Vanessa Van Edwards breaks down contempt, the microexpression that shows as a one-sided mouth raise or smirk. It's often confused with boredom or happiness, but signals disdain, scorn, or condescension. Learn how to spot it.
A smirk is contempt. A one sided smile is contempt. Contempt is the trickiest of all the micro expressions, and that's because people most often mistake it for boredom or happiness. Contempt is powerfully negative. It's disdain, scorn, hate, condescending. There's an element of contempt that can turn into disrespect and it's very frighteningly simple. Contempt is a one sided mouth raise. Looks like this or this. Either side, one sided mouth raise. That's it. The rest of the face stays completely neutral, except for that one sided mouth raise. Either side. That's what you're looking for. Also fondly known as the smirk.
