Monday, September 27, 2010

The Situation is ....



Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino from Jersey Shore is displaying classic contempt. I hope this surprises no one. The emotion of contempt is the only unilateral universal facial expression. It is often confused with a slight smile. Contempt is always directed at another person or group of people.

Contempt is such a strong emotion, that the recipient of contempt in the context of marriage, will suffer a significantly increased number and severity of illnesses for a period of four years (probably longer, but this was the duration of the study). The display of contempt will also predict marriage failure with an accuracy of 70% over three years.

Contempt is a very valuable tell in the business world as well. It is often displayed in a "Microexpression".  These extremely brief (0.04 seconds to 0.5 seconds) emotional displays (many different emotions may be displayed via microexpressions - not just contempt) are seen by only one in 300 people naturally - but virtually everyone can be trained to see them.  What are you missing?


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