The eyes have it! Our emotions unmasked
IT IS one of the biggest problems of lockdown – how to ‘read’ a person’s expressions when their face is halfhidden behind a mask.
But now body language expert and TV personality Judi James has given her top tips for understanding others – and unsurprisingly, it is all in the eyes.
She says a genuine-looking eyesmile should involve some wrinkling at the corners and rounding of the cheeks.
An ‘eye-flash’ – where the eyes narrow in the eye-smile but the brows pop up and down again in one rapid movement – can signify someone is flirting and ‘likes what they see’.
Meanwhile a rounding of the eye suggests shared excitement, while those truly ‘head over heels’ will have dilated pupils – giving true meaning to the ‘look of love’.
But not all eye-signs are indicators of happy feelings, Ms James says.
To recognise disgust on the face of someone wearing a mask, you should look out for a puckered frown, narrowed eye shape, and a wrinkling of the skin at the bridge of the nose.
Anger is typically shown by knitted brows that come as low as possible over the eyelids, accompanied by a hard stare with eyes slightly rounded and the head slightly forward.
Speaking on behalf of Vision Direct, which commissioned a study of 2,000 adults, Ms James said: ‘The human animal has always depended on facial expression as a way of social and workplace communication and over the years the key focus has been the mouth. The good news is that our eyes are more than capable of taking over.’