Do you know how to read faces? How to understand hidden emotions? This human behavior hack let's you see the world in HD! We'll teach you about the 7 universal microexpressions and how to spot them -- but WARNING: you'll never experience social interactions the same way again.... ready? Download and print me now to get practicing!

2. Welcome to My Favorite Human Behavior Hack
Are you ready to watch the world in HD?
Reading someone’s face is a complex skill that needs
to be practiced, honed and perfected. Luckily, I have
created this ultimate guide to break it down and
teach you the clues behind hidden emotions.
If you want to know how someone is really feeling
or peek into what they’re secretly thinking, I’m happy
to tell you that you’re in the right place.
Let’s Get Started!
Vanessa | Science of People

3. A Secret Superpower
The face is the window into the soul--if you
know how to read it.
Once you learn the science of reading the
face, you unleash the essential secret
superpower of understanding nonverbal
behavior and reading people.
We can already tell a lot about someone by
their face, but the ability to read
microexpressions is incredibly helpful for
understanding the people in our lives!

4. What is a Microexpression?
Microexpression: a brief, involuntary facial
expression that humans universally make
when we feel an intense emotion.

5. Dr. Paul Ekman has conducted
groundbreaking research on facial
expressions and decoding the human
face--his findings are actually the
premise of the hit show Lie to Me.
E k m a n d i s c o v e r e d t h a t
microexpressions are universal: for
example, people in the U.S. make the
same face for sadness as indigenous
people in Papua New Guinea who have
never seen TV or movies to model.

6. WARNING!
Before we move forward, I need to warn you:
Microexpressions are extremely powerful
They will forever change the way you read and understand people.You will begin to
spot them everywhere- whether in person, on TV or in pictures.
Once you learn them, they cannot be unlearned.
… Still with me?

7. Spot the Expression
There are 7 universal microexpressions:
• Surprise
• Fear
• Disgust
• Anger
• Happiness
• Sadness
• Contempt

8. Surprise
•The brows are raised and curved
• Skin below the brow is stretched
• Horizontal wrinkles across the forehead
• Eyelids are opened, whites of the eye showing above and below
• Jaw drops open and teeth are parted but there is not tension
or stretching of the mouth
*Surprise elongates the face more than any other
microexpression

9. Watch videos of each
microexpression on our
microexpression playlist
on Youtube

10. Fear
• Brows are raised and drawn together, usually in a flat line
•Wrinkles in the forehead are in the center between the brows,
not across
• Upper eyelid is raised, but the lower lid is tense and drawn up
• Upper eye has white showing, but not the lower white
• Mouth is open and lips are slightly tensed or stretched and
drawn back

11. Disgust
• Upper lip is raised
• Lower lip is raised
• Nose is wrinkled
• Cheeks are raised
• Lines show below the lower lid
*This is the same expression you make when you smell
something bad

12. Anger
•The brows are lowered and drawn together
•Vertical lines appear between the brows
•Lower lid is tensed
•Eyes hard stare or bulging
•Lips can be pressed firmly together with corners down or
square shape as if shouting
•Nostrils may be dilated
•The lower jaw juts out

13. Want more? Check out:
Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People
Do you wish you could decode people? Do you want a
formula for charisma? Do you want to know exactly what
to say to your boss, your date or your networking
partner? You need to know how people work.
In Captivate you’ll learn a wealth of valuable shortcuts,
systems and behavior hacks for taking charge of your
interactions at work, at home, and in any social situation.
These aren’t the people skills you learned in school.

14. Happiness
• Corners of the lips are drawn back and up
• Mouth may or may not be parted, teeth exposed
•A wrinkle runs from outer nose to outer lip
• Cheeks are raised
• Lower lid may show wrinkles or be tense
• Crows feet near the outside of the eyes

15. Happiness versus FAKE Happiness
The expression on the left is real
happiness, the one on the right is fake
happiness where the side eye muscles
are not engaged.
See the difference?

16. Be HAPPY
Anyone can fake a smile, but it’s easy to tell the
difference between real and fake happiness.
The only true indicator of happiness is when the muscles
along the sides of the eyes are activated and pulled up--if
someone’s smile isn’t reaching their eyes, it’s not genuine.
*We want to see your crows feet!

17. Sadness
• Inner corners of the eyebrows are drawn up and in
• Skin below eyebrow triangulated, with inner corner up
• Corner of the lips are drawn down
• Jaw comes up
• Lower lip pouts out
*This is the hardest microexpression to fake!

18. Contempt
Contempt is the simplest microexpression:
•One side of the mouth raises
Known also as a smirk, contempt is the ultimate negative
facial expression--it’s a signal of hatred and disdain.
Surprisingly, we see this face in a lot of profile pictures…
*Check your social media pictures to make sure you’re not
sending the wrong message out into the world!

19. Try these faces in the mirror so you can see what
they look like on yourself. Then, you will be able to
detect them in the people in your life.
*Fun Fact: if you make the facial expression, you’ll also begin to feel the
emotion yourself.

20. • If you are talking to someone about a vacation or activity you think they like, are
they showing you genuine happiness, fake happiness, disgust or another emotion?
• If you accuse someone of cheating or breaking an office rule, do they show surprise
or fear?
See if their facial expressions matches the context of the conversation or situation - you’d
be surprised to see the true emotions behind what someone is telling you.
*Sometimes knowing what expression you’re seeing is just as important as an emotion that
you’re NOT seeing!
Try it:

21. Lie Detection in 100 Minutes
Do you know when someone is lying to you?
We like to think we are great at spotting lies—but on
average we can only detect deception with about 54%
accuracy.That’s barely better than chance!
I believe learning how to spot deception is a life skill.
We should all know how to have more honest interactions.
We should all be able to protect ourselves from liars.We
should all be able to decode hidden emotions.
That is what our new course is all about.
Want to Dig a Little Deeper?

22. You Did It!
Congratulations! You have mastered the art of
reading faces.
I hope you had as much fun learning about
microexpressions as I had teaching you.
Before you go, here’s a challenge for you: on
the next reality TV show or political debate you
watch, try to see how many microexpressions
you can spot. I can promise you, it’s addicting.
Happy decoding!
xoxo,Vanessa