Originally Posted by
BubbaLoop
These techniques are largely the work of one man, Paul Ekman. The same Paul Ekman whose methodology the TSA adopted, presumably at some financial gain for Mr. Ekman.
A few minutes of googling will yield numerous counterpoints and downright dismissal. This is not a proven, tried and true scientific discipline despite what some would believe. Are some people better at it than others ? Yes,
intuitively. Can others be taught it effectively ? Not in my opinion; certainly not in a few days.
Affective researchers have also proposed that each basic emotion is associated with a characteristic facial expression. If this were true, facial expressions would then provide overt criteria for classifying the basic emotions because the basic emotions could be defined simply by the presence of a characteristic facial expression. This proposal, however, has been largely discredited. As Ekman notes, not all emotions are accompanied by a characteristic facial expression (Ekman, 1993). Moreover, certain facial expressions are associated with more than one emotion (e.g., a smile, is associated variously with happiness, pride, and condescending sarcasm). This poor specificity in the emotional correlates of facial expressions suggests that the taxonomy of facial expressions, as described by Ekman and Izard, does not describe adequately the taxonomy of emotions. Facial expressions may sometimes communicate information about, among other things, an individual's affective state, but they do not delineate it (Camras, 1992; Fernandez–Dols & Ruiz–Belda, 1997).
(from
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...?artid=2367156
See also:
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2007/0...ogy_of_be.html
Google further at your own inclination. Or not.