In this interview, Lewis Howes talks with a guest (Speaker A) about how every emotion produces immediate physiological changes in the body and on the face. The conversation emphasizes that micro‑expressions and muscle movements occur before conscious thought, making them the most reliable window into a person’s true feeling. Specific facial patterns linked to fear—such as pulling the upper eyelids back to assess escape routes and opening the mouth into a large rectangle to signal a scream—are described, along with the “oh‑crap” micro‑expression that tugs the neck tendons. The speakers argue that these responses are hard‑wired, not merely learned mimicry, though we also mirror others’ body language. They discuss how trauma makes these signals fire quickly, how intentional thought can sometimes modulate them, and how mismatches between facial cues and spoken words can reveal deception. The overall message is that understanding and observing micro‑expressions is a powerful listening skill and a tool for detecting lies or underlying distress.
Chapters
Every emotion leads to a change in blood flow and muscle movement in our bodies and on our faces. We have a physiological response to emotion.
So what influences the emotion? Is it a thought that we generate or a thought that we.
Wow, that's a really good question. So, like, if I have a really hot cup of coffee and I touch the coffee, the first thing that happens is I move my fingers back. I don't think, oh, my goodness, this is hot. With my brain, my body, the muscle movement comes first. The micro expressions precede the thought process. So I can't. Even after my years and years and years of training, I can't stop myself from making micro expressions unless I change what I'm thinking about.
Unless you're intentional about the thought. You're like, okay, there's going to be loud noises. I'm going to act calm and relaxed, even though my body would probably flinch or react or turn around or see what's happening around me. Right. The body reacts based on its environment. Sounds, words, expressions.
Right, right. Which is why those of us who experienced trauma, we get triggered really, really quickly, very easily. Right. And so when I said that trauma, you did the rectangle of your mouth, the tendons of your neck jump. That's. That's fear. That's. Oh, crap. Right. That's a response. And you pulled your upper eyelids back. Okay, so that's also fear. We. We make this full facial expression of fear. The macro. We pull our upper eyelids way back. We show the sclera, which is the white above our eyes, and we make our mouth into this giant rectangle.
Why is that?
Okay, so the pulling back of the upper eyelids is so that we gauge our exits. And the opening our mouth into a huge rectangle is so that we can scream for help. And so what I call the oh, crap is just that little piece of the rectangle. Yeah. And it's the only expression that makes the tendons of our necks. So even if I'm looking eye to eye and I see that little tendon, something was unsettling to you.
Now, is this an observation of us, you know, mirroring and mimicking our parents or siblings when we were younger or watching expressions of others or if we weren't able to see anyone, when we constantly create this intuitively in our DNA.
All day long, really, it's hardwired into us.
So it's not a mimic because we mimic a lot of body language.
We do, yeah. We mirror a lot of body language and mirror. And so we're like parrots. Right, Right. But so if you are really stressed, and you come in and you keep puckering your chin because you're having a really, really hard time. And they say, louis, how are you doing today? And you say, great. I'm like, oh, honey, do you need a hug? Even though your words said great, you're puckering your chin because you're feeling sad and vulnerable. Right. So I know that micro expressions are the very deepest of listening skills. So I see.
You can tell easily if someone's lying based on facial expression.
Yes, because the facial expression won't match the words, so that's what we're always looking at.
