Deceptive facial expressions

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. Darwin hypothesized that some facial muscle actions associated with emotion cannot be consciously inhibited, particularly when the to-be concealed emotion is strong. Results strongly supported the inhibition hypothesis. In general, emotional leakage lasted longer in both the upper and lower face during high-intensity masked, relative to low-intensity, masked expressions. High intensity emotion was more difficult to conceal than low intensity emotion during emotional neutralization, leading to a greater likelihood of emotional leakage in the upper face.

This study presents the relation between the facial expression of a group of children when they told a lie and the accuracy in detecting the lie by a sample of adults. The program classified videos as showing a neutral facial expression or an emotional one. There was a significant higher mean of hits for the emotional than for the neutral videos, and a significant negative correlation between the intensity of the neutral expression and the number of hits from the detectors. The accuracy of the lie detectors was then correlated with their subclinical traits of personality disorders, to find that participants scoring higher in the dependent personality were significantly better lie detectors. This study is the first to automatically decode the facial information of the lying child and relate these results with personality characteristics of the lie detectors in the context of deceptive behavior research. Implications for forensic psychology were suggested: to explore whether the induction of an emotion in a child during an interview could be useful to evaluate the testimony during legal trials.

Our faces reveal multitudes about what we are thinking, feeling, intending. Drooping eyelids indicate sadness or perhaps just … exhaustion. These well-known and instantly recognizable facial expressions are but a few of the literally thousands of expressions and movements that researchers have recorded and mapped over the years while observing the face. Master the seven types of statements a deceptive person will make. Learn how attitude is a key indicator of deception.

Skip to search form Skip to main content. Hill and Kenneth D. Hill , Kenneth D.