That such information can be gleaned non-verbally isn’t a surprise. As previously stated, the human face is an excellent communication device. Facial expressions are important: it’s easy to tell when someone is angry, happy, fearful and so on because their face takes on an associated expression revealing this, and this contributes greatly to interpersonal communication. Someone could say, “You shouldn’t have,” while looking happy, angry or disgusted, and the phrase would be interpreted very differently.
Facial expressions are quite universal. Studies have been conducted where pictures of specific facial expressions have been shown to individuals from different cultures, some of which were very remote and largely untouched by Western civilization. There is some cultural variation, but by and large everyone is able to recognize the facial expressions, regardless of their origins. It seems our facial expressions are innate, rather than learned, “hard-wired” into the human brain. Someone who grew up in the deepest recesses of the Amazon jungle would pull the same expression if something surprised them as someone who’d lived their entire life in New York.
Our brains are very adept at recognizing and reading faces. Chapter 5 detailed how the visual cortex has subsections dedicated to processing faces, hence we tend to see them everywhere. So efficient is the brain in this regard that an expression can be deduced from minimal information, which is why it’s common to now use basic punctuation to convey happiness :-) sadness :-( anger >:-( surprise :-O and many more. These are just simple lines and dots. They’re not even upright. And yet we still perceive specific types of expression.
Facial expressions may seem a limited form of communication, but they’re extremely useful. If everyone around you has a fearful expression, your brain instantly concludes there is something nearby that everyone considers a threat, and primes itself for fight or flight. If we had to rely on someone saying, “I don’t want to alarm you, but there appears to be a pack of rabid hyenas heading right for us,” they’d probably be on us before the end of the sentence. Facial expressions also aid social interactions; if we’re doing something and everyone has a happy expression, we know we should keep doing it to gain approval. If everyone looks at us and appears shocked, angry, disgusted or all three, then we should stop what we’re doing rather quickly. This feedback helps guide our own behaviors.
Studies have revealed that the amygdala is highly active when we’re reading facial expressions.6 The amygdala, responsible for processing our own emotions, is seemingly necessary for recognizing emotions in others. Other regions deep in the limbic system responsible for processing specific emotions (for instance, the putamen for disgust) are also implicated.
The link between emotions and facial expressions is strong but not insurmountable. Some people suppress or control their facial expressions so that they differ from their emotional state. The obvious example is the “poker face.” Professional poker players maintain neutral expressions (or inaccurate ones) in order to hide how the cards dealt impact on their chances of winning. However, there is only a limited range of possibilities when being dealt cards from a deck of 52, and poker players can brace themselves for all of them, even an unbeatable straight flush. Knowing something is coming allows the more conscious controls of facial expressions to retain dominance. However, if during the game a meteorite crashes through the roof and onto the table, it’s doubtful that any of the players could stop themselves from adopting a shocked expression.
This is indicative of yet another conflict between the advanced and primitive areas of the brain. Facial expressions can be voluntary (controlled by the motor cortex in the cerebrum) or involuntary (controlled by the deeper regions in the limbic system). Voluntary facial expressions we adopt by choice—for example, looking enthusiastic when viewing someone’s tedious vacation photos. Involuntary expressions are produced by actual emotions. The advanced human neocortex may be capable of conveying inaccurate information (lying), but the older limbic control system is unfailingly honest, so they come into conflict quite often, because the norms of society often dictate that we don’t give our honest opinion; if a person’s new haircut repulses us, it’s not good to say so.
Unfortunately, our brains being so sensitive to reading faces means we can often tell when someone is undergoing this internal conflict between honesty and manners (smiling through gritted teeth). Luckily, society has also deemed it impolite to point it out when someone is doing this, so a tense balance is achieved.
Carrots and sticks
(How the brain allows us to control others, and be controlled in turn)
I hate car shopping. Trudging across vast showrooms, checking endless details, looking at so many vehicles you lose all interest and start wondering if you have space in your yard for a horse. Feigning awareness of cars so you do things like kick the tires. Why? Can the tip of your shoe analyze vulcanized rubber?
But for me, the worst part is car salesmen (I’ve yet to meet a female one). I just can’t deal with them. The machismo, the exaggerated chumminess, the “I’ll have to ask the manager” tactic, the implication that they’re losing money by my even being there. All these techniques confuse and unsettle me, and I find the whole process distressing.
That’s why I always take my dad car shopping. He revels in this sort of thing. The first time he helped me buy a car I was braced for confident negotiating, but his tactic was largely swearing at the salesmen and calling them criminals until they agreed to lower the price. Unsubtle but definitely effective.
However, that car salesmen the world over have such established and recognizable methods suggests they do actually work. This is odd. All customers will have wildly different personalities, preferences and attention spans, so the idea that simple and familiar approaches will increase the odds of someone agreeing to hand over hard-earned cash should be ludicrous. However, there are specific behaviors that increase compliance, meaning customers agree with someone and “submit to their will.”
We’ve covered how fear of social judgement causes anxiety; provocation triggers the anger system; and seeking approval can be a powerful motivator. Indeed, many emotions can be said to exist only in the context of other people: you can be angry at inanimate objects, but shame and pride require people’s judgement, and love is something that exists between two people (“self-love” is something else entirely). So it’s no great stretch to find that people can make others do what they want by exploiting the brain’s tendencies. Anyone whose livelihood depends on convincing other people to give them money has familiar methods for increasing customer compliance and, once again, the way the brain works is largely responsible.