Test your Emotional Intelligence

Test your Emotional Intelligence

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Embarrassment

• Fear

• Sadness

• Surprise

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Fear

We express fear when we feel physically or psychologically threatened.

The facial expression of fear is often confused with surprise. When we're afraid, our eyebrows become flat. But when we’re surprised, our eyebrows arch upwards. When we're surprised our mouth opens wider than when we’re afraid. Notice that the mouth is pulled sideways here. Our jaw drops and the mouth hangs open when we're surprised.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing....

• Relaxed

• Happiness

• Anger

• Ashamed

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Happiness

This is a classic display of a genuine smile, called a Duchenne smile, which signals happiness.

It’s defined by two muscle movements. The movement common to all smiles is the zygomatic major muscle pulling the lip corners up. But, critically, what reveals this as a genuine smile is what happens around the eyes: The muscles tighten, making those wrinkles, or crow’s feet, around the sides of the eyes and creating that pouching of the lower eyelid. When you see these signs, the person isn’t just smiling politely; he’s feeling genuine happiness.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing....

• Sadness

• Ashamed

• Anger

• Pain

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Anger

You see these muscle movements—in the lips, around the eyes, and in the brow? When people are feeling aggressive, threatened, or frustrated, researchers think we make this expression when we’re angry because it could protect the face in a physical conflict—for example, the furrowed eyebrows could protect the eyes.

People often confuse anger and disgust, but disgust involves a raised upper lip and a wrinkle in the nose that you don’t see here.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing....

• Shame

• Embarrassment

• Amusement

• Confused

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Embarrassment

When people are embarrassed, they avert their gaze, which means they move their head down and to the side, exposing their neck. And the embarrassed smile is different from other smiles: The lips press together tightly, reflecting feelings of restraint or inhibition.

Embarrassment can look like shame, but when we’re ashamed, our head moves straight down, not to the side, and we don’t smile.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing.....

• Aggression

• Pride

• Contempt

• Excitement

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Pride

Pride involves signs of dominance. The corners of the lips rise slightly, signaling that the person is happy. But what distinguishes this from happiness is that the head tilts back, with a slight jaw-thrust. Those are classic signs of power and dominance—they suggest that we’re feeling strong.

The expression of pride is also close to the expression of contempt. They both involve a backward head tilt, but contempt doesn’t involve a slight smile like pride does; instead, with contempt the lip movement is asymmetrical—only one side tightens.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Fear

• Compassion

• Surprise

• Compassion

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Surprise

Surprise is often confused with fear. But when we’re afraid, our lower eyelids tighten and our eyebrows look flat and tense; with surprise, our upper eyelids rise up and our eyebrows arch. Also, our jaws drop when we’re surprised, but our lip corners go sideways when we’re afraid, making the mouth look tighter.

Some experts believe our eyes open wide like this because when we’re confronted with something surprising—a long-lost friend, an unexpected award—we try to absorb as much of this new information as possible.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Shame

• Sadness

• Disgust

• Contempt

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Contempt

Contempt is when you look down on somebody derisively or suspiciously. What’s important about the expression of contempt is that the lips tighten on one side of the face but not the other. If the tightening were on both sides of the face, the person could be swallowing or salivating.

People often confuse contempt with disgust. But disgust involves the raising of the upper lip, and the bridge of the nose wrinkles. We express disgust about noxious things, not those about which we’re derisive or suspicious.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Anger

• Disgust

• Pain

• Sadness

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Disgust

When we feel disgust, the muscles above the upper lip pull up, raising the upper lip, wrinkling the nose, and narrowing the eyes.

People often confuse disgust and anger. But anger tightens the mouth and lowers the eyebrows more significantly, and raises the upper eyelid. With disgust, the mouth opens and the tongue comes out, just in case you need to throw up.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Pain

• Disgust

• Anger

• Sadness

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Pain

When we feel pain, our facial muscles move in ways that contract the face and protect us from harm. In the upper half of the face, the muscles around the eyes contract, closing the eyes tightly, and the muscles lower our eyebrows. In the lower half of the face, our lips tighten and press upwards.

You’ll see this particular expression especially when people are experiencing psychological pain, such as when they see other people suffer. It’s an expression closely related to sadness.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Sadness

• Compassion

• Anger

• Interest

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Compassion

When people feel sympathy or compassion, the muscles pull the eyebrows in and up, the lips press together, and head tilts forward slightly—a sign of social engagement.

The expression of compassion is most often confused with sadness. The eyebrow movements are similar in sadness and compassion, but with compassion the lips press together; when we feel sad, our lips pull down.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Surprise

• Amusement

• Pride

• Excitement

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Amusement

The tell-tale signs of genuine amusement are the open mouth and the backwards head movement. And like a genuine smile, you can tell a genuine laugh when you see the muscles contracting around the eyes, making crow’s feet.

Genuine laughter often relaxes all muscle movements in the body because of shifts in our respiration patterns that happen when we laugh. This rapid shift to a state of relaxation shuts off feelings of aggression or frustration—we’re cooperating with other people, not competing.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Surprise

• Joy

• Interest

• Impatience

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Interest

When we’re interested in something, the muscles raise our eyebrows straight up, and our lip corners turn up in a slight smile, suggesting we’re feeling pleasure.

The expression of interest is related to the expression of happiness. But when we’re happy, we’ll show more exaggerated upward movements of our lip corners, and the muscles around the eyes will contract more, without the eyebrow raising straight up.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Sadness

• Embarrassment

• Confusion

• Shame

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Shame

Shame is a very simple display but a powerful one. It simply involves gaze aversion, with the head moving down so that the chin tucks into the neck. It’s the opposite of pride: Whereas with pride our head tilts back and our chin goes up, shame often constricts our posture as a sign of submissiveness.

This expression is frequently confused with sadness. But shame doesn’t involve the muscle movements of the sad face—the eyebrows pulled in and partly up, with the lip corners moving down.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Apology

• Happiness

• Politeness

• Disapproval

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Politeness

This is a smile that doesn’t signal true happiness. It suggests that the person is trying to seem polite and cooperative, but they don’t genuinely feel happy.

The facial muscle is pulling the lip corners up, but there are no signs of real joy around the eyes—no crow’s feet around the sides, no pouching of the lower eyelid, no raising of the cheek.

Multiple Choice

This face is expressing...

• Love

• Curiosity

• Embarrassment

• Excitement

Open Ended

Correct Answer: Embarrassment With about 30 percent of embarrassment episodes, people touch their face, which is happening here. Some experts believe the face touch is a defensive movement, to protect the face after the person violated some social rule.

In some parts of the world, people make a similar hand gesture when they’re ashamed. But with shame, the head moves straight down, not to the side, and there’s no slight smile.