98 • WINNING BODY LANGUAGE
Psychologists too have been studying the human face and scrutinizing its potential hidden code for decades. The face is the most extraordinary communicator, capable of signaling emotion accurately in the blink of an eye, but capable of concealing emotion equally well. As Ekman states in his 1997 book What the Face Reveals, “The face is equipped to lie the most and leak the most, and thus can be a very confusing source of information.” Mixed Messages It would seem that although humans are an intensely social species, and as such are reliant on communication, we are also designed to give mixed messages: combinations of gestures that conceal (or secretly reveal) our intention, our motivation, and the inner workings of our minds. This duplicity is in our very nature. Before we look at the human face in detail to discover what nonverbal messages we send with any sense of accuracy and assurance about their meaning, let’s look at the head area in general and find out what can be done with this physical space in order to communicate our messages nonverbally.
Head Space You will remember that as human beings, we get a great deal of our information about the world through what we see. We are able to detect patterns through our sight and instantly make judgments based on past experience, or to use instinctual behavior to determine the appropriate action or reaction for us. However, when we listen, the information travels to and is processed by our brain at a much slower rate. Because of the relative complexity of sound compared to vision, we rely on supplementing the understanding that we receive from sound with the