Reading Facial Expressions

We are human beings with multiple emotions and with full control over our emotions. It is our emotions that help us react to a particular situation and it is our ability to control our emotions that help us deceive others by wearing a totally different emotion. Quite ironically but, we cannot completely hide our emotions because our face and eyes unconsciously reveal it all. These hidden emotions are known as facial expressions that can tell the true story of a smiling and jovial person. It is essential for a person to be able to read these facial expressions in order to relate well to others in the society. An ability to read facial expressions will help you in learning and translating other people’s needs that will further help you in fostering true and right conversation. As a social being it is important for a person to master this skill. This article provides you with details on how to read facial expressions for you to be able to understand people better.

How To Read Facial Expression

Eyes reveal a lot of emotions of a person. If you wish to read the different modes of facial expression, eyes are the most important of all. Start with the basics i.e. what does anger, disgust or surprise look like.
Another way in which you can learn about reading facial expressions through eyes is by watching foreign movies which will help develop your facial reading skills. Watch the movies and study the responses of the actors in different situations.
Learn to read behind the portrayed emotion. You should know the fact that the eyes of a person never lies, therefore, in order to see the true meaning behind the emotion worn by a man, you will have to understand the signs shown by eyes. For e.g. a sad person even though is wearing a smile on his/her face, the eyes will show you the tears the person is trying to fight back.
Another way in which you can read facial expressions is by carefully listening to whatever is being said by the person. Do not forget to examine the overall body and facial movement. For instance the angry eyes, piercing teeth, hard mouth etc. This exercise will provide you some knowledge on how people’s behaviour at times is totally opposite to what they are feeling.
Another point that you must keep in mind while learning how to read facial expressions is that people often hide their true feelings when in a social set up. This might be because of their discomfort or their good will of protecting others from negative emotion. However, you will see that in such people their face and eyes will have a different story to tell than their actions.
Look for overly intensive stares in people while reading their emotions, for instance rapid blinking, small smirks in the face etc. people tend to smile when they feel they are getting away with something, liars will avoid eye contact or will overcompensate by looking right in the eyes to convince you about their sincerity.

Basic Four Steps

The first basic step in reading facial expression is to understand the various signs that a person’s face can reveal. Face is a ground for various kinds of signs and you should be able to perceive the signs relevant to your interest and study and discard those not relevant to you. Be careful however not to confuse one sign with another.
Once you acquire the skill to perceive the important facial signs, it is time to understand the different message systems in the face. You will have to do a detailed study on the signs of emotion that you would like to study, the various messages and the mode of messages used by that particular emotion.
Next step towards mastering facial expression is to understand the signs thoroughly. You will have to learn and interpret the signs in terms of psychologically relevant concepts. You will have to learn the art of assigning meanings to various behavioural pattern portrayed by a person.
The final step in learning to read facial expressions is to know how to react to the information you gather from the expressions. How is it that you should react when you know the real emotion of a person? Such a decision can be made based on your social skills. You should have good social skills in order to be able to react correctly on the given situation.

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