“Beautifully interweaves research with anecdotes, recommendations, and the behind-the-scenes flubs, accidental discoveries and debates . . . that are the essence of scientific inquiry.” Scientific AmericanA renowned expert in nonverbal communication, Paul Ekman led a revolution in our scientific understanding of emotions. In Emotions Revealed, he assembles his research and theories to provide a comprehensive look at the evolutionary roots of human emotions, including anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and happiness.
Drawing on decades of fieldwork, Ekman shows that emotions are deeply embedded in the human species. In the process, he answers such questions as: What triggers emotions and can we stop them? How does our body signal to others whether we are slightly sad or anguished, peeved or enraged? Can we learn to distinguish between a polite smile and the genuine thing? Can we ever truly control our emotions? Unique exercises and photographs help readers identify emotions in themselves and others.
Emotions Revealed is a practical, mind-opening, and potentially life-changing exploration of science and self.
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Paul Ekman is the worlds foremost expert on facial expressions and the professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. He has served as an adviser to police departments, antiterrorism groups, and animation studios, and Ekmans research inspired Lie to Me, the FOX TV series. The author of fifteen books, he lives in northern California.
What triggers emotions? How does our body signal to others whether we are a bit down or deeply anguished, peeved or enraged? Can we learn to distinguish between a polite smile and the genuine thing? Can we really ever control our emotions? Renowned expert in nonverbal communication Paul Ekman has led a renaissance in our scientific understanding of emotions, addressing just these questions. Now he assembles his research and theories in Emotions Revealed, a comprehensive look at human emotional life.
Drawing on Ekman's fieldwork investigating universal facial expressions in the United States, Japan, Brazil, and Papua New Guinea; his analysis of the prognosis of hospital patients based on their emotional attitude; and dozens of other studies, Emotions Revealed explores the evolutionary and behavioral essences of anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt, and happiness. For each emotion, Ekman describes the universal themes that undergird our feelings, the automatic reactions that unfold within microseconds, and the actions that are actually under our control.
Ekman then takes us on a visual tour of each emotion's unique signals, exploring some of the most subtle and easy-to-miss expressions that can signal when a person is just beginning to feel an emotion or may be trying to suppress it. Learning to identify emotions in their early stages or when they are masked can improve our communication with people in a variety of situationsboth at home and at workand help us to manage our own emotional responses.
Filled with groundbreaking research, illuminating anecdotes, and exercises, Emotions Revealed is a practical and mind-opening exploration of science and self.
"Ekman beautifully interweaves his research with anecdotes, recommendations, and the behind-the-scenes flubs, accidental discoveries, and debates that never make their way into published articles but that are the essence of scientific inquiry."Carol Tavris, Scientific American
"No one in the world has studied facial expressions as deeply as Paul Ekman. In Emotions Revealed he presentsclearly, vividly, and in the most accessible wayhis fascinating observations about the overt or covert expressions of emotions we all encounter hundreds of times daily, but so often misunderstand or fail to see. There has not been a book on this subject of such range and insight since Darwin's famous Expression of the Emotions more than a century ago."Oliver Sacks, author of Uncle Tungsten
"Paul Ekman is one of those rare thinkers who can connect what scientists have learned with what the rest of us wonder about in our everyday lives. If you read this book, you'll never look at other people in quite the same way again. Emotions Revealed is a tour de force."Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point
"Ever since Darwin no one has contributed more to our understanding of how humans go about communicating emotions than Paul Ekman. In this masterful overview, he reviews how emotions are communicated, and the implications for topics ranging from mental health and interpersonal relationships to law enforcement and violence. A fascinating and important book."Robert M. Sapolsky, professor of biology, Stanford University, and author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
"Paul Ekman is the master of emotional expression, and this is a masterful account of his field. He even suggests how we can use findings about emotional expressions to guide and improve our lives."Joseph LeDoux, professor of neural science, New York University, and author of Synaptic Self and The Emotional Brain
"What a pleasure to have Paul Ekman, a pioneer of detailed facial analysis, help us to see what others feel."Frans de Waal, professor of psychology, Emory University, and author of The Ape and the Sushi Master
"Ekman beautifully interweaves his research with anecdotes, recommendations, and the behind-the-scenes flubs, accidental discoveries, and debates that never make their way into published articles but that are the essence of scientific inquiry."Carol Tavris, Scientific American
"Emotions Revealed will leave everyone who reads it more intelligent about their emotional life . . . A charming, sound, sane map to the world of emotions, the perfect guide."Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence
"Emotions are what 'make life livable,' writes psychologist Ekman in this unique hands-on volume that flirts shrewdly with psychology and anthropology. His 40-odd years of research have led him to the conclusion (originally presented by Charles Darwin) that emotions, and their 10,000 facial expressions, are largely universal. While an American smile may look much like a grin expressed by a Fore tribesman of Papua New Guinea, what actually triggers the toothy twinkle is culturally, socially and even individually determined . . . Ekman addresses in detail the 'cascade of changes' that occur physiologically in an individual in the throes of one of five salient emotional categories (sadness, anger, fear, disgust and enjoyment). In his engaging style, he asks his readers to conjure these emotions by studying photographs, meditating upon their own experiences and, if that fails, to contort their faces into specific expressions, for Ekman has found that physical manifestations actually generate corresponding emotional responses in the brain."Publishers Weekly