Examples of The Seven Faces
from The Likeability Factor
People convey seven types of emotion via the face: sadness, anger, disgust, fear, interest, surprise, and happiness. Dr. Ekman isolated three regions of the face that communicate all of these emotions: the forehead, the eyes, and the mouth.
Here are the seven facial expressions and their matching emotions
 |
 |
 |
|
Anger |
Contempt |
Disgust |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Fear |
Happy |
Sad |
Surprise |
Dr. Ekman observed that most untrained people do not read emotional expressions accurately, which can create miscommunications and insensitivity. But with just a few hours of emotional expression training, almost anyone can double their effectiveness.
As you converse with others, make eye contact to center your vision on someone's entire face. You'll see activity in all three of the regions that send emotional signals. Pay special attention to quick changes in expression. People often allow their true emotions to slip out during ungarded moments of "emotional leakage."
When you interact with people, look for all seven emotions, but especially watch for happiness. When you recognize happiness, you avoid raining on someone's parade. People want to savor their positive emotions as much as they want to mitigate their negative ones. When you can read happiness, or even interest, in someone's face, you have an opportunity for a pleasant and easy empathetic conversation.
If you are able to master effective emotion-reading listening, you will dramatically boost your empathy factor. People will find your instincts sharp and your listening skills soothing and generous.
You can learn to recognize signs of concealed emotions by obtaining the
Micro Expression Training Tool (METT) on Dr. Paul Ekman's website (www.paulekman.com).
