Social Engineering - Christopher Hadnagy [70]
From a social engineering standpoint, knowing how to detect and also create a real smile is a valuable piece of information. A social engineer wants a target to be put at ease, so as to have the greatest positive effect on the target. Social engineers in any form, whether they are salespeople, teachers, psychologists, or any other social engineer, often start off a conversation with a smile. Quickly our brains analyze how we feel about that visual input given to us and it can affect the rest of the interaction.
A lot of information is packed into the preceding section, yet you may be wondering how social engineers can train themselves not only to see microexpressions but also how to use them.
Figure 5-15: His whole face is involved in his smile.
Training Yourself to See Microexpressions
Hollywood often overstates the abilities of the characters that appear in movies and television. For example, in the new hit television show Lie To Me (based on Dr. Ekman’s research) the main character, Dr. Lightman, can read microexpressions with seemingly no effort, and what is even more amazing is he usually can tell why the emotion is occurring.
Yet in real life, much of the research done by those in the field, like Dr. Ekman, meant sitting in front of prerecorded sessions and analyzing these sessions frame by frame. After many years of working on this task he is probably able to notice, pick up, and analyze microexpressions very quickly. In the 1970s he did a research project where he identified some who had a natural ability to notice and correctly analyze microexpressions.
Because many of us might not fall into that natural ability category we need a way to practice, train, and become proficient at performing, reading, and using microexpressions. I can tell you what works for me. I read the methods on how a particular microexpression is identified, then practice reproducing it using a mirror, comparing my expression to the notes from the professionals that describe how it is done. I usually have a picture that shows the emotion I am working on because having something to mimic helps me.
After I feel relatively good about reproducing the microexpression I focus on how it makes me feel, tweaking small areas until the muscular movements cause me to feel the matching emotions.
I then scour the Internet looking for pictures and try to identify the expressions in those pictures. Next, I record news or television shows and play certain parts in slow motion with the sound off to see if can determine the emotion, then listen to the story to see if I was close. All this leads up to working with live “subjects.” I watch people interact with each other and try to identify the emotions they are feeling during their discussions. I try both with being able to hear the conversation and also without being able to.
The reason I chose this path before trying to read microexpressions in my own conversations is that I found that trying to do it in a live environment without having to also focus on making good conversation is easier. I just read the facial expressions and do not get confused by other sensory input. The preceding method is the one I used before I had a chance to meet Dr. Ekman and be introduced to his training methods. Of course, he has books that contain step-by-step instructions on recreating and reading these expressions. His books also include pictures showing the emotions as well as examples in the news that show those emotions. His book Emotions Revealed does this in a very professional format that is excellent for learning.
In recent years Dr. Ekman has developed and released training specifically for microexpressions. His website, www.paulekman.com, has three different types of training that have changed the way people can learn this powerful science.
Ekman’s training gives the user a lesson on each type of