Danica Patrick is pictured here in a negative emotional state standing next to her boss, Tony Stewart. Although, certainly not dramatic, her eyes are definitely opened wider than normal - indicating elevated adrenaline and increased sympathetic nervous system tone. When you see this "white and wide" eye appearance - think anger, fear or surprise. If we look at Danica's mouth she has a combination of two common nonverbal displays. One is an anxiety signal - an "Inward Lip Roll" (ILR) which indicates an attempt to control the display of negative emotions. However co-existent with the ILR is a second sign, a thinning of the lips - that is, a lateral stretching to the point of almost a disappearance of the lips. When these two body language signals are superimposed - it's sometimes difficult to separate/see both, but in the real-world of course, emotions rarely occur in isolation. The star NASCAR driver is angry and she's trying to control an outward demonstration. How good are you at spotting subtle anger?
After walking away from a crash in NASCAR's Gatorade Duel on Thursday, Danica Patrick will make her first appearance in the Daytona 500 tomorrow.
____________________________________________________________________________________
