Lately I have been walking along the subway platform practicing looking at other people until they look away, Alpha male behavior. It is very difficult for me since I am "naturally" so Beta, a habbit I have acquired over a lifetime of learning-disability-stress-related behavior. The expressions on people's faces as I look at them and do or do not flinch away can be classified depending on a number of recurring criteria. I need a two way camera to record these and a database to classify them into a language.

As more and more of our interpersonal behavior is documented by wearable cameras this kind of a classification system will become more useful.

The first look I have been able to put into words because it happens to me the most often happens as I try to look a female in the eye (I am male) and flinch away and then force myself back. It is a look on their faces I catch as I am coming back around after flinching away and it can be classified as a pursed-lip look of disappointment -- either that I am a beta or that I am confronting them at all. The most common looks when I dont flinch away are dear-in-the-headlights which I get from both sexes followed by either quick turn away or smile-and-head-tilt from females or furrowing-brows from males. It is the same for monkeys, although there are not as many of them walking down the subway platform. Female monkeys grin and then turn their behinds toward a male human who stares - to signal readiness to mate, and male monkeys furrow brows and then attack. Male Lunar moths rotate all their appendages inward when they encounter a female and outward when they encounter another male. I am sure the human facial gestures, although more complex, could be broken down by a computer into fluid motion algorithms related to this rotation behavior. Humans are more nuanced. There are many variations that I can recognize but would have difficulty putting into words. Every time a really good writer codifies one of these interactions I thank them silently for "outing" that human behavior so that I dont have to be subjected subconsiously to it on an emotional level -- now that it is in words I can classify it every time I experience it and no longer have to react only on an emotional level.

A database like this would accelerate this process.
-- JesusHChrist, Mar 30 2008

FACS http://face-and-emo...nual/TitlePage.html
You might want to read this. [zeno, Mar 30 2008]

Short film http://www.youtube....uBo&feature=related
Or watch this. [zeno, Mar 30 2008]

Database http://www.kasrl.org/jaffe.html
Or this might get you started. [zeno, Mar 30 2008]

The analysis in your examples seems to be limited to a single dimension, namely, the 'dominant/submissive' dimension.

While this is a real and important dimension, you might find that you need some context from other dimensions before your data becomes useful.

With that caveat, I thoroughly approve of this idea.

My approach in the past has been to use literary passages instead of film clips, because the acts of
(1) setting up a social interaction in order to capture and measure it and
(2) filming it
will tend to distort the interaction itself away from its 'natural' shape.
-- pertinax, Mar 30 2008


p.s. sp. accelerate
-- pertinax, Mar 30 2008


I did a quick search while [Pertinax] was annotating. I don't think there is any facial expression that has not yet been classified and databaseized.

I find it somewhat disturbing to learn that you are "practicing alpha male behaviour" in the subway.

Am I right in thinking that you think you would become better faster at this type of alpha male behaviour with the help of a database. The use of a scientific emotional detachment?

-am interrupted-
-- zeno, Mar 30 2008


-am back-

When you are introduced to someone, say in a work situation, shake their hand in a firm grip, shake three times and disengage.

Make sure that your right foot is directly below your right elbow, pointing to the opponents' center, twelve o'clock.

Your left foot is below your left buttock, pointing to ten o'clock. Bend your knees a litle.

Now your gravitational center (located at one hands' width below your bellybutton) is the top of a triangle and in perfect balance.

Do not lean forward.

Do not look into the opponents eyes but at that point directly between their brows.

Do not say: I am -insert your name-, but say: My name is -insert your name-.

Repeat their name as in: pleased to meet you -insert their name-.

Do this and you will make a solid impression and command respect right from the start.

In the case of your subway adventures. Also look at the point between their brows. At that moment when you can stand it no longer and have to look away, give a short nod and wait another heartbeat before you look away. Look right back and look away again.

You can learn tricks like this at seminars, they work. But you can ask yourself if you want to be like this or if you instead would like to honestly connect with people emotionally.

The whole alpha male thing doesn't apply to humans for many reasons. One of them is that we also have alpha females.
-- zeno, Mar 30 2008


//honestly connect with people//

[zeno], you're assuming that, given honest intentions, appropriate body language will emerge spontaneously. Unfortunately, there are some of us for whom this doesn't work. For us, deliberately learned body-language is not a dishonest trick, but a necessity.

However, you're right to imply that 'acting like an alpha male' is not a worthy goal in itself (though it may emerge as a side-effect of achieving other goals).
-- pertinax, Mar 30 2008


Precisely my dilemma with this stuff. If your intentions are honest, is it wrong to express them through deliberately learned body-language?

However, while the theory of body-language can help you develop better interpersonal engagement skills, I think the main advantage is that you can gain a lot of confidence about yourself in social situations when you think about that you now know how it all works. It helps me being pleased with meeting impressive people rather than be nervous about it.
-- zeno, Mar 30 2008


And another thing: //no longer have to react only on an emotional level.// ?? It is my personal goal to always react on an emotional level.
-- zeno, Mar 30 2008



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