Emotion Families: Part 1

Organizing facial expressions of emotion

Excerpt from Semiotics around the World: Synthesis in Diversity How do we categorize facial expressions of emotion? While there are seven universal facial expressions of emotion we all experience, there are still many more worth exploring and understanding. Luckily, most of these additional emotional facial expressions can be organized and placed into one of seven emotion families: anger, happiness, sadness, …

Are there honest liars?

The truth about being deceitful

Are all liars being deceitful? Don’t you have to be one or the other: honest or dishonest, a liar or a truthful person? As I see it, no. An honest liar doesn’t claim to be telling the truth and, therefore, can justifiably reject later accusations of being deceitful. Unfortunately, such a painfully simple concept rarely occurs in the real world. …

What is Global Compassion and How Can We Attain It?

Moving toward a more compassionate world by defining compassion and suffering

Excerpts taken from Moving Toward Global Compassion pp. 13-16 What is global compassion? In the last few years, there has been a renewed interest in compassion. Yet focus on how another person’s suffering affects our own cognitive and emotional states and behavior is not new. There is a long history of research on related and not often clearly differentiated concepts …

Mood vs Emotion: Differences & Traits

Mood vs. Emotion: Differences & Traits

Five factors outlining the difference between mood and emotion

In an excerpt taken from “The Nature Of Emotion”, Dr. Ekman lays out five factors for determining mood vs emotion. Variations in duration, provocation, modulation, facial expression, and awareness of cause support Dr. Ekman’s argument for the difference between mood and emotion. Duration In the debate of mood vs emotion, moods can be distinguished from emotions in terms of their …

Reading Micro Expressions on a Date

Understanding Their True Emotions

February 14, 2019   With micro expressions training tools, anyone can learn to spot the moment-to-moment micro expressions of others. Knowing what they mean and how best to respond to them, though, takes a lot more practice. By definition, micro expressions reveal a person’s true emotions but they do not tell us why the person is feeling that way. This …

Are facial expressions universal or culturally specific?

A look at cultural expressions in public and private

Excerpts taken from Dr. Paul Ekman’s scientific autobiography, Nonverbal Messages: Cracking the Code (pp. 70-74) January 22, 2018 Display Rules As I was preparing to make my second trip to New Guinea, I knew that even if I obtained strong results supporting Darwin’s claim of universals in facial expressions, I would need to explain why so many smart anthropologists such as Margaret …

Psychologist Paul Ekman: Getting to Know the Man Behind the Success

An Intimate Paul Ekman Interview

December 26, 2018 The world knows Dr. Ekman as a celebrated research psychologist, a best-selling author, a sought-after scientific advisor to Hollywood, and even a “brother” to the Dalai Lama. Earlier this month we set out to get to know Paul, the man behind all the success. Over a meal of his favorite Thai take-out, we talked about everything from …

Learning to Lie

From "Why Kids Lie" by Dr. Paul Ekman (pp. 86-89)

August 27, 2018 Developing the Ability to Lie Many of the abilities that develop with age-abilities necessary for children to take increasing responsibility for themselves — also allow them to be more successful if they choose to lie. Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said that he didn’t have a good enough memory to lie. But not all lies require …

Signs of Lying

Articles About Lying

February 28, 2018 Excerpts taken from Dr. Paul Ekman’s scientific autobiography, “Nonverbal Messages: Cracking the Code” (p. 237-239) When is it a lie? Many observable signs of lying have been identified, but they are not always shown by everyone. Their absence does not mean a person is truthful, but their presence, especially when there are multiple different types of signs …

compassionate actions

Compassionate Actions

Exploring the feeling of compassion

January 31, 2018 Why compassionate actions feel good I believe that it is rewarding, literally, to engage in compassionate actions because such acts generate a feeling of compassion joy. It is not merely that such actions support a favorable view of oneself; whether or not anyone else knows what the compassionate person has done, it still feels good. Therefore, I …

Herramientas de capacitación en español de microexpresiones

Herramientas de capacitación en español de Microexpresiones ahora con leyendas y subtítulos

November 22, 2017 Esforzándose por brindar las mismas oportunidades educativas, el Grupo Paul Ekman ahora ofrece Herramientas de Capacitación en Español de Microexpresiones para todos los usuarios, tanto actuales como nuevos! Los módulos originales de Herramientas de Capacitación de Microexpresiones y Herramientas de Capacitación Sutil del Dr. Paul Ekman ahora cuentan con subtítulos para ayudar en la capacitación en Español …