For me, the most interesting thing about science is the journey of discovery. I love hearing about how things were discovered more than just what was discovered. I think that knowing a bit about the personal journey of the scientist really ads to the understanding of the discovery in many ways.
That's what I really like about this interview with Paul Ekman. Paul Ekman pioneered the science of facial expressions. His work is really fascinating, and I've been meaning to find out more about it for a while. In this video he talks about his career and how he came to do research on the face.
(56mins)
Ekman and Co. have a CD-ROM out that trains people to recognise facial expressions better (particularly micro-expressions). I ordered it a few months back to have a play with. It is pretty cool. The software flashes images of parts of faces at you and you have to quickly identify the emotion (e.g., happy eyes, disgusted eyes, angry eyes). It didn't take long to master. Sadly, I don't really feel like I've gained any psychological superpowers from it. Although, i'm now always sure to crinkle my eyes when faking a smile.
Ekman also has a photographic exhibition on at the moment I believe.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Interesting Psych Video: Interview with Paul Ekman on the Science of Faces
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2 comments:
I saw that program but it got me into a lot of trouble when i accused somebody of gross insincerity because their eyes did not crinkle. To my embarrassment they were actually on speed at the time and had no control of their facial expressions or indeed their emotions. Boy did we have a laugh later on when they came down
LOL!
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