Posted by bozeman on February 22, 2003, at 12:33:34
In reply to Re: Interview Hell -- John V and Peter S » bozeman, posted by noa on February 21, 2003, at 8:31:46
> Hmm...have to try the eye-smile thing. I can't wiggle my ears, though, so I'm not familiar with the righ muscles.
noa -- That was the best way I could think of to describe it, but it's not tough to find. Look in the mirror and just try different muscle sets to see what it does to your "visual affect." Clench your teeth, then raise your eyebrows, etc. The most effective thing in finding the right muscles is something I learned in massage therapy -- "intent" -- formulate the "intent" to tighten a certain set of muscles, but don't actually tighten anything. Your "intent" will cause a preparatory "micro tightness" in the affected muscle set. You can demonstrate this to yourself by looking at your hands on the keyboard while typing. Stop typing in mid-sentence, look at your hands, "think the intention" of striking the "number eight" key, but don't actually do anything. Do you feel the "activation" or "tension" or "anticipation" in that middle finger, right hand, waiting for the command to be actually executed? That's the kind of tension I'm talking about. It's subtle but effective. You form the "intent" to have friendly, smiling eyes. It takes a little practice (it took me about an hour or so to really figure this out. I was tired of people thinking I was mad when I wasn't , per our conversation about what to say to rude people "Smile!", over on Psychological Babble, wasn't it?)
Anyway, give it a try and see what you think. It's all about those "micro-facial expressions" they talk about in books like "Emotional Intelligence", "Primal Leadership -- Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence", etc, and in work about the new lie-detector technology which is based on the same thing.
bozeman
poster:bozeman
thread:201539
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030215/msgs/202829.html