The Face: The face is on one hand the most expressive body part we posses, and on the other hand, the most easily manipulated. Experts are able to meticulously control their facial expressions so as to be unreadable (eg. The poker face) while amateurs will crack nervous grins and will sport numerous facial twitches. Poker Face: Mastering Body Language to Bluff, Read Tells and Win. ISBN 1-60094-051-X. Harroch; Lou Krieger (2011). Poker For Dummies. ISBN 1-118-05358-3. ^ Joey Lee Dillard (1985). Toward a social history of American English. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-010584-5. The researchers say that 'According to these results, the best 'poker face' for bluffing may not be a neutral face, but rather a face that contains emotional correlates of trustworthiness — Moreover, it suggests that rapid impressions of an opponent play an important role in competitive games, especially when people have little or no experience with an opponent.'.
The Mouth Guard
- The mouth guard is one of the few adult gestures that is as obvious as a child's. The hand covers the mouth and the thumb is pressed against the cheek as the brain sub-consciously instructs it to try and suppress the deceitful words that are being said. Sometimes this gesture may only be several fingers over the mouth or even a closed fist, but its meaning remains the same.
- Many people try to disguise the mouth guard gesture by giving a fake cough.If the person who is speaking uses this gesture, it indicates that he is telling a lie. If, however, he covers his mouth while you are speaking, it indicates that he feels you are lying!
Nose Touching and Eye Rub
- The Nose Touch - In essence, the nose touch gesture is a sophisticated, disguised version of the mouth guard gesture. It may consist of several light rubs below the nose or it may be one quick, almost imperceptible touch. Like the mouth guard gesture, it can be used both by the speaker to disguise his own deceit and by the listener who doubts the speaker's words.
- The Eye Rub - 'See no evil' says the wise monkey, and this gesture is the brain's attempt to block out the deceit, doubt or lie that it sees or to avoid having to look at the face of the person to whom he is telling the lie. Men usually rub their eyes vigorously and if the lie is a big one they will often look away, normally towards the floor. Women use a small, gentle rubbing motion just below the eye, either because they have been brought up to avoid making robust gestures, or to avoid smudging make-up. They also avoid a listener's gaze by looking at the ceiling.
Ear Rub and Neck Scratch
- The Ear Rub - This is, in effect, an attempt by the listener to 'hear no evil' in trying to block the words by putting the hand around or over the ear. This is the sophisticated adult version of the handsover-both-ears gesture used by the young child who wants to block out his parent's reprimands. Other variations of the ear rub gesture include rubbing the back of the ear, the finger drill (where the fingertip is screwed back and forth inside the ear), pulling at the earlobe or bending the entire ear forward to cover the earhole. This last gesture is a signal that the person has heard enough or may want to speak.
- The Neck Scratch - In this case, the index finger of the writing hand scratches below the earlobe, or may even scratch the side of the neck. Our observation of this gesture, reveals an interesting point. The person scratches about five times. Rarely is the number of scratches less than five and seldom more than five. This gesture is a signal of doubt or uncertainty and is characteristic of the person who says, 'I'm not sure I agree.' It is very noticeable when the verbal language contradicts it, for example, when the person says something like, 'I can understand how you feel.'
Collar Pull Gesture and Fingers in the Mouth Gesture
Body Language Poker Facebook
- The Collar Pull - when a person is feeling angry or frustrated or sweating and needs to pull the collar away from his neck in an attempt to let the cool air circulate around it. When you see someone use this gesture, a question like, 'Would you repeat that, please?' or, 'Could you clarify that point, please?' can cause the would-be deceiver to give the game away.
- Fingers in the Mouth - Morris's explanation of this gesture is that the fingers are placed in the mouth when a person is under pressure. Whereas most hand-to-mouth gestures involve lying or deception, the fingers-in-mouth gesture is an outward manifestation of an inner need for reassurance. Giving the person guarantees and assurances is appropriate when this gesture appears.
Cheek Gestures
- Boredom Gesture - When the listener begins to use his hand to support his head, it is a signal that boredom has set in and his supporting hand is an attempt to hold his head up to stop himself from falling asleep. Extreme boredom and lack of interest are shown when the head is fully supported by the hand.
- Interested Gesture - Interested gesture is shown by a closed hand resting on the cheek, often with the index finger pointing upwards. Should the person begin to lose interest but wish to appear interested, for courtesy's sake, the position will alter slightly so that the heel of the palm supports the head.
- Genuine interest is shown when the hand is on the cheek, not used as a head support.
Chin Stroking Gestures
- When the index finger points vertically up the cheek and the thumb supports the chin, the listener is having negative or critical thoughts about the speaker or his subject. Often the index finger may rub or pull at the eye as the negative thoughts continue.
- The next time you have the opportunity to present an idea to a group of people, watch them carefully as you give your idea and you will notice something fascinating. Most, if not all the members of your audience will bring one hand up to their faces and begin to use evaluation gestures. As you come to the conclusion of your presentation and ask for the group to give opinions or suggestions about the idea, the evaluation gestures will cease. One hand will move to the chin and begin a chin-stroking gesture.
- This chin-stroking gesture is the signal that the listener is making a decision. When you have asked the listeners for a decision and their gestures have changed from evaluation to decision-making.
Head-Rubbing and Head-Slapping Gestures
- Pain in Neck Gesture - A person who uses this when lying usually avoids your gaze and looks down. This gesture is also used as a signal of frustration or anger and, when this is the case, the hand slaps the back of the neck first and then begins to rub the neck.
- Forgetfulness Gesture - The slapping of the head communicates forgetfulness, the person signals how he feels about you or the situation by the position used when he slaps his hand on his head, either the forehead or the neck. If he slaps his forehead he signals that he is not intimidated by your having mentioned his forgetfulness, but when he slaps the back of his neck. He non-verbally tells you that you are literally a 'pain-in-the-neck' for pointing out his error.
Which Faces Bluff Best In Poker?
Christopher Philip
The Current Study
Zero-sum games are games where on persons' gains are another's loss. These set of circumstances make them highly interesting to study.
In the current study, researchers led by Erik J. Schlicht Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, examined the effects of trustworthy, untrustworthy and neutral faces in a simplified version of the Texas Hold'em.
Unlike real poker, subjects were told they would not be able to bluff their way into winning a hand. Rather, they would make their decision to fold or call based on their start hand only, as well as the image of their opponent. They were not permitted to raise or bet. In fact, no other cards were to be dealt and no feedback provided along the way. In each case however, the opponent always bet randomly. The subjects were also always forced to be in the 'big blind' which required them to put in an initial amount of chips.
The Results Of The Study
Results showed that threatening face information has little effect on wagering behaviour, but faces relaying positive emotional characteristics, that is, facial trustworthiness, made people take longer to make their decisions and they made more mistakes.
Nose Touching and Eye Rub
- The Nose Touch - In essence, the nose touch gesture is a sophisticated, disguised version of the mouth guard gesture. It may consist of several light rubs below the nose or it may be one quick, almost imperceptible touch. Like the mouth guard gesture, it can be used both by the speaker to disguise his own deceit and by the listener who doubts the speaker's words.
- The Eye Rub - 'See no evil' says the wise monkey, and this gesture is the brain's attempt to block out the deceit, doubt or lie that it sees or to avoid having to look at the face of the person to whom he is telling the lie. Men usually rub their eyes vigorously and if the lie is a big one they will often look away, normally towards the floor. Women use a small, gentle rubbing motion just below the eye, either because they have been brought up to avoid making robust gestures, or to avoid smudging make-up. They also avoid a listener's gaze by looking at the ceiling.
Ear Rub and Neck Scratch
- The Ear Rub - This is, in effect, an attempt by the listener to 'hear no evil' in trying to block the words by putting the hand around or over the ear. This is the sophisticated adult version of the handsover-both-ears gesture used by the young child who wants to block out his parent's reprimands. Other variations of the ear rub gesture include rubbing the back of the ear, the finger drill (where the fingertip is screwed back and forth inside the ear), pulling at the earlobe or bending the entire ear forward to cover the earhole. This last gesture is a signal that the person has heard enough or may want to speak.
- The Neck Scratch - In this case, the index finger of the writing hand scratches below the earlobe, or may even scratch the side of the neck. Our observation of this gesture, reveals an interesting point. The person scratches about five times. Rarely is the number of scratches less than five and seldom more than five. This gesture is a signal of doubt or uncertainty and is characteristic of the person who says, 'I'm not sure I agree.' It is very noticeable when the verbal language contradicts it, for example, when the person says something like, 'I can understand how you feel.'
Collar Pull Gesture and Fingers in the Mouth Gesture
Body Language Poker Facebook
- The Collar Pull - when a person is feeling angry or frustrated or sweating and needs to pull the collar away from his neck in an attempt to let the cool air circulate around it. When you see someone use this gesture, a question like, 'Would you repeat that, please?' or, 'Could you clarify that point, please?' can cause the would-be deceiver to give the game away.
- Fingers in the Mouth - Morris's explanation of this gesture is that the fingers are placed in the mouth when a person is under pressure. Whereas most hand-to-mouth gestures involve lying or deception, the fingers-in-mouth gesture is an outward manifestation of an inner need for reassurance. Giving the person guarantees and assurances is appropriate when this gesture appears.
Cheek Gestures
- Boredom Gesture - When the listener begins to use his hand to support his head, it is a signal that boredom has set in and his supporting hand is an attempt to hold his head up to stop himself from falling asleep. Extreme boredom and lack of interest are shown when the head is fully supported by the hand.
- Interested Gesture - Interested gesture is shown by a closed hand resting on the cheek, often with the index finger pointing upwards. Should the person begin to lose interest but wish to appear interested, for courtesy's sake, the position will alter slightly so that the heel of the palm supports the head.
- Genuine interest is shown when the hand is on the cheek, not used as a head support.
Chin Stroking Gestures
- When the index finger points vertically up the cheek and the thumb supports the chin, the listener is having negative or critical thoughts about the speaker or his subject. Often the index finger may rub or pull at the eye as the negative thoughts continue.
- The next time you have the opportunity to present an idea to a group of people, watch them carefully as you give your idea and you will notice something fascinating. Most, if not all the members of your audience will bring one hand up to their faces and begin to use evaluation gestures. As you come to the conclusion of your presentation and ask for the group to give opinions or suggestions about the idea, the evaluation gestures will cease. One hand will move to the chin and begin a chin-stroking gesture.
- This chin-stroking gesture is the signal that the listener is making a decision. When you have asked the listeners for a decision and their gestures have changed from evaluation to decision-making.
Head-Rubbing and Head-Slapping Gestures
- Pain in Neck Gesture - A person who uses this when lying usually avoids your gaze and looks down. This gesture is also used as a signal of frustration or anger and, when this is the case, the hand slaps the back of the neck first and then begins to rub the neck.
- Forgetfulness Gesture - The slapping of the head communicates forgetfulness, the person signals how he feels about you or the situation by the position used when he slaps his hand on his head, either the forehead or the neck. If he slaps his forehead he signals that he is not intimidated by your having mentioned his forgetfulness, but when he slaps the back of his neck. He non-verbally tells you that you are literally a 'pain-in-the-neck' for pointing out his error.
Which Faces Bluff Best In Poker?
Christopher Philip
The Current Study
Zero-sum games are games where on persons' gains are another's loss. These set of circumstances make them highly interesting to study.
In the current study, researchers led by Erik J. Schlicht Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, examined the effects of trustworthy, untrustworthy and neutral faces in a simplified version of the Texas Hold'em.
Unlike real poker, subjects were told they would not be able to bluff their way into winning a hand. Rather, they would make their decision to fold or call based on their start hand only, as well as the image of their opponent. They were not permitted to raise or bet. In fact, no other cards were to be dealt and no feedback provided along the way. In each case however, the opponent always bet randomly. The subjects were also always forced to be in the 'big blind' which required them to put in an initial amount of chips.
The Results Of The Study
Results showed that threatening face information has little effect on wagering behaviour, but faces relaying positive emotional characteristics, that is, facial trustworthiness, made people take longer to make their decisions and they made more mistakes.
Differences in reaction times was more pronounced around the optimal decision boundary suggesting that faces mattered more during specific instances.
Overall, facial trustworthiness produced greater mistakes with respect to increased folding rates. This suggests that opponents, when nothing else was relevant, believed that the trustworthy faces were telling the truth about the strength of their hand.
Discussing The Findings
Untrustworthy
Neutral
The researchers say that 'According to these results, the best 'poker face' for bluffing may not be a neutral face, but rather a face that contains emotional correlates of trustworthiness — Moreover, it suggests that rapid impressions of an opponent play an important role in competitive games, especially when people have little or no experience with an opponent.' Craps casino deutschland online.
The researchers suggest that common 'avoidance cues' including dominant, angry and masculine led to more aggressive wagering decisions (increased calling), whereas 'approach cues' such as happy, friendly, attractive and trustworthy led to conservative wagering (increased folding).
This is a rational approach, say the researchers, as approach cues signal to others honesty and suggests that the opponent really dose have a strong hand and is unlikely to be bluffing.
Drawing Conclusions
'Contrary to the popular belief that the optimal poker face is neutral in appearance,' say the researchers 'the face that invokes the most betting mistakes by our subjects has
attributes that are correlated with trustworthiness. This suggests that poker players who bluff frequently may actually benefit from appearing trustworthy, since the natural tendency seems to be inferring that a trustworthy-looking player bluffs less.'
This is especially the case when opponents have little or no experience with one another which is the case early in the game or in one-shot negotiations. Likewise, facial morphology will predict how we make and ascribe trustworthiness during first impressions.
To learn more about decoding lying in people sign up for 'How to be a Human Lie Detector.' The course is hosted by Vanessa Van Edwards but fully sponsored by Body Language Project.
Poker Face Body Language
Resources
Schlicht, Erik J.; Shinsuke Shimojo; Colin F. Camerer; Peter Battaglia and Ken Nakayama. Human Wagering Behavior Depends on Opponents' Faces. PLOS one. July 2019. 5(7): e11663. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011663.g001
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