Facial expressions: what's it all about

I want to look at the issue of facial expressions, how character traits are gathered from the eyes and that vast range of accurate and less accurate information that is conveyed by the face and all its elements.

 

I can’t see the detail of faces. I don’t recognise people by their faces and can’t see facial expressions. I can just about make out a smile when I’m very close to someone, but not tell whether it is an open, rye, ironic, loving, joyful, sneering or sad one, or even a grin in one of its many guises. I can’t tell if people are sad, pissed off, contemptuous, desiring, lost, distant, upset, aloof, furious, happy, thoughtful, distracted or inspired by their face. I guess that I understand the language of facial expression through its strong place in our society, in descriptions of people, in fiction and in conversation; but I have no personal experience of them.

 

So, without seeing the face and getting only small amounts of (not always reliable) information from seeing body language, I get all my information about people, where they are from, their character, mood, background, education, personality, even whether I like, might trust, connect with  etc from their voice and how they use it.

 

So long as people make some kind of a noise (preferably vocally), I am really not sure that I am disadvantaged in making judgements about people without being able to see their faces. I haven’t undertaken any form of research on this of course, nor have I bothered to search for any in writing this (although it is bound to have been undertaken and may well  help substantiate my hunch. I guess I wonder how much it is another way that the power of perfect eyesight is exaggerated, or at least the power of other ways into learning about people, left unexplored.

 

Comments

  1. Tony9 July 2020 at 20:51

    This strikes a chord with me when politicians are on TV. Just my feeling, but some of them give out exactly those kind of vibes you discussed. And this is after they have probably had hours of vocal training and public speaking coaching. My favourite politician [of all time?] was Mo Molem - I always thought she spoke from the heart and projected sincerity. Nick Hancock on the other hand, despite his attempts to project himself as being in control and on top of things, I always think his vocal performance sounds like he is making things up as he goes along.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Are you causing trouble again?'

I can’t say how irritating, embarrassing and patronising it feels to hear the phrase: “are you causing trouble again?” used as a greeting to me in a kind of over-familiar, knowing, slightly too loud, falsely aspirant voice, intended more to be heard by others than for me.   It’s happened so many times over the years - in cafes, when I’ve been queuing at the counter, conferences when I’ve been trying to find somewhere to sit, arriving at a meeting and finding a seat or a cup of tea…   It often happens when I am in a less than familiar or uncomfortable situation , and never said by people who are close to me, but by people who don’t know how to be around me, people who perhaps have a view of me, their way of matching me with some stereotype of blind people that I can be slotted into.   I’m not a natural ‘trouble-causer’ )whatever that may be) or at least I don’t carry any trouble-causing that I might ex...
Read more

On-street greetings - continued

Following my earlier post, I realised that I hadn’t fully made my point and wanted to finish it.   Sight, with its ability to see faces, might provide ways in to a more connected experience of neighbourhood and community than blindness.  As people walk about the streets, nodding or smiling in acknowledgement of each other as they pass.  Without being able to see people’s faces, to see them making such non-verbal acknowledgement of my existence, I find walking around the streets of my neighbourhood an isolating  experience, passing countless people  in complete silence and at most moving out of each other’s way (other than those who know me). This is far more so for me in the city where there are people who won’t speak to each other, than in the countryside where I might encounter nobody.   I noticed people actually speaking to each other on the streets during lockdown – just saying ‘HI/Alright’ and hoped that the pr...
Read more

They just can't help themselves

I went for my first COVID vaccination at the beginning of March at my local health centre. After (fairly logically) queueing outside the main entrance for 10 minutes, I learned through overhearing a conversation at the front of the queue that the vaccinations were taking place in another part of the building with a different entrance. The health centre  had not thought to communicate this to their patients in advance as the written signs were expected to do the trick for everyone. The receptionist on the door apparently suffered from the (not uncommon) white stick blindness, and I realised that she was using gesticulations to indicate the direction I needed. After having explained that the white stick meant that I couldn’t see enough to follow her directions, I eventually found my own way to the correct (tucked away and locked) entrance. I (perhaps too politely) suggested that it would have been helpful if they could have tagged visually impaired patients in their database gi...
Read more