Hello, dear reader! Both you and I are interested in a fundamental question: how to distinguish people with psychopathic traits from ordinary people and tell them apart from hidden or insecure individuals who cannot behave naturally in society. Currently, we are interested in their facial expressions. Recognizing the manipulative use of facial expressions can be difficult, especially if a person controls their facial expressions well. However, several signs can help detect manipulation:
1. Powerful emotions, such as joy, anger, or disgust. Emotions that are too strong or too weak compared to what is expected can indicate attempts to manipulate you, especially if such reactions are aimed at eliciting sympathy or guilt.
2. A too-rapid change of emotions—dull indifference can instantly turn into irritation or amusement, without the interval of “what’s happening, trying to understand.” This happens because psychopaths flatly assess the surrounding world, immediately assigning it a label of “good” or “bad”. Where an ordinary person tries to figure things out, a carrier of psychopathic traits has already “understood.”
3. Cynicism and mockery—it can be said that this is a common trait of all personalities with psychopathic traits. Since they often understand everything “clearly,” they find it amusing when people dig into either their own or others’ feelings. Psychopaths can display emotions that do not correspond to what is happening. For example, they may smile or laugh at times when most people would show seriousness or sympathy, such as if someone fell ill.
4. Primitive emotions. Psychopaths often content themselves with simple emotions, and emotions like pride, sympathy, and nostalgia—that is, emotions that have not only a biological but also a social context—are quite poorly mastered by them. The facial expressions of psychopaths may seem superficial.
5. Falseness. Psychopaths may deliberately use facial expressions to manipulate others. They may mimic emotional reactions to create a false impression or deceive. But since it’s impossible to lie all the time, they inevitably “slip up.” Pay attention if a person’s facial expressions do not match what they are saying. For example, a smile while discussing a serious or sad topic may indicate insincerity. If a person regularly uses the same facial expression in different contexts, it may be a sign that they are using this mimicry as a tool for manipulation.
6. It is believed that the face of a carrier of psychopathic traits has more uniform wrinkles, which can reveal a favorite facial expression. Studies have shown that wrinkles that arise from genuine smiles (so-called “crow’s feet” at the corners of the eyes) may be less pronounced in people who experience fewer positive emotions.
Perhaps you didn’t know, but the main differences in the facial expressions of psychopaths are SUBCONSCIOUSLY READ by all people, only they are not always correctly interpreted. We can use this by relying on our emotional perception.
Attention, how do we know something is wrong?
We feel uncomfortable with this person; we get tired of them—on a subconscious level, we read the falseness of the mimicry.
We feel uncomfortable, we tense up, we feel on guard—we catch a more frequent evil, predatory expression in the mimicry.
We feel so good with this person, unlike anyone else around, but we are not in love— they adapted to us well; we are communicating with a very good manipulator who mirrors our mimicry and intonation. A normal person can not always be understood, and it’s also not always possible to agree with them.
Neurotic personalities also express their emotions differently than we might expect. They may suppress their emotions for fear of being misunderstood or rejected. Their mimicry often reflects an inner struggle and tension, and they may try to hide any emotional expressions to avoid attention or judgment from others. Hidden neurotic individuals feel strong emotions but try to hide them. Their mimicry may be less expressive because they worry about it and try to control external manifestations, often because they want to hide their true feelings. However, their experiences are very prolonged and deep. Insecurity, fear, or irritation can be noticed in individual manifestations for a long time, even when the conversation has moved on to other topics.
These characteristics may not always be noticeable at first glance and often require deeper and more prolonged observation. It is important to remember that psychopathy is a complex and multifaceted psychological condition, and the facial expressions of one person can significantly differ from another.
In pictures of people, try to find:
1. A benevolent and manipulative smile. Note that with manipulative intent, the eyebrows tend to the center, and the eyes are wide open. With a natural friendly smile, the eyes are slightly squinted, and the eyebrows calmly diverge.
2. An unnatural and calm facial expression. The manipulator’s face is less symmetrical and the parts of the face do not express the same emotions. A truly calm person has more symmetry in the face
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