Vice President Kamala Harris said a lot during her interview alongside running mate Tim Walz with CNN’s Dana Bash. And a lot of it came through on her face, according to microexpressions expert Annie Särnblad.
The Q&A session was Walz and Harris’ first joint interview, watched live by nearly 6 million viewers on Thursday night, and Bash covered a wide range of topics—most of them addressing claims made by her opponent, Donald Trump.
In a series of analytic videos made exclusively for The Daily Beast, Särnblad said that upon reviewing the video for microexpressions, Harris seemed to be “growing in her confidence.”
“She is starting to look more presidential,” said Särnblad, adding that it appeared to be a “good decision to do this interview together with her running mate Tim Walz.”
She explained, “Throughout the interview, she shows affection and support towards [Walz]. She lifts her chin in pride when she is looking at him several times, and she raises her infraorbital triangles, which are the balls of our cheeks, in happiness.”
There were also moments in the interview in which Harris shows a “deepening of her nasolabial furrows, which we do when we feel discomfort,” Särnblad said. “So that makes sense in the context of this very high-stakes interview.”
Walz showed shame in his facial expressions while answering questions about his previous drunk driving arrest.
“He puckers his chin, tucks it, and closes his eyes,” Särnblad said.
At another point in the interview, Särnblad noted that Harris made an expression of contempt while addressing claims that she plans to ban fracking. “Contempt with a one-sided smile that is tucked in her cheek, and a deepening of the nasolabial furrow,” she said.
Särnblad has a master’s degree in cultural anthropology and is also certified in the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). In addition to TV appearances instructing on microexpressions, she conducts microexpressions workshops for CEOs and health care workers across the country.
Microexpressions, she explained, are intimately tied to our evolutionary makeup, which makes them difficult to conceal.
“They are involuntary, precede the thought process,” she said. “In other words, just like when we touch a hot pot on the stove and pull our hand back a split second before realizing that we’ve burnt ourselves, the microexpression comes just before the moment of cognition.”
She added, “As a result, our faces leak the truth in our microexpressions, even when our words lie.”
What’s more, these microexpressions are universal and specific to particular emotions, said Särnblad: “Regardless of geography, culture, language, gender, ethnicity and socialization, humans make the same microexpressions to express that specific emotion. Even people who are born blind make the same microexpressions.”
Addressing Harris’ seemingly constant joyful temperament, Särnblad said there is more going on than what meets the eye.
“The expression of joy is something that we can all use more of. It triggers endorphins in our own bodies both when we raise our cheeks in joy as well as when we see someone else’s cheeks rise,” explained Särnblad. “Interestingly, the smile itself isn’t necessary to show joy—a huge opening of the mouth in the shape that we can a smile isn’t necessarily happy. In order for joy to be present, there needs to also be a lift of the cheeks.”
She added, “Joy is hugely underrated in power, persuasion, and influence. Since mood is contagious, many people would rather spend time in and around people who express happiness.”
As for the big Sept. 10 debate between Trump and Harris on ABC, Särnblad advised audiences to watch the candidates’ faces, which should tell viewers everything.
“The easiest way to catch someone’s microexpressions is to plant our gaze on the lower part of the person’s face,” she said. “This is because anger, fear, vulnerability, disgust, contempt, and many other facial expressions each have a unique location and movement on the lower face.”
She added, “The only way to change our microexpressions is to change our thoughts so completely that our bodies fully believe the lie. I’ve been told that really good spies can do this. I’ve yet to see a politician capable of it.”
Särnblad is the author of three books, Diary of a Human Lie Detector: Facial Expressions in Love, Lust, and Lies; The Facial Expressions Glossary: Business Version; and the recently released Annie and the Secret Language of Faces.
