As holiday season approaches, many of us must reflect on what exactly will make the holidays most joyous. In a fascinating study from 2002, a pair of researchers asked over a hundred people about their stress and happiness during the holidays, including questions about consumption behavior. They found that family-based or religious celebrations tended to…
Read MoreFacial Age and Recognition
Sometimes it is very important to evaluate age based on someone’s face alone, but this can be quite tricky. This is actually a surprisingly pressing issue as age is relevant in all sorts of commercial, social, or political contexts. While it seems intuitive that we should be able to recognize people’s ages pretty easily, this…
Read MoreClusters of Nonverbal Behavior Differentiate Truth Tellers from Liars
A great deal of popular discussion of how to detect deception rests on specific, isolated factors like eye contact, but the reality is a bit more complex. New research shows that clusters of nonverbal behavior differentiate truth tellers from liars. This is the case that Humintell’s Drs. David Matsumoto and Hyisung Hwang made in a…
Read MoreThe Nonverbal Power of Posture
Reading nonverbal cues is not just about understanding psychology or threat detection. It can also help us get a job! In an exciting 2010 study, Drs. Dana Carney, Amy Cuddy, and Andy Yap discuss the concept of “power posing.” Essentially, this involves using certain postures to appear more powerful. This can lead an interviewer or…
Read More