In this episode we explore emotions and facial expression in depth with one of the world’s top experts - the psychologist who pioneered much of the work in this field - Dr. Paul Ekman. We discuss the 6-7 major universal emotions, how emotional reactions are unchanged across cultures, ages, and even species, we discuss micro expressions, reading people’s faces, how to manage and control your emotions, and much much more. 

  

 Dr. Paul Ekman is best known for his work as a pioneer researching the field of emotions and how they relate to our facial expressions and as founder of the Paul Ekman Group. These studies along with many others led to Paul being named one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine and One of the Most Influential Psychologist of the 20th Century by the American Psychological Association. Paul has written over 14 books and 170 published articles having his work appear in Psychology Today, The New Yorker, Oprah, Larry King, and more.Reading facial expressions with definitive evidenceThere is some universality to our expressions across cultures, ages, and even species Expressions are a product of evolution There are 6-7 major universal emotions

FearAngerSadnessDisgustSurpriseEnjoyment

Contempt (maybe not as robust evidence)You have to avoid “Othello’s error” - you can read an emotion, but that doesn’t tell you what TRIGGERS itThe face, as a universal signal system, conveys a tremendous amount of informationThere are 16 different types of enjoymentHow poker tells can teach us about emotional expressions and how we often read them wrongWe can know HOW people feel, but we cannot know what triggered how they feelIn one hour you can learn to read anyone's faceThe hardest emotion to turn on is enjoymentEmotions are memories, expectations, changes in what we think, and changes in how we can rememberWhen we are in the grip of an emotion - we most readily perceive things that fit the emotion we are experiencing and ignore things that don'tIt’s not easy to manage your emotions, but it is possibleFast onset vs slow onset emotional reactivenessFast vs slow emotional offsetThe specific steps you can take to manage your emotions and create a gap between emotional triggers and emotional reactionsDiary / journal is a powerful tool for understanding and managing your emotional statesRecord negative emotional experiencesSee what they have in commonSee if you can anticipate and prepare for negative emotionsEmotion is useful, powerful, but also can become cumbersome

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