Facial Action Coding System FAQs

The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) is an incredibly useful tool when it comes to dealing with the face.  Despite its utility, FACS is widely misunderstood.   This post answers some of the common questions about FACS. What is the Facial Action Coding System (FACS)? The Facial Action Coding System is a scientific system designed to measure facial behaviors.  Facial behaviors include individual facial movements such as pulling the eyebrows up, as well as more general facial activities like … [Read more...]

The Truth About Microexpressions

There has been a lot of talk lately about the idea of microexpressions. TV shows like Lie to Me and Psych include elements based on the concept of micro expressions. The problem is that a lot of the material out there is wrong. I wrote this post to help explain what microexpressions really are, and to help separate some of the fact from fiction that is floating around the web. What are microexpressions? First of all let's get a proper understanding of what constitutes a micro expression.  A … [Read more...]

Lie to Me Won’t Help You Detect Deception

Mike Murray sent this to me last week: A beautifully recursive study has shown that viewing an episode of the psychology of deception TV series Lie To Me makes people worse at distinguishing truth from lies. There is a lot of irony given the name of the show is "Lie to Me". … [Read more...]