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  • So recently micro expressions have exploded in popularity. Mainly due to the show "Lie

  • To Me" which is grounded in Paul Ekman's research. Let me explain what they are.

  • Now most facial expressions last more than a second. So you're not exhibiting micro expressions

  • all the time. But sometimes you're exhibiting what's called micro expressions. And micro

  • expressions are these slips. You don't want the person to see them. And thy're these fraction

  • of a second facial expressions that happen as a result of a slip. Unintentionally. You

  • unintentionally display how you are truly feeling.

  • So usually how micro expression relates to lie detection is you're looking for an inconsistency

  • or a discrepancy. So all of a sudden a woman is talking about how she's so sad that her

  • daughter just died and all of a sudden you see a slight smile. Alright. That's an inconsistency.

  • A mother shouldn't be upset about her daughter dying. That kind of leads you to believe they're

  • not really being truthful.

  • Now this is how micro expressions work. So Paul Ekman originally did research on the

  • six universal facial expressions which I'm going to cover in later videos. There are

  • six facial expressions that no matter where you go in the world, everybody thinks they

  • mean the same thing. So for example, a smile. You can go to the most remote villages in

  • the world and when somebody smiles they'll say that this person is happy. That this person

  • likes this behavior. So on and so forth.

  • So the cool thing about micro expressions are they're universal. Something that people

  • don't understand, micro expressions, you're not walking down the street and being like.

  • "Micro expressions." You can't see them. They happen so quickly that you're only processing

  • these unconsciously. Right? Some people don't even display micro expressions. There's some

  • people that don't display them. There's some people that do. And the theory is that through

  • training you can get better at identifying people emotions through constant exposure

  • to these micro expressions. But they happen very, very, very quickly.

  • The only way you can really point to a micro expression is if you have people on video

  • camera. If you have people on video camera, you can look at things frame by frame by frame.

  • And I can point to a micro expression. "Look, there's a micro expression." But when you're

  • in real time, that's not necessarily how it works and I think there's a confusion for

  • most people who watch this show. They're like, "Oh, I can look for micro expressions," when

  • you're having a conversation with somebody. No.

  • But you can look for facial expressions. Why I think that it's so important to really pay

  • attention to micros or train for it, is because training for micro expressions, training to

  • look for facial expressions that last 1/25th of a second or last very, very quickly is

  • going to help you identify facial expressions when they happen much slower.

  • So some people show surprise and some people show contempt and some people show happiness

  • at a slower rate. It doesn't need to be a micro expression. So it's just training to

  • get better at identifying emotions.

So recently micro expressions have exploded in popularity. Mainly due to the show "Lie

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