Recent research is revealing that facial expressions are not simply emotional outputs. Instead, they are socially meaningful behaviors generated by complex brain networks designed to help us communicate, influence, and connect with others.

The Brain Doesn’t Just Read Faces—It Creates Social Signals

Scientists have long understood that the human brain contains specialized systems dedicated to recognizing faces. New research from Rockefeller University has shifted attention to an equally important question: How does the brain create facial expressions?

Researchers identified a network of interconnected brain regions that work together to generate facial movements. Surprisingly, these regions do not appear to divide neatly into “emotional” versus “voluntary” expressions, as many researchers previously believed. Instead, multiple areas contribute to a wide variety of facial behaviors, operating at different timescales and serving different functions.

In other words, producing a smile is not as simple as pressing an emotional button. The brain coordinates a sophisticated hierarchy of neural processes that transform intentions, social context, and emotional states into visible facial behavior.

The findings suggest that many facial expressions are best understood as purposeful communication signals rather than purely automatic emotional leaks.

Why This Matters for Behavioral Intelligence

For professionals who rely on interpersonal communication—investigators, interviewers, negotiators, leaders, sales professionals, and human resource practitioners—this distinction is important.

A common misconception is that every facial expression provides a direct readout of someone’s internal emotional state. The reality is more nuanced.

People use facial expressions to:

• Encourage cooperation
• Signal affiliation
• Manage impressions
• Seek support
• Influence outcomes
• Regulate social interactions

A smile, for example, may communicate genuine enjoyment. It may also communicate politeness, reassurance, agreement, confidence, or a desire to strengthen rapport. The behavioral meaning depends heavily on context.

This perspective aligns with decades of research showing that nonverbal behavior functions as part of a broader communication system rather than serving as a simple truth detector.

Expressions Are About Relationships, Not Just Feelings

One of the most significant implications of this research is that facial expressions appear fundamentally social.

The brain begins preparing facial gestures before the face even moves. Rather than merely reflecting what a person feels, facial expressions help shape what happens next in an interaction.

This supports a growing body of evidence suggesting that expressions function as social tools. Humans do not simply display emotions; they communicate intentions, coordinate relationships, and influence others through visible behavior.

From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense. Our ancestors depended on rapid social communication for cooperation, survival, and group cohesion. Facial expressions became an efficient way to transmit information before a single word was spoken.

What This Means for Reading People

The takeaway is not that facial expressions are meaningless. Quite the opposite.

Facial behavior provides valuable information. However, effective observers avoid the trap of assigning one-to-one emotional labels to every expression they see.

Instead of asking:

“What emotion does this expression reveal?”

A better question is:

“What is this behavior communicating in this moment?”

This shift moves us from simplistic emotion guessing to a more accurate behavioral analysis approach—one that considers context, timing, baseline behavior, verbal communication, and the broader social environment.

This idea is supported by a landmark review published in Science, which argues that facial expressions should not always be viewed as universal readouts of emotion. Instead, expressions are influenced by social context, culture, goals, and interpersonal dynamics. The same facial movement may communicate different meanings depending on the situation, the relationship between individuals, and the broader environment.

Taken together, the neuroscience and behavioral research point to the same conclusion: understanding facial expressions requires understanding context.

Facial Expressions, Emotion, and Context

Importantly, these findings should not be interpreted as evidence that facial expressions of emotion do not exist.

Research has demonstrated that certain emotional expressions can be recognized across cultures, suggesting an important biological component to human emotional communication.

Rather, the emerging science highlights that facial behavior serves many functions beyond emotional expression. While facial expressions of emotion may have universal elements, people also use their faces to communicate intentions, manage impressions, regulate social interactions, and influence outcomes.

The challenge is not choosing between biology and context—it is understanding how both work together to shape human behavior.

This distinction is particularly important for professionals who rely on behavioral observation. A facial expression may provide valuable clues about a person’s emotional state, but effective interpretation requires considering context, verbal communication, baseline behavior, and other nonverbal signals. Understanding human behavior is rarely about finding a single “tell.” It is about evaluating multiple sources of information to arrive at the most accurate assessment possible.

Viewed through this lens, the latest neuroscience and behavioral research are not contradictory. Both suggest that facial expressions are meaningful—but that their meaning is best understood within the broader context of human interaction.

Turning Science into Practical Skills

Understanding that facial expressions are social signals rather than simple emotional readouts has important implications for anyone whose success depends on accurately interpreting human behavior.

Whether you’re conducting interviews, leading teams, negotiating agreements, selling products, building rapport, or assessing credibility, the goal is not simply to identify a single emotion from a facial expression. Instead, effective behavioral analysis requires understanding how facial expressions interact with context, language, body language, and the dynamics of the interaction.

This is precisely the approach taught in Humintell’s online training programs.

Humintell’s courses are designed to help professionals move beyond myths and misconceptions about body language and develop evidence-based observation skills grounded in behavioral science. Students learn how to identify meaningful behavioral patterns, evaluate context, recognize emotional expressions, and avoid common interpretation errors that can lead to inaccurate conclusions.

Rather than teaching people to rely on isolated cues, Humintell emphasizes a comprehensive approach to behavioral intelligence—one that integrates facial expressions, body language, verbal behavior, and situational context.

The latest neuroscience reinforces an important lesson: human behavior is complex. The most effective communicators and observers are those who understand not only what people are expressing, but why those expressions may be occurring in a particular situation.

For professionals seeking to improve their ability to understand others, communicate more effectively, and make better-informed decisions, continued education in behavioral intelligence can provide a significant advantage.

Learn to Apply Behavioral Science in the Real World

As researchers continue uncovering how the brain produces and interprets facial behavior, our understanding of communication will continue to evolve.

What remains constant is the importance of context. Facial expressions provide valuable information, but they are only one piece of a much larger behavioral puzzle.

The most accurate behavioral assessments come not from decoding a single expression, but from understanding how verbal and nonverbal behaviors work together within a specific social context.

Humintell’s online courses help professionals develop the skills needed to interpret behavior more accurately, communicate more effectively, and make better decisions based on evidence rather than assumptions.

If you’re interested in applying the science of human behavior to your profession, explore Humintell’s online training programs and discover how behavioral intelligence can enhance your ability to understand and influence human interaction.

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What if everything you thought you knew about emotions was only half the story?

In this opening episode of the Nonverbal ACEs Masters Series, Dr. David Matsumoto — one of the world’s foremost authorities on emotion science, cross-cultural psychology, and the universality of facial expressions — challenges practitioners to go deeper than conventional training ever goes.

Drawing on decades of research spanning evolutionary biology, FACS methodology, and cross-cultural studies, Dr. Matsumoto unpacks:

• Why facial expressions are biological tools, not cultural inventions — and what that means for how you read clients
• The “open system” model of emotion: how triggers are learned, but responses are hardwired
• Display Rules vs. Instrumental Behaviour — the two distinct layers of cultural influence that mask what clients truly feel
• Why “Universalist” vs. “Constructivist” is a false debate — and what actually bridges them in clinical practice
• What micro-expressions and subtle expressions reveal that macro-behaviour conceals

Whether you’re a therapist, psychologist, or coach, this episode reframes emotion not as a psychological concept — but as a biological system you can learn to read with precision.

FREE ACCESS: Watch all five episodes in the Nonverbal ACEs Masters Series: nonverbalaces.com/nvmaster-series

ABOUT DR. DAVID MATSUMOTO

Dr. David Matsumoto is a Professor of Psychology at San Francisco State University, Director of Humintell, and one of the world’s leading researchers in emotion, nonverbal behaviour, and cross-cultural psychology. His work is used by intelligence agencies, law enforcement, and clinical practitioners globally.

ABOUT THE NONVERBAL ACES MASTERS SERIES

The Masters Series brings together five world-leading experts in nonverbal behaviour, emotion science, trauma, values, and influence — giving mental health and coaching professionals the science-backed skills to read behaviour at a deeper level and transform client outcomes.

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But new research entitled “Emotions on our Screens” suggests something surprising: emotional expression may actually reduce persuasive impact, even when audiences agree with the message.

This insight has profound implications—not just for digital communication, but for how we understand nonverbal behavior, facial expressions of emotion, and credibility in human interaction.

Emotional Expression vs. Persuasion: A Disconnect

The study found that when people encounter emotional content online—especially expressions of sadness or distress—they often respond with skepticism rather than empathy.

Participants across multiple experiments:

• Rated emotional posts as less authentic
• Viewed emotional expressions as less appropriate
• Were more likely to interpret emotional displays as manipulative

Even more striking: this reaction held regardless of political agreement. In other words, even when people agreed with the message, the emotional delivery reduced trust in the communicator.

This creates a paradox:

Emotion increases visibility and engagement—but decreases credibility and persuasion.

The Role of Nonverbal Behavior in Digital Contexts

From a Humintell perspective, this research aligns closely with what we know about nonverbal communication.

In face-to-face interaction, nonverbal cues—tone, posture, gestures, and especially facial expressions of emotion—provide critical context that helps others interpret sincerity.

The shift to digital communication has undoubtedly changed the way we read people.

Dr. Matsumoto suggests that this largely stems from the fact that humans did not evolve to do 2-dimensional communication, such as through a computer screen. On the contrary, we have evolved our perceptual senses to live in a 3-dimensional world and our sense of reality is grounded in that fact.

Interactions are based on being live and in person. Being live and in person with somebody and interacting with them is what we’ve evolved to do and what we’ve learned to do all of our lives.

But online, those cues are:

• Reduced (text-only posts)
• Exaggerated (dramatic videos, crying selfies)
• Or ambiguous (filtered, curated expressions)

Without full nonverbal context, audiences rely on rapid judgments:

• “Is this genuine?”
• “Is this performative?”
• “Is this trying to influence me?”

When emotional signals feel misaligned or overly intense, they trigger what we might call a nonverbal credibility gap.

Facial Expressions of Emotion: When Signals Backfire

One of the most compelling findings: posts featuring a visible sad facial expression (e.g., crying) were seen as especially inappropriate and less credible.

This is fascinating from a behavioral science standpoint.

Facial expressions are typically:

• Automatic signals of internal emotional states
• Interpreted as honest indicators of feeling

However, in digital environments:

• Expressions can be staged or repeated
• Viewers assume intentional signaling rather than spontaneous emotion

This shifts perception from:

• “They feel this” → to → “They want me to feel something”

That shift is critical. It transforms emotion from a signal of authenticity into a signal of persuasion attempt.

Why Emotion Triggers Skepticism

This phenomenon connects to a well-known concept in persuasion science: the Elaboration Likelihood Model.

When people detect persuasion attempts—especially emotional ones—they often:

• Shift into more critical, analytical processing
• Question the motives behind the message
• Resist being influenced

Additionally, excessive emotional appeals can resemble what’s known as an “appeal to emotion”, where feelings are used to sway judgment rather than evidence.

In modern digital environments, audiences are highly attuned to this.

The result:

• Emotional intensity → signals persuasion intent
• Perceived persuasion intent → triggers skepticism
• Skepticism → reduces influence

Emotion Still Matters—Just Not How You Think

Importantly, the research does not suggest that emotion is useless.

In fact, emotional expression:

• Helps people build community
• Reinforces shared identity
• Provides psychological relief (catharsis)

So emotion is highly effective for:

• Connection
• Belonging
• Engagement

But less effective for:

• Changing minds
• Increasing credibility
• Persuading skeptics

Practical Implications for Communicators

If your goal is persuasion rather than expression:

• Use emotion sparingly and strategically
• Avoid exaggerated or performative facial expressions
• Pair emotional content with clear, evidence-based messaging
• Focus on credibility cues (consistency, calm delivery, clarity)

If your goal is connection:

• Emotional expression can be powerful—but expect resonance, not persuasion

Final Thought

In a digital world saturated with emotional content, audiences are becoming more sophisticated interpreters of nonverbal behavior and emotional signaling.

The irony is clear:

The more we try to persuade through emotion, the more people question our sincerity.

Understanding how facial expressions of emotion, nonverbal cues, and perceived intent interact is no longer optional—it’s essential for anyone hoping to communicate effectively in the modern age.

Ready to Influence More Effectively?

Emotional expression alone won’t persuade—and as this research shows, it can even undermine credibility.

If you want to learn how to use emotion strategically, read nonverbal behavior, and interpret facial expressions of emotion to increase trust and influence, Humintell’s Introduction to Tactical Social Influence webinar delivers practical, science-based tools you can apply immediately.

Stop guessing. Start influencing with precision.

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What Primates Can Teach Us About Human Emotion

What if the roots of human emotional intelligence extend far beyond human interaction?

A recent study highlighted by ZME Science reveals something fascinating: humans don’t just recognize emotional expressions in non-human primates—we mirror them. And we do it automatically.

This finding reinforces something we emphasize at Humintell: nonverbal behavior, especially facial expressions of emotion, is deeply embedded in our biology.

The Universality of Facial Expressions

Researchers found that when people watched monkeys and apes expressing emotions like playfulness or threat, they could accurately interpret those emotions—and even more interestingly, they spontaneously mimicked them.

This suggests that facial expressions are not just culturally learned behaviors. They are part of an evolved communication system shared across species.

At Humintell, we focus on how facial expressions function as one of the most reliable and universal forms of nonverbal communication. This research strengthens that foundation—showing that even across species, emotional signals are recognizable and contagious.

Why Mimicry Matters for Emotional Intelligence

This automatic mirroring is known as emotional mimicry, and it plays a critical role in empathy.

When you subtly mirror someone’s facial expression, your brain begins to simulate their emotional state. This process helps you understand what they’re feeling—often before they say a word.

The study also found that mimicry increases when there is a sense of connection or positivity. In other words:

• We mirror people we like more
• We mirror positive emotions more strongly
• This strengthens rapport and trust

These patterns are just as relevant in human interaction as they are in cross-species communication.

Nonverbal Behavior Happens Automatically

One of the most important takeaways is that this process is unconscious.

Participants weren’t told to mimic anything—their faces responded in real time. This highlights a key truth: nonverbal behavior operates faster than conscious thought.

That’s why it plays such a powerful role in:

• leadership
• negotiations
• interviews
• security and threat detection

Facial expressions—especially brief, involuntary ones—can reveal emotional states before someone is even aware of them.

The Role of Microexpressions

This is where microexpressions come into play.

Microexpressions are rapid, involuntary facial expressions that reveal genuine emotion. They are part of the same automatic system that drives mimicry.

If we are wired to produce these expressions without thinking, it means they can also be detected—if you know what to look for.

Developing this skill allows professionals to:

• identify concealed emotions
• improve communication accuracy
• build trust more effectively

Strengthen Your Emotional Recognition Skills

If emotional understanding is largely automatic—but often unnoticed—then improving your awareness can give you a powerful edge.

At Humintell, our Emotion Recognition Training is designed to help you accurately detect facial expressions, including subtle and fleeting microexpressions.

You’ll learn how to:

• read emotions in real time
• interpret nonverbal behavior more accurately
• make better decisions in high-stakes interactions

Whether you work in leadership, sales, security, or healthcare, mastering these skills can significantly improve your effectiveness.

Ready to elevate your emotional intelligence?
Explore Humintell’s Emotion Recognition Training and start seeing what others miss.

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Understanding emotion, emotional triggers, and nonverbal behavior requires moving beyond surface reactions to examine why certain situations elicit specific responses.

You may have heard of Alex Honnold- a famous rock climber who gained worldwide notoriety after becoming the first person to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

Most recently, Honnold climbed Taipei 101, a 1667 foot skyscraper, while it was streamed live on Netflix.

The story of Honnold — whose amygdala shows unusually low activation in response to fear-inducing images — provides a compelling case study in how the brain’s evaluation of events shapes emotional experience.

For professionals who study emotion, facial expressions, and nonverbal behavior, this research helps clarify a foundational truth:

Emotions are not triggered by events themselves, but by how the brain appraises those events.

Emotion Triggers: Appraisal and Psychological Themes

Emotion scientists generally agree that emotions are triggered through appraisal — a rapid cognitive evaluation of a stimulus that determines its emotional significance.

In Humintell’s work on what triggers emotions, this appraisal process is framed around universal psychological themes linked to basic emotions such as anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust, contempt, and surprise.

Examples of these themes include:

Fear — triggered when something is appraised as threatening to physical or psychological integrity.

Happiness — elicited when an event is appraised as goal attainment.

Sadness — triggered by loss.

This perspective reframes emotion triggers not as simple reflexes, but as meaning-making processes that rapidly evaluate events (external situations, internal thoughts, or memories) in terms of their relevance to wellbeing or survival.

Honnold’s Brain: A Case of Appraisal Differences

The fMRI study of Alex Honnold’s brain found unusually low activation in his amygdala — a key region in threat detection and the generation of fear emotions — when he viewed fear-provoking imagery.

What this doesn’t mean is that Honnold cannot feel fear. Rather:

• His brain appears to appraise situations typically interpreted as threatening in a different way than most people.
• His emotional evaluation system may place less psychological threat value on those stimuli — likely because of how his experiences have shaped his appraisal patterns.

From an emotional trigger standpoint, Honnold provides a vivid example of how what counts as a threat — and what counts as safe — is defined by learned patterns of appraisal, not raw sensory input.

The Role of Experience in Emotional Interpretation

Appraisal theories of emotion emphasize that meaning is everything. The same event — a steep drop on a rock face, for example — may be appraised as threatening by one person and manageable by another based on:

• learned competence
• familiarity and mastery
• expectations of outcome
• somatic and cognitive associations

Honnold’s brain likely reflects repeated exposure and habituation, where what would trigger a strong fear response in most people no longer activates the same appraisal processes in him. This is consistent with how repeated experiences reshape emotional triggers over time.

For professionals who teach or assess emotional intelligence:

• Emotional triggers shift with experience.
• Appraisal centrality explains why individuals with expertise in a domain often show reduced fear-related facial expressions yet remain emotionally engaged.

Facial Expressions and Emotional Triggers

From a nonverbal behavior perspective, understanding triggers matters because the face does not just reflect emotion — it reflects appraisal outcomes.

A person’s appraisal of a stimulus influences:

• the intensity of the emotional response
• the presence or absence of facial indicators such as eye widening, brow movements, or tension in the mouth
• the timing and subtlety of microexpressions

This means that someone like Honnold may exhibit:

• subdued fear-related facial expressions
• more consistent facial control under pressure
• fewer nonverbal cues typically associated with threat appraisal

For analysts, this highlights a critical analytic point: absence of fear expressions does not equal absence of internal experience. It may reflect a different appraisal threshold or pattern.

Beyond the Amygdala: Regulation and Interpretation

While the amygdala is central to detecting potential threat, it does not act alone in shaping emotion. The prefrontal cortex contributes to emotional regulation by modifying the interpretation and behavioral expression of emotions — a key element of emotional intelligence.

In professional contexts:

• Emotional regulation influences how triggers manifest in the face and body.
• Skilled communicators can manage automatic appraisals, attenuating or amplifying emotional expression appropriately.

This interplay between appraisal, emotional triggers, and nonverbal expression underscores why emotion expertise must consider both internal evaluation processes and observable signals.

What This Means for Reading Emotions

The case of Honnold’s brain reinforces that emotional triggers are not uniform across individuals:

• A threat for one person may not be a threat for another.
• The same stimulus can produce divergent emotional and nonverbal responses based on history, appraisal, and cognition.
• Universal psychological themes guide basic emotion triggers, but personal experiences shape how and when these themes are activated.

For anyone practicing advanced emotion recognition, this means you must:

• Assess baseline appraisal patterns for individuals
• Understand that nonverbal expression reflects meaning-making, not just sensation
• Recognize that emotional triggers are dynamic, not fixed

Emotion as Adaptive Meaning-Making

Ultimately, emotion — including fear — is a dynamic system that results from how the brain evaluates and interprets what matters to the individual.

Honnold’s brain reminds us that emotion triggers are not simple reflexes but sophisticated appraisal mechanisms shaped by experience and context.

When we understand the role of appraisal and universal psychological themes in emotional triggers, we gain deeper insight into both why emotions arise and how they are expressed nonverbally — core knowledge for anyone committed to mastering emotional intelligence and behavior reading.

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A new study, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, offers compelling evidence that elevated blood pressure may actually mute our ability to express certain emotions on the face.

This work extends a growing line of research on Cardiovascular Emotional Dampening (CED). Previous studies have shown that individuals with higher blood pressure often struggle to recognize emotions in others.

But recognition is only half of the communication process. The other half—how well we express our own emotions—has received far less attention. Until now.

A First Look at Expression, Not Just Perception

To explore this expressive side of CED, researchers recruited adults across a range of blood pressure levels: normotensive, prehypertensive, and hypertensive.

Participants were asked to deliberately pose six basic emotions—happiness, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and surprise—while being recorded.

What makes this study especially robust is that the researchers didn’t rely on just one method of evaluation.

Each expression was coded by both trained human raters and an automated facial-analysis system. This dual-approach allowed the team to capture subtle details in facial movement and emotional accuracy.

The results were striking.

High Blood Pressure, Lower Expressive Accuracy

Individuals with higher blood pressure consistently showed reduced accuracy when attempting to portray several negative emotions. Expressions of sadness, fear, and surprise were particularly affected. Their facial movements were often less pronounced, less coordinated, or did not match the emotion they were instructed to express.

Even more interesting, these expressive deficits were correlated with both systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. In other words, as blood pressure climbed, expressive clarity tended to drop.

But one emotion stood out as the exception: happiness. Smiles, it seems, remained largely intact across blood-pressure groups. Positive facial expressions did not show the same dampening effect.

This asymmetry—preserved positive expressivity alongside muted negative expressivity—matches patterns seen in previous research on perception. People with higher blood pressure tend to have more difficulty recognizing negative emotions too. This new work suggests that the expressive channel may be shaped in a similar way.

Why Blood Pressure Would Affect the Face

At first glance, the idea that blood pressure could influence facial expressions sounds surprising. But the connection makes sense when viewed through the lens of embodiment and autonomic regulation.

Our emotional expressions depend on rapid, flexible coordination between the brain, autonomic nervous system, and facial musculature.

Elevated blood pressure is associated with reduced autonomic flexibility, altered baroreflex functioning, and changes in brain regions tied to emotion.

Together, these physiological shifts may blunt the body’s responsiveness—making expressions less intense or less accurately matched to the intended emotion.

In other words, emotional dampening may reflect a broader bodily pattern, rather than a conscious choice.

Implications for Emotional Communication

For those of us who study or teach nonverbal behavior, these findings highlight an important nuance.

When people express emotions weakly or unclearly, the first impulse may be to attribute meaning: Are they bored? Detached? Concealing something?

But this study suggests a different possibility—some individuals may be genuinely physiologically less expressive in certain emotional domains.

This is especially relevant in high-stakes interpersonal environments:

• clinical interviews

• security screenings

• conflict-resolution settings

• relationship communication

• or any context requiring accurate emotional interpretation.

A muted expression of fear or sadness may reflect cardiovascular state, not emotional withholding.

This does not mean that facial expressions are unreliable. Rather, it underscores the role of individual differences—and why accurate emotion reading requires context, pattern recognition, and caution against over-interpretation.

Where the Research Is Heading

This study opens several important doors for future inquiry.

One question is whether these expressive differences appear in spontaneous emotional behavior, not just posed expressions. Real-world emotional reactions often rely on automatic facial-muscle activation, which may be even more susceptible to physiological influences.

Another question concerns other nonverbal channels. Prior research has shown that emotional dampening linked to elevated blood pressure can affect recognition of vocal and cross-modal cues as well. Whether expressive dampening extends to the voice, gestures, or posture remains to be seen.

Finally, researchers are beginning to wonder whether improving cardiovascular health—through stress reduction, exercise, or medical treatment—might help restore emotional clarity in recognition and expression. If so, the relationship between physiology and emotion may be more dynamic than previously thought.

The Takeaway

This new study adds an important piece to the puzzle of how our bodies shape our emotional world. Elevated blood pressure doesn’t only influence the heart and blood vessels—it may subtly influence the face we show to others.

For clinicians, trainers, and anyone committed to understanding nonverbal behavior, the message is clear: emotional expression is deeply embodied. And sometimes, behind a quiet or muted face, the physiology may be speaking louder than the expression itself.

Commentary from Dr. Matsumoto

There’s much to like about this study. Before I comment about the implications of its findings, however, I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss some questions about the methodology that I have.

First, I’m wondering how they measured accuracy of emotional expressions. Expression accuracy can be measured several different ways and the authors never explained that in detail. That type of detail is important in understanding how to interpret the findings, so I would have wanted more info about that.

Also, the study didn’t require participants to engage in an emotion recognition or perception task. That would have been important because the authors make interpretations about the associations between expressions and perceptions in the Discussion, along with their underlying neural processes. Without actual data about that, however, such interpretations rest on many assumptions and thus become quite speculative.

But let’s give on the methods issues for a moment and consider the implications of the findings, which are interesting and have strong implications for an understanding of the effects of high blood pressure on the neural pathways controlling facial expressions.

More generally, the findings raise questions about how other psychophysiological states impact expression and recognition, and why. Do these findings generalize to stress, neuropathies, or other medical conditions? And what do such effects mean about how humans are wired together, a question that we have so much left to explore.

All in all the study is quite thought provoking and should inspire more research like it in the future, integrating emotion, health, and neuropsychological topics.

Given the dismantling of Humpty Dumpty into many silos of academia for the past century, hopefully the future can put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

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According to new findings highlighted in Scientific American, spending on experiences—such as concerts, trips, meals, or classes—creates deeper feelings of connection, belonging, and well-being than spending on material goods.

This research is not only relevant to psychology—it also aligns closely with what we know about nonverbal behavior, body language, and how people build relationships through shared meaning.

If our experiences shape how we act, interact, and signal ourselves to others, then the choice between buying things and doing things may influence not just happiness, but how we show up socially and emotionally.

The Research: Experiences Foster Connection in Ways Objects Don’t

The research summarized by Scientific American draws from 13 experiments involving nearly 2,000 participants. In each study, people were asked to recall either a material purchase (like clothing or electronics) or an experiential purchase (like a trip or a live event).

Across the board, people who reflected on experiences reported:

• Greater happiness and overall emotional satisfaction
• A stronger sense of social connection, even to strangers
• More feelings of similarity and kinship with others who had the same experience
• Higher motivation to engage in social activities, rather than solitary ones

Crucially, these effects held true even when comparing “better” versus “worse” versions of the same purchase.

Someone who had a more expensive seat at a concert still felt connected to someone who went to the same event. But two people who bought the same type of physical product did not show the same bond.

Experiences, it seems, create shared identity in ways that objects cannot.

Why Experiences Create Stronger Bonds

Several psychological explanations help make sense of why experiences are so powerful for happiness and connection—and why this matters for reading people and understanding their nonverbal communication.

1. Experiences become part of identity

Experiences shape who we are. They influence our worldview, preferences, and the stories we tell. Because identity drives so much of our body language and nonverbal behavior—how we gesture, how we express emotion, how we communicate—shared experiences create an immediate sense of similarity and rapport.

2. Experiences reduce social comparison

Material goods tend to spark judgment and comparison (who has the newer phone, nicer car, more expensive bag). Experiences, by contrast, emphasize shared meaning rather than status. Even if two people had different versions of an experience, the common ground outweighs the differences.

3. Memories spark conversation and connection

Experiences give us stories, emotions, and moments we relive and retell. These memories fuel conversations and help people understand each other’s values—an important foundation for reading people accurately.

4. Experiences motivate social behavior

Reflecting on experiences seems to prime us toward sociability. People recalling experiential purchases expressed greater interest in spending time with others, engaging in group activities, and building relationships.

That matters because social motivation influences posture, eye contact, tone of voice, and other components of nonverbal communication that shape how others perceive us.

What This Means for Nonverbal Behavior and Reading People

For those who study or work with nonverbal behavior, this research carries several implications:

• Shared experiences shape expressive behavior. People who engage in more social experiences may display warmer body language, greater emotional openness, and clearer nonverbal signals.
• Connection changes how we interpret others. When we feel a sense of similarity or shared identity, we tend to read facial expressions and nonverbal cues more accurately.
• Experiences help people feel “seen.” Doing activities together creates opportunities for emotional expression—eye contact, laughter, touch, gestures—that deepen rapport.
• Material purchases don’t have the same interpersonal ripple effects. A new gadget might boost short-term mood, but it doesn’t typically alter how people interact or how connection is communicated nonverbally.

In other words: experiences don’t just make us happier—they make us more attuned, expressive, and receptive in our relationships.

A Practical Takeaway: Choose Doing Over Having

If your goal is to increase happiness, improve relationships, or deepen your ability to connect and read people, the research is clear: invest in experiences, not objects.

Experiences:

• Strengthen social bonds
• Boost happiness more sustainably
• Enhance nonverbal communication
• Encourage openness and shared understanding
• Build stories, not clutter

Whether it’s a trip, a workshop, a nature outing, or a live performance, what you do with others has far more impact on emotional well-being than what you own.

In a world where loneliness is rising, these findings offer hopeful clarity: connection is built in moments, not merchandise.

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In a previous blog

As explained in that blog and the underlying article on which the blog was based, scientific research in the past two decades has made substantial advances in validating a set of behavioral indicators of veracity and deception.

This work was notable because there have been previous claims questioning the validity of nonverbal behavior to do so, most of which were based on a meta-analysis of studies on deception cues published in 2003.

The recent scientific article reviewed that meta-analysis, and the research conducted in the twenty years since, to re-characterize the state of the field more precisely.

Deception Leakage Across Multiple Channels

As the recent blog summarized, behavioral indicators to deception do exist and they occur in leakage across multiple channels of nonverbal behavior.

Thus, instead of looking for single cues of deception, noticing multiple, validated clues of deception in clusters of specific behaviors is likely more beneficial to spot potential deception.

Also, a point that is often missed in the discussion about behavioral cues to deception concerns the fact that some of those same nonverbal behaviors are important signs of other mental states – both emotions and cognitions.

Although disputes previously existed about whether deception cues exist, there is little debate about the fact that nonverbal behaviors signal specific emotions and cognitions.

These cues also aid interviewers in obtaining many different insights into the subjects of their interviews, much beyond deception. Knowing when a subject is happy or sad, excited or afraid, or has hidden thoughts of hostility should allow interviewers to obtain additional insights about their interviewees, making their interviews more accurate and efficient.

In this blog I’d like to go beyond the message in the previous blog and discuss what to do once you observe such behavioral indicators in the interview.

Behavioral Indicators, not Determinants

Let’s first start with this idea: behavioral indicators of deception are exactly that – indicators and not determinants. They indicate that something else is going on in the minds of the speakers above and beyond the words that are spoken.

When they occur, yes – some thought or feeling is “hidden” from view, and thus deceptive. But, whether that “something else” is deceptive about the topic you’re interested in or not is an open question.

After all, people have lots of things in their minds and verbalize only a portion of their mental contents, and people can choose not to be open about a topic for many reasons.

For example, if a person were asked about what they did since waking up, they might be deceptive about some details about their morning toilet routine.

• They may be too embarrassed to give all specific details.
• They make think you don’t want to know everything.
• They may think you don’t need to know everything.
• Or they don’t want you to know something.

It’s only that last one – they don’t want you to know something– that is the meaningful deception that we want to uncover. But one might observe behavioral indicators for each of these possibilities.

Thus, behavioral indicators of deception help us to suspect deception but should not be considered determinants of deception.

That is, one should not conclude that a person is being deceptive solely because they produced a behavior that has been empirically linked to deception. There’s no “aha!” or “gotcha!”

Further Discussion and Probing

Instead, my interpretation of behavioral indicators is that, when they occur, they open the possibility for further discussion and probing about that topic, sentence, or word.

By the way, this is true for the so-called cognitive or linguistic indicators of deception as well.

Inconsistent or irrelevant statements and illogical narratives may be deception indicators, but the seasoned interviewer or interrogator would not necessarily draw conclusions or make determinations of deception solely based on such observations.

Instead, those cognitive and linguistic indicators, like behavioral indicators, invite further discussion and dialogue.

Multiple Indicators are Better

And, as mentioned in the previous blog, multiple indicators are better. Sure, sometimes meaningful deception occurs with a single indicator.

But when multiple validated indicators are observed – whether behavioral, cognitive, linguistic, or better yet a combination of these (which is what we teach in our courses), that cluster of validated indicators will generally be more indicative of something meaningful being hidden.

At the same time, we can’t get distracted by unvalidated or non-validated indicators. The internet is replete with so many of these.

Non-validated indicators are those that have been tested scientifically but have not been found to be associated with deception.

The classic example of a non-validated indicator is the lack of eye contact. This is a myth that is believed by many people around the world; yet scientific research has tested this behavior and has not provided support for it.

Likewise, unvalidated behaviors are those that have never been formally tested in research. Don’t be distracted by either of these.

What to do once possible deception indicators occur?

One simple suggestion is to ask more questions about the specific statement, topic, or word on which the deception indicators – cognitive, linguistic, or behavioral – were observed. And then ask more questions and detail about the responses provided.

When there’s multiple topics, statements, or words on which deception indictors were observed, then ask more questions about each one.

Interviewers may want to consider prioritizing which topics, statements, or words to probe depending on the goals of the interview, which each interviewer should know before starting the interview.

Only after sufficiently exhausting this process and considering all other sources of evidence that one may have would the astute interviewer draw conclusions from the interview.

In my experience, one of two things will happen. Probing the indicators will lead to either a resolution of the issue or the uncovering of something meaningful that the subject has been deceptive about.

Seeing a flash of fear in a passenger in an airport checkpoint queue may lead to a discussion in which the passenger was worried about whether she turned off the lights on her car in the parking garage (resolution) or was carrying contraband (deception).

Conclusion

In my opinion, therefore, observing behavioral indicators allow keen interviewers to home in on possible statements, topics, and specific words on which to have extended dialogues in the effort to uncover ground truth.

Leveraging behavioral and other indicators of deception, and veracity, and other mental states in an interview is half the battle; the other half is knowing where to go and crafting good questions.

By engaging in this kind of systematic process, interviewers can leverage behavioral indicators to work systematically to find ground truth in every interview.

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Researchers recently discovered that elephants can deliberately use trunk gestures to ask humans for food, passing behavioral tests typically reserved for primates. It’s the first strong evidence of goal-directed gestural communication in a non-primate species.

For Humintell readers, this discovery opens a fascinating window into the comparative science of nonverbal behavior. It reminds us that many of the communicative principles we teach—audience awareness, persistence, adaptability—aren’t uniquely human. They’re part of a broader, evolutionary story about what it means to connect, signal, and understand.

Elephants with Intent

As Discover Magazine recently reported, scientists from the University of St. Andrews and the non-profit HERD Trust observed 17 semi-captive African elephants interacting with human handlers in South Africa.

During a food-request task, elephants gestured toward humans using their trunks, ears, and head movements—sometimes reaching, sometimes pointing, sometimes shaking their heads in apparent frustration. Across the trials, researchers recorded 313 individual gestures representing 38 gesture types, half of which were shared by multiple elephants.

To test whether these gestures were truly intentional, the scientists applied three well-established behavioral criteria:

1. Audience Awareness – Elephants gestured only when a person was present and paying attention.
2. Persistence – When their goal (getting apples) wasn’t met, they continued signaling.
3. Elaboration – If persistence failed, they changed their gestures—intensifying or switching tactics.

Passing all three tests, the elephants demonstrated what psychologists call goal-directed communication: a deliberate attempt to influence another’s behavior through nonverbal signals.

The Building Blocks of Communication

At Humintell, we define nonverbal communication as “all the ways people transmit information, intentions, and emotions without words.” Our research—like the elephants’ experiment—shows that nonverbal communication is intentional, context-sensitive, and adaptive.

In one of our earlier blogs, The Importance of Nonverbal Communication, Dr. David Matsumoto emphasized that nonverbal signals are not just accessories to language; they are the foundation of human interaction.

The new elephant findings extend that foundation across species, suggesting that the roots of nonverbal intelligence run much deeper in the animal kingdom than once thought.

Just as humans gesture when speaking, nod to indicate understanding, or persist in signaling when misunderstood, elephants appear to use similar principles to achieve shared goals.

Lessons from Comparative Communication

This research invites us to think more broadly about communication itself. When we compare how elephants and humans use gestures, several themes emerge that resonate with Humintell’s core teachings.

1. Audience Awareness

Elephants were selective about when they gestured—only when a human was watching. Similarly, in humans, nonverbal communication depends heavily on recipient design—we tailor gestures, tone, and facial expressions to fit the attention and awareness of our audience.

This mirrors what we’ve discussed in Nonverbal Cues in the 21st Century: that human communicators still rely on being physically seen and heard to make meaning. When that visual feedback disappears—as it often does in text or digital communication—our effectiveness drops.

2. Persistence and Adaptation

When elephants didn’t receive the full food reward, they didn’t give up—they persisted or elaborated their gestures. The same principle applies to human communicators: when a message doesn’t land, we often repeat, adjust, or escalate.

In our post Clusters of Nonverbal Behaviors Differentiate Truths and Lies, we explained that deception researchers observe not one “tell,” but clusters of adaptive behaviors. Like elephants combining trunk reach with gaze or ear motion, humans unconsciously combine signals to increase communicative precision. Both species show behavioral flexibility, an essential marker of communicative intelligence.

3. Context and Feedback

Communication—whether human or animal—relies on feedback loops. Each gesture is both a signal and a test: “Did this work?” When it doesn’t, a skilled communicator adapts.

This adaptability also connects with our observations in How Nonverbal Communication Is Going Digital. As communication migrates to digital platforms, we lose many feedback cues that guide adaptation—eye contact, body shifts, microexpressions. In contrast, the elephant experiment reminds us how vital feedback is. Without it, meaning collapses.

Bridging Species: The Evolution of Intentional Gesture

Historically, intentional gesturing has been considered a hallmark of primate and human communication. The fact that elephants—separated from us by 90 million years of evolution—use similar cognitive strategies suggests convergent evolution.

In other words, when a species lives in a complex social world, intentional signaling becomes useful, even necessary. Elephants live in tight matriarchal families, coordinate travel and caregiving, and exhibit empathy—conditions that favor the emergence of flexible communication systems.

From a comparative standpoint, this aligns perfectly with what Humintell teaches about humans: our nonverbal systems evolved to manage social complexity—to bond, persuade, warn, and coordinate.

Implications for Human Nonverbal Training

So what can humans learn from elephants about reading and sending nonverbal cues?

1. Observe Context First. The same gesture can mean different things depending on situation and relationship. In both elephants and humans, context determines meaning.
2. Look for Persistence. When someone repeats or intensifies a cue, it often signals goal-directed intent. Are they trying harder to be understood?
3. Notice Adaptation. Skilled communicators—like these elephants—adjust strategy when their first approach doesn’t succeed. In humans, this shows flexibility and emotional intelligence.
4. Don’t Over-Rely on Single Cues. Just as elephants combined trunk, head, and ear gestures, human messages emerge from clusters of cues. Interpret patterns, not snapshots.

These lessons echo our work across multiple research programs on nonverbal accuracy, emotion recognition, and deception detection. Whether studying human microexpressions or elephant trunk gestures, the underlying science is the same: communication is about intention meeting perception.

The Bigger Picture

The elephant study doesn’t just expand our understanding of animal cognition—it also offers a mirror for human communicators. It suggests that the ability to intentionally gesture, persist, and adapt is not an evolutionary accident but a universal principle of social life.

At Humintell, our mission has always been to help people become more accurate observers and interpreters of nonverbal behavior. This research reinforces that skill development in humans taps into something deeply natural.

Just as elephants use gestures to connect with us, we use gestures—often unconsciously—to connect with one another. Both acts rest on the same foundation: a desire to be understood.

Final Thought

The next time you raise your hand, nod to a colleague, or gesture to emphasize a point, remember—you’re drawing from an ancient communicative toolkit shared with species far older than ours.

And if an elephant ever waves its trunk in your direction, it might just be saying, “Can you hear me?”—without uttering a sound.

Sources:

Discover Magazine (2024). Elephants Use Non-Verbal Gestures to Ask Humans for Food—A First in Non-Primates.

Scientific Reports (2024). Evidence for Intentional Gestural Communication in African Elephants.

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Autism and Facial Expressions: What We Often Miss

Facial expressions are the universal language of emotion. But for many autistic individuals, their emotional signals can be so subtle they go unnoticed.

A recent study from Rutgers University shows that tiny facial micromovements—invisible to the naked eye—carry rich emotional meaning.

This discovery reshapes how we understand autism and nonverbal communication, revealing that the emotional intent is there, but often hidden beneath the surface.

What Are Micromovement Spikes?

Researchers, led by Dr. Elizabeth Torres at Rutgers–New Brunswick’s Sensory Motor Integration Lab, identified micromovement spikes—rapid, faint muscle activations in the face.

Unlike traditional microexpressions, which last fractions of a second, micromovement spikes are subtler and harder to detect without technology.

The study found:

• Autistic and neurotypical individuals both use the same facial muscles.

• In autistic participants, expressions were often lower in intensity and fell outside the “culturally familiar range” people recognize.

• Factors like age and sex influenced micromovement patterns, adding another layer of complexity.

How the Research Was Conducted

The team used a surprisingly simple method:

1. Recorded 5- to 6-second video clips on smartphones or tablets.

2. Applied advanced statistical and nonlinear dynamics tools.

3. Detected subtle micromovement spikes during expressions such as smiling or surprise.

This approach makes the findings highly practical for real-world use, from therapy to everyday interactions.

Why This Matters: Autism Communication and Connection

Misinterpreting—or missing—emotional cues in autism can lead to social disconnection and stigma.

This research suggests that by learning to detect micromovement spikes, caregivers, therapists, and educators can:

• Better recognize emotions in autistic individuals.

• Respond with empathy and accuracy.

• Foster stronger social inclusion and understanding.

Future tools, such as apps that analyze micromovements in real time, may become emotional translators, helping bridge communication gaps.

Humintell’s Perspective

At Humintell, our mission is to help people recognize microexpressions and nonverbal cues to improve emotional intelligence and empathy.

This research aligns perfectly with that mission, reminding us that:

• Emotional expression exists in everyone.

• Sometimes, it just takes new methods—and greater awareness—to see it.

Key Takeaways on Autism and Micromovements

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