Reading Humans Masterclass

Welcome to the world of microexpressions, the deepest of listening skills. Learn about Annie’s background, the history and science of the field, and Annie’s approach to simplifying facial expressions so anyone can learn to read others. 

To read other people well, it’s essential to know when someone is genuinely feeling joy versus when someone is simply showing a ‘social smile.’ In this lesson, you will learn what joy looks like on the face. Annie calls this expression the YES Face in that it communicates, “Yes, things are going well. I feel good!” 

In this lesson, you will learn the macro and microexpressions of disgust, which Annie calls the NO Face. The NO Face means someone does not want something. In both business and personal interactions, this shows you when someone is not on board. 

When we are emotionally attached to someone else, we show vulnerability on our chins. In this lesson, you will learn the facial expression of vulnerability, which is an essential piece of love, compassion, and sadness. Vulnerability gives great insight into another person’s heart and true emotions. 

In this lesson, Annie teaches the facial expression of sadness. So many of us hide our sorrow and pain from others. Recognizing when someone is having a hard time is essential in developing and maintaining healthy, deep relationships. 

In lie detection, fear is a particularly important emotion to recognize. In this lesson, you will learn the facial expression that Annie calls the Oh Crap! face, which is a part of fear commonly seen in every day life. 

Both anger and deep concentration show the same “brow,” which is a pulling down and together of the eyebrows. It can be easy to think that someone who is simply problem solving is actually angry. In this lesson, Annie will teach you how to recognize the difference between the two and also see if something you just said or did made someone else mad. 

Body language is highly culturally dependent and varies greatly from individual to individual. Here Annie touches upon some of the pieces that are universal to our species, as well as what these gestures signal. 

Knowing when someone is telling the truth is important in figuring out whom we can trust. In this lesson, Annie teaches some of the indicators of deception, specifically focusing on whether or not someone’s facial expressions match their words.

Learning the universal language of facial expressions is like learning any other language, in that it takes practice to internalize the vocabulary and skills. In this lesson, Annie teaches how to train yourself to read facial expressions so that this new ability sticks.

In her closing words, Annie shows you where you can learn more about facial expressions and shares her hopes that her teachings will help keep you connected and protected. 

In this bonus content, Annie answers questions from students about some interesting facets of reading microexpressions.