Facial Expressions Shape Professional Evaluations

We know that facial expressions hugely shape social interactions, but they also shape professional evaluations, as well. A recent blog by the Association for Psychological Science (APS) critically examines the extant research on the connection between nonverbal behavior and professional evaluations. This article seeks to summarize the role that facial features, such as facial hair,…

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Why Some People Lie Better Than Others

Lie detection is tough for a lot of people, but why do some people happen to just be better at it than others? This is an important question not just in our attempts to understand how to detect deception but also in efforts to better understand the role of emotional recognition in lie detection. A…

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Prompted to Mimic Faces

Facial mimicry is known to be central to understanding the emotional states of others, but this exciting new study looks at the conditions under which we engage in such activity. Emotional recognition is incredibly central to social interactions, and facial mimicry allows us to do so instantaneously. However, there is dispute over when we spontaneously…

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Out of the Corner of Your Eye

The role of peripheral vision in emotional recognition is crucial to our perception of the world. This is the conclusion of exciting research by Dr. Fraser Smith of the University of East Anglia. Dr. Smith and his team looked at the ways in which our peripheral vision manages to capture expressions of fear, tying this…

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