I have developed the ability to feel both side of the face when I see it. The incongruence I felt on seeing this face, and the anger on the left side especially, grabbed me immediately. You can develop the ability by examining each mirrored side of the face, feeling the emotion, and then trying to look at the original photo until you can feel that emotion while focused just on the respective side of the face. Usually focusing your eyes just below each eye and trying to feel the face’s emotional state is easiest. If I focus on his right side, I see blankness, but the instant I touch the other side, I feel rage and contempt.
Interestingly, this does also bear out the ideas previously presented on facial handedness. I am struck by the older right side facial expression, top, middle. That is very close to the reflexive facial expression of clueless obliviousness which my favorite narcissist would make when suddenly placed under an extremely high level of stress in front of other people. It was a go-to expression designed to mask the panic he was feeling from those around him, and I was always amazed at how the moment he felt stressed, he made it. It is kind of similar to the creepy SJW empty eyes everybody notes they have. It makes me think those eyes are a sign of high baseline amygdala stress, and an impending amygdala hijack just waiting to happen.
Of course the left side expression, which the Chinese would have asserted was less effectively masked due to individuals being primarily right handed in the use of facial muscles for emotional masking, is much more objectionable. Anger, contempt/disgust, even a touch of sadness and fear at the outside corner of the eye, are all evident. I look at that, and I do not see an angry father about to avenge the murder of his family. I see a powerless child being teased, and helpless to stop it.
According to the Chinese, that left side mirror would have been this individual’s baseline personality, poorly masked by his lefthand facial muscles. Also significant is the line at the bridge of the nose between the eyes. In Chinese facial reading it supposedly indicates a heart disharmony, which reduces the individual’s ability to experience joy and happiness. It arises from chronically crinkling the nose and dropping the inner eyebrows in anger.
I included the younger version here to show how these expressions of a person’s inner-self are muted in one’s youth, and much tougher to read. Looking at the younger him, it would be easy to miss the emotions on his face if you didn’t look closely. Yet on closer examination, that face is the same face you see above, just the differences are more subtle. When you can feel the disharmony in the two sides of the younger face without the benefit of seeing the older face, your ability to read people will be impressive.
I should add that if these ideas hold true, they are of most use on the types of damaged deceivers who are most dangerous in life. People who are genuinely happy and have nothing to hide should exhibit less facial asymmetry. Likewise, there will be angry people who don’t care if you know they are angry, and they too will exhibit a more symmetrical emotional countenance. Facial handedness is not supposed to apply to underlying emotional states – it should only apply to attempts to mask them.
Some have said these facial reading posts are a case of confirmation bias, where we are seeing what we expect. It is possible. I’d welcome anyone offering up links to photos in the comments which disprove the Chinese hypothesis of facial handedness in facial reading, to see if they can be found in significant numbers. If we find a lot of right handed people who have happy, pleasant left sides, and angry, bitter right sides, and they are not happy people trying to look mean to scare off threats, then I would consider the ideas well worth discarding. I have not seen that in the cursory examination of life I perform as I travel through it, though I can’t say my sole focus was disproving it either.
That said, I found an old ID picture of me from ages ago. My left side is intensely focused, bordering on scary, as my right side exhibits the most benign, harmless smile I am capable of. Back then, facial handedness was totally unknown to me, yet when the guy said “Smile!” and snapped the pic, the right side of my face smiled and looked gentle, while the left side of my face looked as it would look thinking intensely about some problem. I thought it was funny.
[…] More On Facial Assymetry And Reading Emotional States […]
It is worth noting that most Westerners, or maybe it is Americans of European decent, tend to look to the left side before the right.* When you think on this, it is because the left side is the observed person’s right side.* We are watching that side to see signs of their hand moving towards a sword. Most of us ignore, or greatly reduce the observation and value of said observation of the left side of the viewed person (ie our right).
For the person wishing to mask himself, it would be to his advantage to have that be the side capable of duplicity. This line of thought would seem to support the Chinese face sidedness theory, although it doesn’t confirm it. It would help finding some left handed people and see how they are, or perhaps just examine every public figure possible.
It is possible that our face handedness could be different than our dominant hand. I know eye dominance doesn’t always follow handedness. (BTW, I think I heard President Obama is left handed, but I’m not sure).
*This comes from Psychology studies, and psychology is impacted by culture, so some results are limited by cultures which is I specified that limit. This particular one on our focusing more on one side or another, however may go beyond cultural boundaries, as most humans (~90%) are right handed, so our ancestors would have focused on the potential foes most likely strong arm.
Very interesting.
I have a very poor memory for faces, which I would think means that I just don’t process a lot of detail in faces, but I do see differences in the images that you have shown in these posts.
I do believe, however, that you (i.e. a person) have (has) to be very careful with any attempt at “reading” the meaning of these differences. Will you then see what you wish to confirm?
I think your explanation of asymmetry, and that happy or angry, but not trying to hide emotion, will not result in asymmetry, seems to support the theory in general.
But what about the ‘Billy Idol’ sneer with one side of the mouth or the raised single eyebrow, or the wink?These seem more intentional and outside the theory, but are also asymmetrical. Do they impact the theory at all?
I don’t know, but you bring to mind a couple of times I have seen people try to wink covertly at another person, and use the wrong side of their face, exposing the wink to observers, much to everyone’s amusement. Can’t remember if it was a case of winking with the dominant side, like reaching for something with your dominant hand.
Idol’s one sided sneer is supposed to signal contempt. That is something most might want to hide normally, so left or right side might depend on whether it was a marketing gimmick he was doing consciously, or an unconscious, real expression he would normally try to suppress, as well as if he is left handed or right handed. I’m actually going to look that one up, since I am sure a mirror of the sneer would be interesting, as would its sidedness.
This theory, about failed attempts to mask emotions, applies, of course only to those who attempt to do so.
I can’t play poker because I don’t have a poker face. In any part of life other than a poker game, I have never spent any time trying to hide my emotions from showing in my face (“he wears his heart on his sleeve”).
I can tell you right now what you would find if you did a study of people like me who have no poker face – each side of the face would show the imprint from the jackboot of the state equally!
Previous examples were lukewarm and not as obvious. But this example is spot on. Hard to deny it chalk up to bias here.
Paul Ryan has some of the most asymmetrical and varied facial expressions of any politician. I’d love it if you analyzed his face.
I’ll take a look this weekend.
Hmm, I wonder how this theory applies to people whose faces have on one side that favors the mother’s face and on the other side the father’s. This is the case with my own face. I do many things right-handed, however, I’m also left-handed as was my mother.
Also, how much do you think having a dopamine-based emotional state personality (extroversion) versus an acetylcholine-based emotional state personality (introversion) might affect one’s amygdala response?
I don’t know. I’ve not heard of facial asymmetry arising from each side adopting a parental expression.
I’d imagine extroverts would be practiced in projecting a mien, whereas introverts would not but, how that might affect asymmetry, I have no idea.
This post has also made me study my own facial expressions more, especially what they communicate to other people. Sometimes I involuntarily make a scowl or smile in a certain way and I’ll wonder if I got this expression from family or people I know. This kind of self-reflection can be useful because you can gain self-knowledge instead of passively absorbing things from the exterior. For example, one time I saw my mother be rude to a cashier and use a certain phrase, and I realized at that moment I had done the same thing without even knowing it. TMYN
I tried this, and it is very powerful. A real wake up call.
Finally, a thing I know better than you. 🙂 This might save a life.
The nasolabial fold is best for spotting contempt. The blank or vacant expression is one pulled while switching psychological states, and it is common in those about to enter psychosis and or rape/murder the person they’re fixating on. This is the reason people get split-second notice before such attacks, they assume the vacancy is placid and the danger has passed, but note the stress. Hence the shark eyes, which are actually lack of conscience. Tension around the eyes are a defensive manoeuvre common to other primates primed for a fight, a clear sign of anger as the head also tilts back and the jaw tightens. You should cover telegraph movements as well as expressions. Source: wizard, the trick is to autofocus on the lower left eyelid every time you see a face, it’s a convergence point of signals. Symmetry is beautiful because it’s honest and innocent. In kidnapping cases, forensics look at the parent’s facial incongruence when appealing for return. The field IS scientific and I’ve discussed it with experts.