What are Micro Expressions?

After "Lie to Me" has aired, everybody is talking about micro expressions. Micro Expressions are part of the nonverbal communication. We want you to be able to discuss this topic well informed. For that reason we put nonverbal communication in a nutshell for you:

Non-verbal communication includes these 10 channels.

We all send simultaniously nonverbal signals on these 10 channels. If the signals of the different channels don't match, the other person is lying or pretending. Learn more about the "Mighty 10".

1. Gaze (together with the dilation of the pupils)

Did you know that women used "Bella Donna" before a date to make their pupils wider to signal the man that they liked him? (not in use any more because "Bella Donna" is dangerous!)

2. Gestures and other whole-body movements

The Institute for Urban Ethology in Vienna developed a machine that can predict your personality just by analysing your "dance style". Just dance for a while in front of the machine and you get very accurate results.

3. Posture

The more you can control a channel willingly the more the culture will change the apperance of these postures. Nevertheless the "Victory Posture" (rising both arm) seems to be inborn. Scientists could prove that at the "Special Olympics" where blind athlets from all over the world showed this posture after winning.

4. Bio Feedback of the sympathic arousal (e.g. body temperature, skin color)

You all know the polygraph from TV. But what are they measuring with that polygraph? Well, our nervous system has two sub-systems. The sympathic and the parasympathic nervous system. To put it in a nutshell: the sympathic nervous system arouses you and keeps you going, the parasympathic system calms you down. So, when you feel stress (like during a lie), your sympathic nervous system is firing and body functions change (e.g. raspiration, blood flow, skin conductance, skin color). The polygraph (poly meaning many) then shows all bodily changes on multiple graphs). You can surely detect stress with the polygraph, but we should be cautious with saying that feeling stress/ arousal is the same as lying.

5. Bodily Contact

A light, "spontanous"touch on your shoulder or your arm by her is a good sign that she starts to like you :)

6. Spatial Behavior

We could show in a scientific study that you can detect the intention of a woman by analysing her spatial behavior (during first encounters with men). Hard to control (like whole body movement)

7. Clothes, Cars, Watches etc.

8. Non-verbal vocalizations  (e.g. higher pithch of the voice due to tensions of the vocal chords)

The forementioned sympathic nervous system tensiones muscles during stress. Since your vocal chords are also muscles, one can hear your stress level during talking. For that reason, people like deep voices. These people seem to be relaxed!

9. Smell (e.g. women can smell how much testosterone a man produces)

We could show that women can correctly detect the level of testosterone by smelling the T-Shirt of a man. The testosterone (the male hormone) is degraded and one of the degraded components is transported onto your skin through your sweat pores.

10. Facial Expressions and Micro Expressions

In all cultures we use facial expressions as a communicative sign. Everybody tries to control his facial expressions to "manage" his impression on others. Micro Expressions are facial expressions, which are hardly to control. Thus they offer whom, who can read them, better insight into the true feelings of another person.

Your task in human communication is to decide constantly, which non-verbal signal is an indicator for true feelings and intentions and which nonverbal signal is just a "communicative gesture".

Some Non-verbal Channels are harder to control than others

One may assume that some of the channels described above are harder to control than others. Clothing can be easily controlled, also our proxemic. However, whole-body movements can hardly be controlled well.

How does this relate to micro expressions?

Micro Expressions are emotional facial expression only being shown for a fraction of a second, reflecting true emotional states. Due to the shortage of this time, people cannot really control these nonverbal signals (as whole body movements).

Micro Expressions show emotions - but what are emotions ?