Page 71 - Malcolm Gladwell - Talking to Strangers

This is what’s called a Duchenne smile. It’s what a genuine smile looks like. In technical terms, it’s
AU 12 plus AU 6—meaning that it is a facial movement involving the outer portion of the
orbicularis oculi muscle, raising the cheeks and creating those telltale crow’s-feet around the eyes.

FACS is an extraordinarily sophisticated tool. It involves cataloging—in exacting detail—
thousands of muscular movements, some of which may appear on the face for no more than a
fraction of a second. The FACS manual is over five hundred pages long. If Fugate had done a FACS
analysis of the entire “Girl Who Hits Joey” episode, it would have taken her days, so I asked her to
focus just on that opening scene: Ross sees Chandler and Rachel embracing, then rushes over in
anger.
Here’s what she found.
When Ross looks through the cracked door and sees his sister in a romantic embrace with his
best friend, his face shows action units 10 + 16 + 25 + 26: That’s the upper-lip raiser (levator labii
superioris, caput infraorbitalis), the lower-lip depressor (depressor labii), parted lips (depressor labii,
relaxed mentalis or orbicularis oris), and jaw drop (relaxed temporal and internal pterygoid).
In the FACS system, muscular movements are also given an intensity measure from A to E, with
A being mildest and E strongest. All of Ross’s four muscle movements, in that moment, are Es. If
you go back and watch that Friends episode, and freeze the screen at the moment when Ross looks
through the door frame, you’ll see exactly what the FACS coders are describing. He has an
unmistakable look on his face of anger and disgust.
Ross then rushes into Monica’s apartment. The tension in the scene is accelerating, and so are
Ross’s emotions. Now his face reads: 4C + 5D + 7C + 10E + 16E + 25E + 26E. Again, four Es!
“[AU] 4 is a brow-lowerer,” Fugate explains.
That’s what you do when you furrow your brow. Seven is an eye squint. It’s called “lid-
tightener.” He’s kind of scowling and closing his eyes at the same time, so that’s a stereotypic
anger. Then the 10 in this case is very classic for disgust. You kind of lift your upper lip, not
really moving the nose, but it gives the appearance that the nose is being turned up. The 16
sometimes happens with that. That’s a lower-lip depressor. That’s when you push your bottom lip