Paul Ekman’s 10 Best Quotes
Paul Ekman is an American psychologist (Washington, 1934) and an expert on emotions and facial expressions. He has written more than 14 books and published nearly 200 articles during his career. To get to know him better, we decided to share Paul Ekman’s 10 best quotes!
He has been a professor at the University of California for more than 30 years. He is also considered one of the most prestigious psychologists of the 21st century. In 2009, he called TIME one of the most influential people in the world.
In addition, he has been an adviser to the US Department of Defense and the FBI and developed workshops and interactive online training tools with the goal of training people in emotional awareness.
From Darwinian ideas
Paul Ekman’s first thought was that culture determined emotions. But as he developed his research, his thoughts changed radically.
In this connection, his discoveries led him to adopt an evolutionary perspective, similar to that of the prominent English naturalist Charles Darwin. Ekman’s position also favors the fact that emotions are universal and have a biological, not a cultural origin.
In addition, this researcher contributed to the study of the social aspects that determine why and how we lie, which is why he is currently considered an expert in lie detection.
Paul Ekman’s 10 best quotes that summarize his ideas
Some of his most famous works are Emotion in the Human Fac e (1972), Telling Lies: Clues to Detecting Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics and Marriage (1985), Why Kids Lie (1991) and Nonverbal Messages: Cracking the Code (1998) ).
Many of his findings inspired the hit TV series “Liar” and led him to publish the documentary “The Human Face” for the BBC.
Although there are many quotes that we could highlight from this great psychologist, here are Paul Ekman’s 10 best quotes. They inspire us to reflect.
About lying…
Some of Paul Ekman’s most iconic quotes about lying include:
Remember that lies are a central function in humans. It plays an important role in our lives, and understanding it completely (how people hide them, how they are said, how they manifest or how they are discovered) is relevant to almost all human affairs.
Ekman is considered a co-researcher of the “micro-expression” of the face. He demonstrated with Wallace V. Friesen that people can use them to discover lies with a certain degree of reliability.
About emotions…
Some of Paul Ekman’s most iconic quotes about emotions include:
In this context, Ekman considers emotions to be innate. In this way, people from all over the world laugh when they seem happy, or open their eyes more when they are surprised.
Therefore, culture tends to disguise, exaggerate, hide or suppress emotions.
The face: an open book
At first, Ekman believed that there were six universal movements or expressions of six universal emotions: fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, and surprise). He later expanded the list to 17. He then developed FACs to categorize all human expressions that we can somehow identify in our faces.
FACs classify them through the study of facial muscle movements. Think about what a person expresses by lowering their eyebrows, wrinkling their nose, blinking, and raising, bending or leaning on their head. Everything counts.
As you can see , the basis of Paul Ekman’s research is human characteristics and conditions. For example, his contribution won him the Prize for Scientific Research of the National Institutes of Mental Health three times.
Currently, his results apply to more than 40 years of valuable findings in a large number of fields, from schizophrenia research to lie detection. He is an incredible professional.
