166 W H A T EVERY BODY IS SAYING
expressions of children let us know if they are sad, excited, perplexed, or
nervous. We were never specifically taught how to generate or translate
these facial behaviors, and yet we all know them, perform them, inter-
pret them, and communicate through them.
With all the various muscles that precisely control the mouth, lips, eyes,
nose, forehead, and jaw, human faces are richly endowed to produce an
immense variety of expressions. It is estimated that humans are capable of
more than ten thousand different facial expressions (Ekman, 2003, 14–15).
This versatility makes nonverbals of the face very effective, extremely
efficient, and, when not interfered with, quite honest. Happiness, sad-
ness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, joy, rage, shame, anguish, and interest are
universally recognized facial expressions (Ekman, 2003, 1–37). Discom-
fort—whether on the face of a baby, a child, a teenager, an adult, or the
elderly—is recognized around the globe; likewise we can distinguish the
expressions that let us know all is well.
While our faces can be very honest in displaying how we feel, they do
not always necessarily represent our true sentiments. This is because we
can, to a degree, control our facial expressions and, thus, put on a false
front. From an early age, we are taught by our parents not to make faces
when we don’t like the food in front of us, or we are compelled to fake a
smile when greeting someone we don’t like. In essence, we are taught to
lie with our faces, and so we become quite adept at hiding our true senti-
ments facially, even though they occasionally do leak out.
When we lie using our faces, we are often said to be acting; obvi-
ously, world-class actors can adopt any number of faces to create fic-
tional feelings on demand. Unfortunately, many people, especially con
men and other more serious social predators, can do the same thing.
They can put on a false face when they are lying, conniving, or trying to
influence the perception of others through false smiles, fake tears, or
deceiving looks.
Facial expressions can still provide meaningful insights into what a
person is thinking and feeling. We simply have to be mindful that these
signals can be faked, so the best evidence of true sentiment is derived
from clusters of behaviors, including facial and body cues, that buttress