The ‘Start from tomorrow’ trap

How many times have you heard someone, or even yourself, say, “I’ll start from tomorrow” or “I’ll start from Monday” or “I’ll start from next month” when there’s some new habit to form or a new project to work on? What is behind this common human tendency? I’m not talking here about procrastination which is a general term

Mixed and masked facial expressions (Explained)

face grid

A mixed facial expression is the one that someone makes when they’re experiencing two or more emotions at the same time. A masked facial expression results from suppression, conscious or unconscious, of an emotion. Masked facial expressions usually manifest as weak expressions of the emotion but sometimes we also use opposite facial expressions for masking. For

How we express disapproval with the mouth

When you’re angry, how do you express disapproval or threaten the person who caused your anger using your mouth? That’s easy; you press your lips together strongly in an attempt to show determination- a determination to take action against the person. But what happens when you are extremely angry, the I’m-going-to-eat-you-alive type of angry? When you’re

Why do we raise our eyebrows to greet others

When we greet others from a distance, we give them a slight head nod or we raise our eyebrows very briefly, the latter resulting in an expression known as the ‘eyebrow flash’. In an ‘eyebrow flash’, the eyebrows rise rapidly for a split second and then drop again. The purpose of the ‘eyebrow flash’ is to draw

Eye contact in attraction

One of the major reasons why eyes are the most revealing and accurate communication tools is pupil dilation, a phenomenon that occurs unconsciously. Following are some of the situations in which our pupils dilate: When we are in a dimly lit room, our pupils dilate so that the maximum amount of light enters the eyes and

Eye contact body language (Why it matters)

In this article, we’ll look at eye contact body language or how people use their eyes to communicate with each other. Eyes have been aptly described as windows to the soul for they communicate so much information that spoken words sometimes seem like an unnecessary faculty in our communication repertoire, only causing more confusion and misunderstanding. Eyes,

Fake smile vs real smile

Imagine how cool it would be if you were able to clearly distinguish easily between a real smile and a fake smile. You’d be able to know when someone is genuinely pleased with you and when someone wants you to think they’re genuinely pleased with you. First off we need to know what a real smile looks like so

Why do people smile?

woman smiling

When someone smiles at you, it tells you very clearly that the person acknowledges you and approves of you. No one can deny how good it feels to give and receive a smile. You can never expect harm from a smiling person. A smile makes us feel really good, secure, and comfortable. But why is that? What’s the

Sad facial expression decoded

In this article, we’ll look at how people display the facial expression of sadness by going over different parts of the face one by one. Eyebrows The inner corners of the eyebrows are angled upward forming an inverted ‘V’ above the nose. This angling upward of the eyebrows produces wrinkles on the forehead that are

Fear facial expression analyzed

facial expression of fear

In this article, we’ll analyze the facial expressions of fear and surprise. We’ll look at how the different facial areas appear in these two emotions. The facial expressions of fear and surprise are very similar and, hence, often confused with each other. When you’re done with this article, you’ll be able to recognize the facial