Peter Dutton's Poker Face Leaks Contempt at Refugees
If you were watching the news clips of Peter Dutton's remarks about refugees, wondering why his static face seems to lack emotion and expression- then take a closer look. As if his harsh words weren't enough, when you look closely, you can see his repeated microexpressions of contempt.
A microexpression is a fleeting facial expression that leaks our true emotion, in just a fraction of a second. There are 7 universal microexpressions, as discovered by Paul Ekman, the guy the TV show Lie to Me was based on. By universal, I mean that these expressions are within us all, across all cultures- they are innate. The 7 microexpressions are: happiness, sadness, contempt, disgust, anger, fear and surprise.
Contempt is probably the most powerful of the microexpressions and although it looks like a semi-smile (one sided smile), it actually means hatred and disdain.
Peter Dutton, repeatedly leaks contempt at Paul Murray's (Sky News) comments about refugees. Take a closer look, he flashes contempt 3 times, within the first 25 seconds of this clip.
You can see the first flash of contempt just 3-4 seconds into this clip, when Murray says Afghan refugees- "90% of Afghan refugees don't have a job".
Again, at around 15 seconds in, just after Murray says community- "Not only can they live in the Australian community, but prosper in it...".
And again, at around 23 seconds, just after Murray says conflict- "We've had 15 years of conflict in Afghanistan..."
Did you manage to spot them?
