The Ultimate Body Language Book

useful skill in reading people. Being able to detect fake emotions can help us decide who we can trust
and who is actually in agreement with us, versus those who are simply faking it. Liars and their body
language are covered more extensively later in the book, so it is of no direct concern here. Rather, here
we present rules of thumb that help us decide if facial expressions and emotions such as fear, sadness,
happiness, shame, guilt and disgust are real and genuine or feigned. Emotional fakery of sadness is
used to generate sympathy in order to gain various resources, and fake sadness is used to generate
leniency and therefore receive help in the form of favours. Being able to detect real from fake is a
useful skill because it gives the body language reader the power to decide what course of action is
merited.
So how can we tell if a facial expression is fake versus real? While body language readers can never
really know for certain, the face does subconsciously give us some clues that it’s not being honest. For
example, a fake emotion is one where there are symmetrical differences between the right and left side
of the face. That is, when the left and right side don’t match. A smiling face, where the smile is uneven
is a perfect example of a false smile and one that was covered in great detail earlier. The second telltale
sign of a fake expression is when it appears and disappears in a jerky, non-fluid manner. This tells us
there is doubt and uncertainty. The third cue that an emotion is faked has to do with eye movements
and directions. Looking downward and away indicates shame, guilt or disgust, looking down indicates
sadness. The final way to detect false emotions is by catching those that seem to be held for too long, or
seem over-exaggerated. Expressions that are so big that they are “over-the-top” or seem “out of this
world” and don’t flow with context or match timing expectations, meaning they don’t go with what is
being said, are more than likely fake.
The fear facial expression.
Sadness.
Other times, emotions are difficult to decipher. For example, when the eyebrows go up, they sometimes
indicate fear, but other times they are raised to indicate surprise. Fear is usually shown by showing the
whites of the eyes, raising the upper eyelids, raising the inner brow and tightening the eyelid. However
it is important to note that raising the inner brow can show sadness, lowering the brow can show anger
or mental effort and tightening the eyelid can show anger or disgust.