Thursday, October 14, 2010

Negotiation Secret # 64:
10% of the Face is All You Need
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.....


All you see here of Mark Webber, a formula one driver from Australia, is a fraction of his face, but that's all you need to see. Mr. Webber is clearly displaying one of two similar emotions - disgust or contempt. We see three distinct signs of these emotions: a dilation of the nostril (only one is viable), a foreshortening and tightening of the "mustache" area, and a protrusion of the lower lip.  Disgust looks identical to contempt except for one key element - contempt is almost entirely unilateral while disgust is bilateral displayed. Since we only can  see part of  his left side and none of his right - we don't know which of these emotions Mark is experiencing.

Contempt is always directed at a person (even oneself), or group of people, while disgust may also be directed at the nonliving. Perhaps he is disgusted at the rain - or he is in contempt of another driver,  but while we can't know the cause, we can be sure he is feeling one of these two negative emotions at the moment of this photo.

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