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25th out of 59 books
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31 voters
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Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life
by
Paul Ekman
“Beautifully interweaves research with anecdotes, recommendations, and the behind-the-scenes flubs, accidental discoveries and debates . . . that are the essence of scientific inquiry.” —Scientific American
A renowned expert in nonverbal communication, Paul Ekman led a revolution in our scientific understanding of emotions. In Emotions Revealed, he assembles his resear...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
March 1st 2004
by Owl Books
(first published April 7th 2003)
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Starfire
rated it
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in Lie to Me, anyone interested in non-verbal communication
Probably unsurprisingly, given my interests and passions, I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Paul Ekman, who is the real-life inspiration behind Lie to Me's Cal Lightman (well, up to the end of s1 anyway)
The book felt like it was really in two parts - one was theoretical and covered the concepts of what exactly emotions are (generally and in specific), the research behind claiming that certain emotions are universal, and the possible evolutionary usefulness of both emotion in general,...more
The book felt like it was really in two parts - one was theoretical and covered the concepts of what exactly emotions are (generally and in specific), the research behind claiming that certain emotions are universal, and the possible evolutionary usefulness of both emotion in general,...more
Crazy interesting! It's not a practical guide with a specific purpose to detect lies or read minds but it's facinating to learn about human expressions and emotions. Understanding that many expressions are involuntary, universal, and how we often miss them. Even tho we make expressions naturally, we're often ill equipped to understand other people's expressions with poor information and really no system of understanding. The book describes the research in the first few chapters and then delves i...more
Ekman shows how facial expressions and emotions are virtually inseparable, even if it’s just for a millisecond, and even if we are totally unaware of it, our emotions beam through every muscle fiber in our face. Even if we try to control it, these micro expressions peak for just a fraction of second, for most of us. He traveled to parts of the world, such as New Guinea, where some groups of cultures are cut off from the rest of the world. He found that even these people can recognize the emotion...more
I wasn't a huge fan of this book... I notice a lot of people read it because the author is involved in a TV program. I'm giving it two stars because it did have a smattering of information buried under all his anecdotes and repetitive reminders. I don't disagree with him at all about his main point, which is that facial expressions emotions are universal. The best part of the book was probably the pictures of the different expressions or partial expressions. I highlighted a few things that I tho...more
Paul Ekman is the dean of researchers who have studied emotional expressions in human faces, and branching out from his original research, he's practically turned into a living enterprise of his own, using his method of facial expression analysis to hold training seminars and work with the government on methods to detect liars.
But his original contribution was rooted in the debates of the 1950s led by such anthropologists as Margaret Mead, who argued that all human behavior, includin...more
But his original contribution was rooted in the debates of the 1950s led by such anthropologists as Margaret Mead, who argued that all human behavior, includin...more
Paul Ekman has made his life's work scientifically studying emotions -- how they play over the face, how to detect them reliably, when people are lying and how to detect that, and so on. This book is a fair compendium of his findings. Most of the material in it he's covered in other books, but he has gathered everything here with the purpose of improving one's emotional life. He focuses a good deal on control and awareness of emotions; the bad news is that he concludes that both are very diffi...more
This book combines several topics I am very interested in. The first is universal cultural traits, which I learned a little bit about and became interested in when we were discussing evolutionary psychology in my science and philosophy of sex and love class; the second is reading people's emotions, particularly regarding negative emotions. This book combines those two elements to look at the physical signifiers of various emotions, and how to recognize and respond to them (if you've seen Lie to ...more
I find this book to be extremely interesting and mind - grabbing. I used to be obsessed with a show called "Lie to Me" about a psychologist who solved crimes by reading people's facial expressions. Paul Ekman is the actual man in real life who assists the FBI in interrogations by reading people's facial expressions and looking at what their emotions are. in this book, "Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve" Ekman provides his secrets and background info...more
This is an excellent psychology book. Ekman's style is personable and laid-back. By being completely honest about how much of his own research he is citing (and when he's referring to his own hunches), he retains academic transparency, and by clearly describing ways to recognize emotions in others, he imparts the beginning of a skill set everyone should know. I'm grateful that at least someone in psychology has managed to find a way to train people to learn a skill through psychology research, a...more
I was watching tv and saw a show that is based on the stuff in this book. The show is called Lie To Me. This book tells you which facial muscles move involuntarily when you are feeling particular emotions. These movements don't reveal truth or lies, instead they tell you whether or not the emotional response is real or faked. I would have given this book more stars if it didn't have references to the Dali Lama. What the hell does the that dude have to do with this stuff? Maybe the Berkeley campu...more
Victor Barger
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Victor by:
Jana Stadtmueller
Shelves:
psychology
Paul Ekman leverages his research on facial expressions to explore human emotion in Emotions Revealed. At the most basic level, the book serves as a guide to perceiving and understanding emotions in oneself and others. More thought-provoking, though, are Ekman's insights into emotion as a driver of behavior and his conjectures as to the evolutionary bases for emotion. For the motivated reader, references to academic research are provided.
I was only suppose to read part of this book for my B&B project. I admit, I didn't read the entire thing but what I have read was so interesting. I learned so much about the way people and myself act. Our emotions control so much of our lives and our interactions with people. If people could just understand their emotions better, I bet they can definitely lead better lives. If not better lives, more observant lives.
Great book. Pretty fast-past and lots of scientific fact. I thought ...more
Great book. Pretty fast-past and lots of scientific fact. I thought ...more
I've been meaning to read this book for years, ever since back in 2006 when I was immersed in the realm of conflict resolution and mediation. It's certainly interesting and a worthwhile read - I believe that we all (except the Buddhist monks out there) can do more to understand emotions, how they affect us, and how they affect our relationship with others.
I expected this book to go into much more detail about how our face reflects our emotions. Instead, the book is more appropriately...more
I expected this book to go into much more detail about how our face reflects our emotions. Instead, the book is more appropriately...more
Emotions Revealed by Paul Ekman (pp 320)
Paul Ekman is the scientist who pioneered face mapping and the term, “micro expressions”. The Fox television program, Lie to Me, is based on his work. This book is a solid, very readable overview of the major categories of emotion and how they read universally across peoples faces. If you’ve been watching the program, you see how some of the material is inspired by the more academic material in the book.
What could be dry and mech...more
Paul Ekman is the scientist who pioneered face mapping and the term, “micro expressions”. The Fox television program, Lie to Me, is based on his work. This book is a solid, very readable overview of the major categories of emotion and how they read universally across peoples faces. If you’ve been watching the program, you see how some of the material is inspired by the more academic material in the book.
What could be dry and mech...more
Great content, but sometimes dull and slow (3.5)--
The content is fascinating, but at times, especially the first 4 chapters, it was really slow going and made me nod off more than a few times.
The chapters on sadness/agony, anger, fear/surprise, disgust/contempt, and enjoyable emotions, however, are excellent and I was all attention as I gobbled up the tremendously practical information about each emotion and corresponding facial expression.
The descriptions of ...more
The content is fascinating, but at times, especially the first 4 chapters, it was really slow going and made me nod off more than a few times.
The chapters on sadness/agony, anger, fear/surprise, disgust/contempt, and enjoyable emotions, however, are excellent and I was all attention as I gobbled up the tremendously practical information about each emotion and corresponding facial expression.
The descriptions of ...more
I first read about Paul Ekman in Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article that spawned his latest book, Blink. In the article, Gladwell writes that Ekman was one of the first scientists to study how facial expressions convey emotion. Emotions Revealed describes Ekman's work in detail, and provides insight into the facial indicators to look for in order to determine the emotion that a person is feeling.
The book was slow in places, but mostly because Ekman provided significant discussio...more
The book was slow in places, but mostly because Ekman provided significant discussio...more
This book was not as interesting as I thought it was going to be. The TV Show "Lie to Me" is based on Mr. Ekman and his science of reading faces. After reading this book, I definitely know more about emotions and why they are triggered and how to better communicate with people who are emotional, but I can't say that I am any better at recognizing the subtle signs of emotions people are trying to hide. I'm still as clueless as ever on picking up subtle and not so subtle hints that pe...more
Pretty interesting book, and an easy read. Ekman briefly goes over the history of his study of emotion and facial expression across cultures and then delves into major emotions one by one. For each emotion (anger, fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, etc) he describes some physiological reactions we have and then also goes through the very specific muscles that are used in expressing each.
There was an overwhelming amount of information about the expressions, so I was not able to walk away ...more
There was an overwhelming amount of information about the expressions, so I was not able to walk away ...more
Perhaps I had unfair expectations of this book but with the claim of "the science behind Lie to Me" I thought there'd be a bit more science. I'm training to be a clinical psychologist and hoped this book would help me read my clients better. The author's style was tough to interpret as science and every claim seemed to come with a disclaimer of "but we just can't be sure and it could be something else- more research needed." Emotions are complicated and maybe we just don't...more
This new edition of Ekman's 2007 book remains an interesting resource for those interested innon-verbal cues. His study of facial language and its relationship to emotions is comprehensive and intriguing. Readers will not only find their intuitive senses about what peoples' facial expression reveal affirmed, but will likely also find themselves experimenting with their own expressions to test the theories. His new chapter on emotions and lying is somewhat disappointing as it is essentially a ...more
I think I learned a lot from this book about facial expressions and a bit about emotional triggers. You have explanations for making facial expressions for each of the basic universal emotions. However, I found sometimes the arguments were a bit shallow and not well-expressed (such as correlation vs causation).
My fascination with the show "Lie to Me" led me to this book. I believe we often relay much more by our body language and facial expressions than with our words. Ekman has collaborated with other psychologists and researchers over the years to document his findings. I feel they are pretty sound. He discusses the difference between emotions and moods, what "auto-appraisers" are and how we use them to determine our emotions, consciously or not, and how we can tap into our "...more
Paul Ekman has done a lot of research on how to detect various emotions based on people's facial expressions. In this book he discusses some of these emotions, and presents corresponding photos of these faces with a detailed discussion of which facial muscles are involved etc. I had really high expectations from this book but was left somewhat disappointed after reading it. I found his advice on how to recognize emotions a bit too superficial and the examples he gave were neither enough nor as c...more
Totally fascinating and extremely hard to do. Still, learning the universality of signaling is a lesson in and of itself. What Every Body is Saying, might be a better book for actually attempting to "detect" liars, but Paul Ekman is the man.
This book covers Ekman's research more than it offers helpful tips. Still, the exercises in reading expressions along with his briefly-explained theory about the efficacy of zen-style meditation made this book worth the read for me.
First chapter, while interesting, read like a white paper. Too much emphasize on proving himself right vs. those that didn't agree with his theory. Too academic. Might improve later but not in the mood to study.
An interesting and thought provoking book. Discusses and defines the common emotions, and describes the various facial expressions assigned to those common emotions. Oddly I have read and seen other books on body posture or body language, but have never ran across a book that describes the facial expressions until I got this one, and isn't that the most obvious place to look for clues about what someone else is thinking or feeling ? What a great idea. The writer of this book is the person who in...more
why: Nicky added to his shelf. I like understanding how people, including myself, feel. I think emotions and relationships are the most powerful parts of our lives.
Emotions revealed brings us a brief explanation about facial recognition. If you are looking for F.A.C.E. you should read others publications and book from the same writer.
What Ekman tries to bring us (and he does) is what he and others scientists found about emotions, emotions triggers and reactions. A good book for those who don't want just to become a "lie detector machine" (like the Lie To Me drama).
What Ekman tries to bring us (and he does) is what he and others scientists found about emotions, emotions triggers and reactions. A good book for those who don't want just to become a "lie detector machine" (like the Lie To Me drama).
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American psychologist that pioneered the study of emotions' relationship to facial expressions.
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“Emotions can override…the more powerful fundamental motives that drive our lives: hunger, sex, and the will to survive. People will not eat if they think the only food available is disgusting. They may even die, although other people might consider that same food palatable. Emotion triumphs over the hunger drive! A person may never attempt sexual contact because of the interference of fear or disgust, or may never be able to complete a sexual act. Emotion triumphs over the sex drive! And despair can overwhelm even the will to live, motivating a suicide. Emotions triumph over the will to live!”
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