The Truth is Written on Your Face: Paul Ekman

*Photo credit of www.paulekman.com

The act of lying comes up frequently in our lives whether we care to admit it or not. We tell lies to impress, lies to fool, lies to hide, lies to hurt, and lies to heal. Sometimes they are thought out, and other times they occur almost naturally. Some of these lies are attacked the second they leave the lips, diminished by the opposition. Others, linger for minutes, hours, days, and years with or without ever being discovered. They can have zero impact, or change a life.

 Paul Ekman once stated, “Most lies succeed because no one goes through the work to figure out how to catch them”. Ekman has spent the better part of his life analyzing an action that far too many of us know all too well. He has spent his time serving as a human lie detector through the study of the psychology behind lies, particularly the facial expressions and language linked to this sinful act. While he has an extensive background in various areas of psychology, his connections to the US military, and political observations, allow him to stand out from the typical researcher.

            Early years. After having a typical childhood in Washington D.C., Ekman began his journey in psychology as an undergraduate student at University of Chicago and New York University. Immediately after his undergraduate studies he obtained a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Adelphi University, which he completed in 1958. Upon his graduation, he completed a short internship, and then embarked on an opportunity that arguably shaped the figure that he was. He spent two years as a clinical psychology officer for the United States Army.

While his studies as a student had been on emotions and body movement, something quite similar to his latter work, his work in the military looked at various impacts that the military had on its soldiers, and sparked Ekman’s interest in involving the government, and our soceity’s safety in his work, and was his first challenge on the American government. While the country had a notion that the Army was a positive influence on men of this time, Ekman proved otherwise. He noted that after a few weeks of basic infantry training, “Aggressive, impulsive and energetic features did become slightly more prominent. The recruits appeared less prone to examine their own responsibility for conflicts, and more ready to react aggressively” (Psychological Reactions to Infantry Basic Training 1972).

            Facial Expression. His career really took off with purpose and definition upon his return to civilian life. He worked for forty years at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, and completed the majority of his research and publication here. While the climax of his career connects lying with certain expressions, thus allowing him and trained others to serve as lie detectors. Before getting into specifics, Ekman studied reading faces. One of his first great points, was that facial expressions are synonymous throughout the world, and even with other creatures. He expressed that, “In business and in life, it doesn’t matter what language you speak, where you live, what you do for a living – the facial expressions you show for anger, dear, sadness, disgust, surprise, contempt, and happiness will be the same. You share these expressions with all human beings, and many of them with the great apes” (Becoming Versed in Reading Faces 2009). He introduced a tool, The Micro Expression Training Tool (METT), that allows individuals to recognize the above emotions in a split second before the subjects thoughts and actions can be used to cover them. In regards to the study of faces, Ekman voices a strong opinion when he states, “ You may not always be please by what you’ll see if you use METT. You may not want to know that your guests didn’t really think your joke was funny, your children are hiding how they feel about something, your spouse is not being forthright…But once learned you can’t turn it off. You’ll always be aware of the emotions others are trying to conceal from you…we’re better off knowing how people are feeling, if we’re careful not to confront them, and not to use that knowledge for exploitive purposes” (Becoming Versed in Reading Faces 2009).  Without a doubt, this breakthrough, and development of the METT, was a large stepping stone for Ekman. And provided proof in the practicality of his work. Not only does he write in a way that is understood by all, by he makes it appealing to people of all sorts. He does not spend his time studying the rare illnesses that present themselves once in lifetime, but rather reveals truths about the human being that everyone faces every single day.

            One significant study that Ekman did while observing facial expressions was done with twins. He wanted to look at if genetics played a part in what would stimulate a positive or negative response. He used twins that were reared separately, in order to ensure that environment was not a factor. The twins were shown films, and their reactions were recorded. He found that while intensity of the emotions being linked was hard to argue, the simple idea of positive and negative emotion was displayed at the same moments. This was stronger in monozygotic twins, but presented itself in all pairs (The Similarity of Facial Expressions in Response to Emotion-inducing Films in Reared-apart Twins 2007).  Again, while still remaining scientific, Ekman revealed some practical knowledge that could be used for parenting or working with twins.

            Lying. At the root of his significance, and behind the well-known television show Lie to Me, is Dr. Ekman’s research on lying. His findings have been used to aid in airport security, governmental training, judicial affairs, psychological screenings, and most importantly, in the everyday application of the American people. He has appeared on countless televison programs to present this work, such as 20/20, Good Morning America, Dateline, and even Oprah. His published work has printed in many countries, and has been presented to Americans in the New York Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker, and many more. The most well-known impact of his work is in Tom Roth’s character on Fox’s Lie to Me. This character’s ability to read emotions, and detect liars aids just about any large agency that may need him from the government to a private firm. This character is based upon the life of Paul Ekman, and his research.

            All of these great achievements stemmed from the research Ekman did on facial expression. This lead to his wonder of how this may connect to lying. Ekman does not claim that he can detect all liars, but rather suggests that if a lie provokes emotion in a human being, that emotion, before the individual may even realize it is present, may be detected and read, thus aiding us in recognizing a lie. This recognition is summed up as Ekman writes, The training I offer to law enforcement alerts people to the most subtle signs of emotion. These are by definition very small and restricted to but one region of the face. There may be a movement, barely noticeable, in the chin, lips, cheeks, lower or upper eyelids, or brows. When these slight movements appear in this isolated way, they signal that an emotion is just beginning. The person showing the expression may not yet be aware of feeling an emotion; that may not register in consciousness for many more seconds. These subtle expressions also may occur as what I have called 'leakage' - all that escapes deliberate attempts to conceal any sign of what is being felt. Usually missed, once you have learnt to read facial movements, you should begin to recognize them” (Would you Lie to Me? 2003). This application has been rapidly applied to many systems worldwide, even our judicial system here in America. Ekman humbly expresses again that this tactic is not the final say, but rather an aid as he explains, “I do not believe that judgments about who is lying should be allowable evidence in court. Such judgments, however, may provide a sounder basis for deciding, at least initially, whom to investigate further, and when to ask more questions to clarify why something unusual has been noticed” (Becoming Versed in Reading Faces 2009).

            In one significant study, Ekman used police officers and psychologists to explore his methods. In the past he had used Secret Service agents, and government officials, but was worried that their prior training may be impacting their ability to read the subjects in a positive way. Again, Ekman wanted to make strides to streamline his findings for the better of the people of our society. He found that after just one day of training, taught by Ekman himself, these individuals were able to detect possible liars in an easier fashion via video tape and person (A Few Can Catch a Liar 1999). These findings were crucial because they lead to continued training of many types of people .

            More contributions. Aside from Ekman’s obvious contribution in regards to reading expressions and lies, he also used his knowledge to better many. He has taught at the University of California for decades, fostering the learning of many young psychologists. He developed the Paul Ekman Group, LLC, that trains people in emotional skills, and does extensive research for national security and law enforcement. He has over 100 publications, that are all written in common language, and very understandable to the average educated citizen, which makes his work accessible to all, and at age seventy-eight, he still continues to aid society in understanding the common act of lying.  

            Paul Ekman once said, “Most liars can fool most people most of the time”, but with his research and widespread communication of knowledge, he has set out to change that. He has proposed that with the proper training, most people, can detect most lies, most of the time.

Works Cited:

Ekman, Paul. "A Few Can Catch a Liar." Psychological Science 10.3 (1999): 135-265.  Print.

Ekman, Paul. "Becoming Versed in Reading Faces." Entrepreneur  (2009). Print.

Ekman, Paul. "Psychological Reactions to Infantry Basic Training." (1971): 1-6. Print.

Ekman, Paul. "The Similarity of Facial Expressions in Response to Emotion-inducing Films in Reared-         

         apart Twins." Psychological Medicine 38 (2007): 1475-483. Print.

Ekman, Paul. "Why Don't We Catch Liars." Social Research 63.3  (1996): 802-18. Print.

Ekman, Paul. "Would You Lie to Me?" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 26 Apr. 2003. Web.        

          20 Mar. 2012.  <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/apr/27/ukcrime9>.

Paul Ekman. Paul Ekman Group LLC, 2011. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. <http://www.paulekman.com>.