How well can you read people?

So much of our communication goes beyond words to our tone of voice and our non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions. In my own work I focus all of my being on listening, so that also means listening beyond words, to tone of voice, to expressions, as well as to the energy of the other person. This is not only professionally key, but also an area I am fascinated in so have spent years studying.

Now, perhaps to pique your interest, let me ask you to consider “How well can you read people?” and give you two areas to take a look at.

First, to both check in on how well you read expressions and also, in the answers to the test, teach you how to read them better, an excellent quiz on reading expressions to “Test your Emotional Intelligence” comes from Berkeley’s Greater Good Magazine. The photo above is one of 20 examples you can look at. Take the quiz here.

To go further, a second area is what if people are trying to hide their feelings through masking their expressions, which can be if they are lying, but also perhaps if they are not even conscious of how they feel about something yet. Through asking questions and observing closely, sometimes one can support the other person by reading beyond their surface expressions.

According to Dr Paul Ekman, if trained, we can see through such “masks” by reading “micro-expressions”, which he defines as: “Micro expressions are facial expressions that occur within a fraction of a second. This involuntary emotional leakage exposes a person’s true emotions.“

For a highly entertaining primer on reading micro-expressions,based on Paul Ekman’s work, watch the series “Lie to Me” particularly season 1. Also, after watching each episode, you can then read Dr Ekman’s critique on his site here.