Summer Reading for Social Engineers


Five Tips for Reading Facial Expressions

Have you ever tried to figure out what it means when someone gives you "the look"?  Maybe they angry at something you did, or at something you didn't do.  Reading facial expressions is tricky, so here are 5 simple tips to make you a better "face reader". 1. Focus on emotions, specifically the basic emotions Quiz question: what is the facial expression of a liar? It's a trick question because there is no facial expression for "I'm lying to you". This highlights a classic beginner's … [Read more...]

A Facial Expression for Anxiety?

MedicalXpress is reporting on a paper that suggests a facial expression for anxiety: Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London have, for the first time, identified the facial expression of anxiety. The facial expression for the emotion of anxiety comprises an environmental scanning look that appears to aid risk assessment. Per the abstract, researchers presented 8 volunteers with emotional scenarios and had them pose facial expressions. Photographs and videos … [Read more...]

Hotspot and Facial Expression Resources

Here are a couple of resources to help with recognizing hotspots and facial expressions of emotion. Humintell has compiled a list of videos with examples of microexpressions, hotspots, gestures, and emotions. Here at Social Exploits we've been slowly building a library of "interesting faces". The collection includes various facial expressions of emotion from a variety of cultures. If you have anything you'd like to see added to this list, let us know. … [Read more...]

What Are Facial Expressions?

Facial expressions are a vital part of communication. What's funny is that most people talk about facial expressions, but they don't really know what they are. This post examines what facial expressions are in the context of nonverbal communication. Facial Movements Before we can even get into what facial expressions are, we have to understand the idea of "facial movements". A facial movement is the movement of one or more facial muscles. For example the zygomatic major muscles contract to … [Read more...]

Practical Examples of Deception Detection


Three Mistakes People Make about the 7 Basic Emotions
