What is the term used to describe reading emotional cues in others

Understanding Others - The Skills You Need

People who are good at understanding others:

Pick up emotional cues, often from body language, tone of voice, and other non-verbal elements of communication. For more about this, see our pages on Non-Verbal Communication and Body Language.
Listen well to what people are saying, actively checking their understanding. You may find it helpful to read our pages on Active Listening, Clarifying and Reflecting.

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

Ernest Hemingway

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Show sensitivity towards others, and understand their perspectives. They are careful not to give offence by saying or doing the wrong thing, and are aware that not everyone has the same point of view. Our pages on Being Polite, Tact and Diplomacy and Intercultural Awareness may help you to develop this area of your skills. If you are struggling with the balance between truth, honesty and politeness, you may find our pages on Truthfulness and Balancing Honesty and Politeness helpful.
Help other people appropriately, based on their understanding of their needs and emotions.

Insights from Understanding Others

Developing empathy, and particularly the skill of understanding others, is not just important to your interpersonal relationships. It can also have a much wider impact.

For example, in the US, doctors who listen carefully to their patients are much less likely to be sued.

In one study, primary care doctors (the equivalent of general practitioners in the UK) who had never been sued were found to be much better communicators than their peers.

Empathy as economic sense: Huggies Pull-Ups

Huggies Pull-Ups were developed as a direct result of empathy in action. For those without children, these are pull-on nappies (diapers) for toddlers, an intermediate step between nappies and ‘grown-up underwear’.

Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Huggies, sent observers to watch parents and toddlers using nappies. This gave the company real insight into the way that families were operating, and what products they needed. The company realised that it would be helpful to have something in between nappies and pants: a ‘stepping stone’ that would allow children to start getting themselves dressed. Huggies Pull-Ups were born.

The Importance of Sincerity

It is possible to pretend that you understand people’s feelings and, more particularly, their concerns. Sales staff often do this to try to establish rapport with customers.

However, as humans we are programmed to detect and dislike insincerity.

Your pretence, it is fair to say, will be detected by those around you, probably through subtle hints in your body language, or perhaps in a response to an unexpected question.

The other person may not even be aware of detecting it, but will feel uncomfortable with the conversation that you have tried to strike up, or with what you are saying, and find that they do not really trust you.

In other words, this ‘false empathy’ will be counter-productive.

Trying to manipulate emotions can backfire on the perpetrator, and may well not be worthwhile. Those who are genuinely empathetic will get a very different response.

Empathy Avoidance and Empathy Overload

There are two aspects of understanding others and being interested in their concerns that, as part of empathy, are worth exploring further.

The first, empathy avoidance, is a deliberate lack of empathy, which might be called ‘emotional tone-deafness’.

Total empathy avoidance is unlikely to be healthy for your long-term relationships, but being able to shut down some of your empathetic response may be helpful under certain circumstances. For example:

At Home. Children need to receive certain vaccinations. In their first few months of life, they have several vaccinations, sometimes two or three at a time. Having a needle stuck into their legs hurts, and babies scream when it happens.

Parents, however, need to clamp down on their immediate response and recognise the long-term benefits of vaccination, in avoiding serious diseases, rather than focus on the short-term distress of the child.
At Work. Managers responsible for making redundancies need to be able to make good decisions. They are unlikely to be able to do so if they are struggling with their own emotional response to the distress of those around them.

While it is important that they remain aware of the feelings of those involved, they have to be able to balance that with the use of reason and logic and not be overwhelmed.
In Healthcare. A surgeon performing emergency surgery on someone who has had serious injuries in a road traffic accident needs to be able to use all their skills to try to repair the damage, or amputate if necessary to save the patient’s life. They cannot spend time considering how this might make the patient feel.

However, after the operation is over, and the person is awake, they need to explain their actions and help the patient to start to come to terms with whatever has happened. They need to remain aware of their patient as a person, with feelings and concerns, and respond appropriately.

Empathy overload sometimes happens when people are exposed to difficult and distressing information.

In such situations people can find themselves unable to deal with their own emotional response to the situation. This can happen, for example, if you find that a friend is seriously ill. You want to help and support them, but you are too upset to do so. It is also a problem that can arise for people working in professions like medicine, nursing and social work.

The way to manage possible empathy overload is to work on your self-regulation, and particularly your self-control. With improved self-regulation, you will be able to manage your own emotions and respond appropriately to those of others.

Understanding Others is not ‘Soft’

We often talk about ‘soft skills’, and there is no question that empathy, and understanding others are important soft skills.

There is, however, absolutely nothing soft, in the sense of ‘easy’, about understanding others’ concerns and feelings. Neither is it ‘soft’ in the sense of not being tough: the best managers are empathetic, but not ‘soft’ on their team.

Understanding others does not mean that you have to agree with their feelings or point of view. Instead, it means that you recognise their point of view, and accept that it is different from yours.

You may still have to do difficult things that others do not agree with, but hopefully, both you and they understand that.

The Role of the Brain in Reading Faces

But why is it important for us to be able to read emotions from other people’s faces? The reason is that understanding others’ emotions can be important for our survival and well-being. Imagine, for example, that on one sunny day, you and your friend are standing in a field and talking about your favorite game. You are laughing and chatting and enjoying your conversation. Suddenly, your friend’s face turns from smiling to scared, and his eyes abruptly shift from looking at you to looking behind you. Now your friend has you really concerned. And you should be! You turn around and follow your friend’s gaze and what do you see? A huge, hungry bear running toward you! In this case, your ability to read your friend’s emotions from his facial gestures might save your life (superpowers can do that).

It is, therefore, no surprise that the brain is very much involved in interpreting information from others’ faces. Scientists have discovered that large parts of the brain are responsible for understanding what we see. Regions of the brain that participate in this function are part of what is called the “visual system” and it is located largely at the back of the brain, in what is called the occipital lobe (red region in Figure 1A). Within the visual system, there is a special part that plays an important role in interpreting information revealed by faces, such as who someone is and how she feels. This area is called the fusiform face area, which is part of the fusiform gyrus (for short FFG, see Figure 1B). Using special equipment to take images that measure the amount of oxygen in the brain, called a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner, scientists have shown that when people look at pictures of faces, the fusiform area of the brain shows more activity, compared with when the same people look at pictures of nature or houses [3].

Figure 1
Important regions in the face perception network of the brain. This figure shows regions that are central to interpreting facial expressions of emotions. Panel A shows the occipital lobe (in red), which is an essential part of the brain system that interprets information that we take in with the eyes. In Panel B, you are looking at the brain as if a person that is a little smaller than you is looking straight at you. The figure shows the fusiform gyrus (in green), which is important for understanding who someone is and what they are feeling, and the amygdala (in green), which is important for understanding emotions. The amygdala is a smaller region located on both sides of the brain. The brain figures were created using Neurosynth, an online tool that combines information from many functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.

To understand emotions, the visual system works together with other parts of the brain. One of these parts is called the amygdala. The amygdala is very important for reading others’ emotions. It is located in the lower part of the brain (Figure 1B). So, whenever you try to understand your friends’ emotions, your amygdala and your FFG communicate with each other. When different areas of the brain frequently talk to each other, these areas form a network. The FFG and amygdala are part of the face perception network of the brain [4]. When parts of the face perception network are damaged, for instance because of an accident, then people will have difficulty recognizing others’ faces and interpreting others’ emotions [5]. Sometimes, they can even have trouble recognizing their own faces when they look in the mirror. This is a condition that is called prosopagnosia, which is also known as face blindness.

How Does Culture Influence the Way We Show Emotions?

Human beings around the world have similar brain structure and use similar facial muscles to express basic emotions such as happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust. Does this mean that we all express and read each other’s emotions the same way? The answer, according to scientists who study emotions, is both yes and no. While many experiments have shown that people around the world can accurately recognize basic emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, other research has shown that there are differences in the way people read facial expressions depending on where they are from. This makes sense when we consider that people in different cultures do not all behave and think the same way.

One of these cultural differences is found in display rules. Display rules are rules that we learn as children that tell us how and when to express our emotions. For example, in some countries, like the US, display rules say that it is OK to show our emotions to others when we are very sad or very happy, and it is polite to look into people’s eyes while doing so. In other countries, like Japan, display rules say that it is better not to show too many strong emotions around other people, and that looking into people’s eyes is considered impolite. Scientists have been studying display rules for many years and in many different cultures, in order to understand how they influence the way people around the world express and read emotions. Almost 50 years ago, a now famous experiment showed how display rules differ across cultures [6]. In this experiment, American and Japanese participants were asked to watch stressful videos two times. The first time, they watched the films alone, and the second time, they watched with another person (an experimenter) in the room. The experiment showed that both the Japanese and American participants had similar facial expressions when they watched the movies alone. But when there was someone else in the room with them, the Japanese participants preferred not to show their negative feelings. Instead, in order to hide their negative feelings, they began to smile. The Americans, on the other hand, continued to display their negative emotions in front of the experimenter. Scientists concluded that the reason why the Japanese and American participants acted differently in the presence of other people was because of the display rules they had learned in their cultures.

People from Different Cultures Analyze Emotion Expressions Differently

Display rules not only tell us how and when to express emotions but also influence how we see and understand emotions in others. For example, in some cultures, people are used to seeing faces that show a lot of strong emotions. In others, where display rules say that emotions should not always be strongly expressed, people are used to faces with less expression. When you see emotional expressions of similar strength often enough in your own culture, this influences the way you read those emotions from facial expressions.

So, what if you want to figure out what someone is feeling. Which part of the face gives you your biggest clue? The answer to this question comes from experiments that used eye trackers. An eye tracker is a special device that monitors eye movements and, therefore, can tell scientists exactly where a person is looking. Eye trackers allow scientists to study what regions of the face people pay most attention to (for example, the eyes or the mouth) when they are trying to understand others’ emotions. These experiments showed that depending on where people are from, they focus their attention on different parts of the face when trying to figure out what others are feeling. East Asian participants, for example, mostly look for clues from the eyes. Western participants find their clues more from the whole face, including the eyes, the eyebrows, the nose, and the mouth. This suggests that people from different cultures express their emotions using different facial signals, and also, different cultures analyze facial gestures differently [7]. One reason for these cultural differences is that display rules also influence the way we process information from the face and the way we categorize this information into emotions.

What if you saw a face where the eyes and the mouth are showing different emotions (for example, the eyes are sad, but the mouth is happy)? Would you pay more attention to what the eyes are displaying or what the mouth is displaying? One experiment showed that people will have different answers depending on their culture [8]. Japanese people mostly read the emotion signaled by the eyes, while Americans focused more on the mouth region to read the emotion. In fact, you can see a similar pattern when you look at emoticons (emojis) used in different cultures. Emoticons are symbols that use letters, punctuation marks, or numbers to express emotions. In Asia, for example, most emoticons use different eye shapes to express different emotions. In western cultures, most emoticons use different mouth shapes to express emotions (Figure 2).

Figure 2
Emoticons commonly used in eastern and western cultures. This figure shows how emoticons commonly used in eastern cultures, such as Japan (left column) and western cultures, such as the United States (right column) differ. Emotions expressed by emoticons are listed in the middle column. Notice how the eastern emoticons express different emotions via the eye region, while western emoticons express emotions mostly with the mouth.

Training and Testing Your Superpower

Reading faces is a superpower that you can get better at the more you learn about it and the more you practice it. There are also different games you could play with your friends to see who amongst you is better at reading emotions. For example, you could make pictures or cards with faces expressing different emotions (happy, angry, sad, surprised, afraid, disgusted). Then someone can pull a card and try to enact the emotion from the card without using any words—just their faces. Others should guess which emotion the person with the card is trying to portray. As a bonus, you will get to practice your acting skills!

One way to test your emotion-reading skills is the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test,” which was developed by British scientist Simon-Baron Cohen. In this test, participants rate emotional expressions based only on pictures of the eyes, so without seeing the rest of the face. This is relatively difficult and often feels like guessing, but it turns out that most people are quite skilled in doing this task. A nice online version of this test can be found at this link.1

Conclusion

Most of us have the superpower of being able to read other people’s emotions and we all use the same map—the face—to do it. However, as scientists have shown, we may be using the map a bit differently depending on where we are from, despite using the same brain systems. The cultural differences in our beliefs, behaviors, and display rules will influence the way we both show and read emotions. These cultural differences will even affect which facial clues we choose to focus our attention on when reading emotions. Learning about these differences in the way people read emotions may help us communicate with people from around the world more successfully.

Glossary

Fusiform gyrus: ↑ The fusiform gyrus is located at the bottom of the brain and stretches throughout almost 2/3 of the length of the brain (starting in the occipital lobe shown in Figure 1A and extending forward through the temporal lobe). It is involved in visual perception, such as understanding color. Importantly, the fusiform face area is part of the fusiform gyrus, and this region is particularly important for understanding faces (and body parts).

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): ↑ A medical technique that allows scientists and medical professionals to make images of the brain with the help of strong magnetic fields. MRI scanners can take three-dimensional pictures of the structure of the brain and also measure the oxygen content of the blood that flows to the brain. The changes in the oxygen content of the blood reflect how active neurons are and can, therefore, be used to measure brain activity during functional MRI.

Amygdala: ↑ The amygdala is a region in the brain that is shaped like an almond. It can be found on both sides of the brain, about where a straight line drawn through the eyes meets with a straight line drawn through the ears. It is involved in a number of behaviors, including learning and memory, emotions, and detecting important events in the environment.

Display rules: ↑ Rules about when, where, and how it is appropriate to express emotions. Usually, people learn these rules as they begin to socialize with others from their own culture. Scientists have shown that depending on the culture that people come from, there might be differences in display rules.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

[1] ↑ http://socialintelligence.labinthewild.org/mite/

[1] ↑ Morton, J., and Johnson, M. H. 1991. CONSPEC and CONLERN: a two-process theory of infant face recognition. Psychol. Rev. 98(2):164–81. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.164

[2] ↑ Meltzoff, A. N., and Moore, M. K. 1977. Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science. 198(4312):75–8. doi:10.1126/science.198.4312.75

[3] ↑ Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., and Chun, M. M. 1997. The fusiform face area: a module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. J. Neurosci. 17(11):4302–11.

[4] ↑ Ishai, A. 2008. Let’s face it: it’s a cortical network. Neuroimage 40(2):415–9. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.10.040

[5] ↑ Wada, Y., and Yamamoto, T. 2001. Selective impairment of facial recognition due to a haematoma restricted to the right fusiform and lateral occipital region. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 71(2):254–7. doi:10.1136/jnnp.71.2.254

[6] ↑ Ekman, P. 1971. Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In: Cole J., editor. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. (Vol. 19), Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. p. 207–82.

[7] ↑ Jack, R. E., Blais, C., Scheepers, C., Schyns, P. G., and Caldara, R. 2009. Cultural confusions show that facial expressions are not universal. Curr. Biol. 19:1543–8. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.051

[8] ↑ Yuki, M., Maddux, W. W., and Masuda, T. 2007. Are the windows to the soul the same in the East and West? Cultural differences in using the eyes and mouth as cues to recognize emotions in Japan and the United States. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 43(2):303–11. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.02.004

Pogosyan M and Engelmann J (2017) How We Read Emotions from Faces. Front. Young Minds. 5:11. doi: 10.3389/frym.2017.00011

Submitted: October 26, 2016; Accepted: March 28, 2017; Published online: April 24, 2017.

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