Ted Cruz’s Eyebrows – How Experts Often Aren’t

A neurologist critiques Ted Cruz’s facial expressions:

The outside of his eyebrows bend down, too, when he emotes, something so atypical that it disturbs me. Typically a person’s eyebrows arch up, as does the corrugator muscle that furrow the forehead. What is such a downturned face signaling?

Downturned expressions usually signal disagreeableness or disgust. But I honestly don’t know because such an expression is rare in the context of public presentations meant to win people over.

One of the best things which can happen to a person is to be exposed to experts who have no idea what they are talking about. If it happens often enough, you come out of it with a total disregard for the status quo’s opinions, and you end up a free thinker.

Cruz’s eyebrows arch up in the middle because he is evincing a conflict-avoiding expression. It really doesn’t mean much, beyond the fact he is seeking to defuse a battle he expects to encounter. In Cruz’s case it is almost certainly a mien he developed as a debater, to appear non-confrontational and likable, even as he was arguing. It is sort of an inverse of the alternative, which is angry eyebrows which arch up at the outer edges, and pull down in the center.

One example of such an expression was serial killer Danny Rolling, who exhibited it when confronted with authority. Like most serial killers, his attacks were opportunistic attacks launched on sleeping girls, designed to allow him to kill, without any risk or cost. An ambush killer, he was not the type of guy to throw down equally with another man, face to face. This facial expression was a subconscious adaptation designed to allow him to avoid open, face to face confrontation with a prepared opponent. My guess is he developed it as a child, seeking to avoid the abuse of his father by appearing “not angry.”

Another conflict avoiding eyebrow archer is actor Nathan Lane, who probably evolved it either to smooth his path through some conflict endured in his past, or to seem more agreeable in the asskissocracy of Hollywood:

The actress who played Elaine Benes on Seinfeld does this a lot too.

Donald, of course, never does that with his eyebrows when dealing with other people. As a general rule I would expect to not see this with confrontational guys, or guys accustomed to operating from positions of strength, both of which apply to Donald. This may explain why when Ted and Donald meet, observers will instantly sense a dynamic between them which will subconsciously guide their perception of who is more of a dominant leader, and who is more submissive and less dominant. Obviously there is more to social dynamics than the skillset which lets you win a Harvard debate.

The main point of this is, never take anything any expert provides as anything more than generally, maybe, possibly useful. More often than not today the “experts” are just talking out of their asses. In this case a common facial expression used by people to avoid conflict and ingratiate themselves, seems completely foreign to a guy who supposedly does facial analysis as part of his living.