Can You Read Minds?
I often do this mind-reading trick on people (normally fit girls) where I ask them to think of a vegetable then guess what it is. It works 66% of the time and it’s sensational when it does. But the rest of the time it’s like…”no, you’re just…crap”.
Of course I’m not psychic and I don’t think anyone is. It’s all about reading behaviour and using some crafty tricks. Surely with those skills I can beat 3 of the best young comedians performing at Edinburgh this year at mind reading? Referee’d by the renown mind-reader Chris Cox, who will come out on top?
I’ll start by training you all up with my findings.
I’ve started getting into Lie To Me, that American show about an expert in reading microexpressions who helps the police solve crimes. The story lines aren’t great but I find it fascinating learning about the different ‘tells’ that exist. The interesting thing about it is that all the clues he refers to – though depicted in a fictional story by actors – are all genuine, based on the studies of a smart alec fancy pants called Dr. Paul Ekman who I’ll talk about in a minute after this…
TSK TSK…BILL CLINTON
I guess the most famous instance of mind reading ‘tells’ is the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinski scandal where, when asked if he was having “sexual relations”. Naughty man. Watch this and then I’ll tell you what else he did wrong:
1. Furrowed brow, (forehead tenses up)
2. Repetition of introduction (listen and listen good..)
3. Tapping out of rythm with his speech, false outrage
4. At the end he looks down – which evidences shame
WHO IS DR.EKMAN?
Anyway Dr Ekman is basically this scientist bloke who believes there are a list of ways of spotting concealed feelings. These expressions are fleeting, lasting about 1/25th of a second, hence labeled MicroExpressions. He belives people can be trained to spot microexpressions and his findings are now used by experts – CIA, MI5… Lawyers etc.
What’s cool is, he also thinks that some people are born better at detecting lies. In 1990 he devised and enacting a test of 20,000 people in detecting microexpression. The test would involve seeing these expressions depicted for 1/25 of a second on someone’s face. Most got half right. However, 50 – without any special training – scored a 100% accuracy. He calls these people ‘Truth Wizards’. That means 0.25% of the world’s population – he believes – can read microexpressions with perfect accuracy. One of these Truth Wizards began the Eyes For Lies blog about 4 years ago.
READING BEHAVIOUR
Though these may seem obvious, remember that these expressions may only be visible for a fraction of a second. As mentioned in this detection blog and this one. According to Ekman these 7 are the basic emotions which can be dcyphered as fake or real:
Happiness – A genuine smile is evident by eyes smiling with the mouth creating “crows feet” creases along with raises cheeks
Sadness - True sadness is depicted by a lack of focus in the eyes and downturn corners of the lips
Anger – Narrowing of the lips and eyes glare solidly
Contempt – Raising of an eye brow and tilting back of the head
Disgust – raising of the front lip to reveal teeth and a wrinkling of the nose
Fear - Mouth stretched horizontally, the lower eyelids tensed, upper eyelids raised. Eyebrows raised and pushed together.
Surprise – Widening of the eyes, raised eye brows and mouth opened ajar slightly. If someone is acting surprised their eyebrows will be raised for more than a second
FASCINATING? EFF YOU!
Body language tells are another one. Typically we all know about crossing your arms to illustrate being disinterested but my favourite is the Up Yours sign. If you want to itch your nose or face in the presence of someone who is annoying you or you secretly dislike you’ll – without knowing – not use your index finger but either your middle finger or ‘V’ sign.
IT’S ALL IN THE EYES!
Derren Brown – love that guy – talks a lot about this in his book as a really reliable source of reading people’s minds. Below is what eye movement represents. Note: if you’re left handed like me, the left/rights are the other way round.
Up and to the Left: (VC) Indicates a visually constructed Images. If you asked someone to “Imagine a pink dog breakdancing”, this would be the direction their eyes moved. In their mind they are “Visually Constructing” this adorable image.
Up and to the Right: (VR) Indicates a Visually Remembered Images. If you asked Nick Griffin “When did you first realise you were a racist?”, this would be the direction their eyes moved. In their mind they are “Visually Remembering” the exact moment.
To the Left: (AC) Indicates an Auditory Construct thought. If you asked someone to “Try and create the sound of horse snarling at their latest electricity bill”, this would be the direction their eyes moved. In their mind they are imagining and creating the sound of the horse.
To the Right: (AR) Indicates an Auditory Memory. If you asked someone to “Remember what our incredibly dull British National Anthem sounds like”, this would be the direction their eyes moved in while remembering the song.
Down and to the Left: (K) Indicates a Feeling / Kinesthetic / Sensory impression that is being created. If you asked someone to “Can you remember the taste of sprouts?”, this would be the direction their eyes moved in while they recalled a smell, feeling, or taste of sprouts and go “mmm”.
Down and To the Right: (AI) Indicates an Audial/Internal dialog. This is the direction of someone’s eyes as they “talk to themselves.” Not in a mental way… but they might be.
GENERAL CLUES – LYING
+ Extended eye contact
+ Delays or hesitation – truth comes from memory and is instant
+ Repeating your words or the question sentence
+ Deflecting (dodging a question)
+ Monotonous tone
+ Allow silence – if they are lying, they will “tell” with lips tightening or upper eyelids tensing (discomfort)
+ Increased amount of swallowing -when lying we lubricate our throat more than usual
+ Excessive blinking
+ Stroking arm/hand – a sign to comfort and alleviate stress
+ Scratching neck or head – footballers ALWAYS do this in post match interviews, it means they don’t believe what they’re saying
THE TEST!
Now I’ve made you read all that you should have no problem with this!
Here it is, the microexpression test. Comedians need to be good at reading their audience and so who better than to take on but some of the best up and coming comedians performing at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival 2010. It’s also a good excuse to plug three of my favourites. I’m not totally sure I got their ages right… but check out their blogs/websites.
Below, Chris Cox (who competed in my Bob Versus Haikus blog) is a brilliant mind-reading expert and in fairness to Rhys, Spence and Laura is a proper Premier League established performer. He’s really good, I’m not just saying that. Although, if I was just saying it, you wouldn’t know because I’d probably say ‘I’m not just saying that’. But really, he’s ace. As a special guest judge/expert, he gives his views on our scores:
Spencer Owen - 22 year old performing at the… I can’t remember if is actually. I’ll update this. Meanwhile, here’s his funny youtube thing.
SCORE: 7
WHAT CHRIS SAYS – “Spencer has done well with a 7, this will help him know if someone who he’s taking the piss out of when heckling is enjoying it or about to punch him. I hope they don’t punch him, he’s funny… although if they did a-la Jim Jefferies at least he’d get some new material out of it, but in essence don’t punch him. or anyone. Punching is bad kids”
Rhys Jones - 20 year old playing the Comedy Reserve at the Pleasance Courtyard
SCORE: 8
WHAT CHRIS SAYS -”Rhys scored 8. He would win the prize (if there were one) and if I didn’t come in with my super skills and take the crown from him. Well done to him. I hope he doesn’t add mind-reading to his act.. I wouldn’t like the competition”
Laura Carr – 23 – performing at Jeckyll and Hyde theatre, Laughing Horse Free Festival in a show called ‘Funny Peculiar’
SCORE: 7
WHAT CHRIS SAYS – “My excellent mind-reader skills tell me Laura is a woman. A real life lady, and as such supposedly has better intution. He score has done her well, but she’s done worse than the men, so it might prove that intution within women is bollocks… someone once suggested to me it was stored within the breasts. I totally believe that to be bollocks. It is stored in them. Obv.”
Bob Fletcher (me) – 25 – not sure where I’m performing yet. But I will and i’ll be well good’n that. I need to sort this out actually. Bum. Look at my youtube!
SCORE: 4
WHAT CHRIS SAYS – “Now Bob has done something terrible and only got 4, this is actually worse than guessing, I feel sorry for him and his family. It does remind me that I should play poker against him sometime though”
WHAT CHRIS COX THINKS...
Here’s what HE said. He got 10 out of 10 by the way:
“I normally wouldn’t trust online experiements especially in the somewhat pseudo science are of microexpression.. it’s one of those things I say I use in my show, but also I say a lie a lot, so take of that what you will. There’s a lot to be learned from being in tune with someone and being able to pick up on their signals, in my shows I use those inbuilt techniques with other stuff to give the impression I can read minds, but I digress. I was talking about that quiz and saying normally I wouldn’t trust them and would think them to be bollocks. I however got 10 out of 10 so believe them to be amazingly accurate and show you true gods amongst men (me).
To be honest though, it’s all about gut instinct that you just train up.
So I must get to a conclusion. There is science there yes, but it’s not 100% and it’s not always accurate, but I did get all of them right, so maybe I’m wrong. Fack knows. Either way go see all these peoples shows, I’m sure they are great and save some of your money to come see my return to Edinburgh next year. ***this is me mind powering you**** mind power stuff done”
If you liked that test. Here’s another more in depth one based on ‘Lie To Me’:
Click on the picture!!
I got 60%.
So there it is. Did I really lose? Does that mean I’m not as magic or amazing as I thought? You decide. I love all this mind-reading stuff because unlike all of that psychic mumbo-jumbo it’s based in science rather than… well, bollocks. Are you on board? Do you believe it really works? Any micro-expressions or body language that I haven’t covered?
Am I psychic-ish? Am I a truth wizard? You decide! VOTE! And have a go. Post your score!
Great blog, we all know who the real winner is.
Just wanted to comment on Chris’s comment,
“I normally wouldn’t trust online experiements especially in the somewhat pseudo science area of microexpression”
Microexpressions are definitely not a psuedo-science, they are well researched, well documented and well proven aspect of emotional behaviour and facial expressions. Dr. Ekman is a [the] leading researcher in the field of human emotions and behaviour and his work is very highly respected the world over.
Anyway, really enjoying the blog