visual accuity but if it's true it's quite an amazing skill we don't even necessarily know we have.
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God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

[Raven]

So interesting! I got 17 out of 20. Don't know what this reveals about me.

[Griffin]

Rainey,

[Barbara]

I got 17 out of 20. Donna I meditate every day. I'm going to hear the Dalai Lama speak on Sunday. My cousin was involved with his visit to Perth last weekend and after a meeting with the people from theBuddhist centre where her husband is a member, the Dalai Lama took her hand and walked with her to the dining room.
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Barbara

[Rainey]

[georgia]

okay, so i got 14 out of 20, but i'm notorious for expecting the best of people--even the rotten ones. i strongly suspect that my husband, he of the greater "street smarts", would have come up more successful in his predictions. but he's always had a better "read" on people, especially of the less likeable ones. i've seen him position himself physically in public situations where he read danger or unpleasantness into the circumstances when i never noticed a thing. he was always right.

and so, he's been protecting me for 40 years. obviously, i've needed it!

[gingerpale]

Barbara, could you please post after you've heard the Dalai Lama speak?

[Judy]

I got 16 out of 20 - it's all in the eyes.
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Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

www.cupcakerecipebook.com.au

[gingerpale]

Yes, I tried it again and covered the mouths so I could only see the eyes, and my score went from 12 to 16. Some were actually laughing, and some just smiling, so the eye "crinkling" was less. In real life when we look at a person smiling we are looking into their eyes, not their teeth, usually. But I suppose we have all been fooled by, and have fooled, those we know best.
What surprised me was that I immediately liked or disliked almost all those people--split second reaction based on nothing but facial expression!

[emilyj]

Well, I'm officially hopeless- I only got 11 out of 20. Most of the smiles I got wrong were real ones that I picked as fake. I think I may be a little cynical