Vanessa Van Edwards describes the mouth shrug, an upside-down U shaped expression that signals doubt. A study of 495 Shark Tank pitches found sharks make this face moments before rejecting a deal. It's a tell that someone doesn't believe what you're saying.
a mouth shrug. It's a cue of doubt or disbelief. So a mouth shrug is when you make an upside-down U with your mouth. Looks like this. I love Shark Tank. So we did an experiment where we analyzed 495 pitches on Shark Tank. Our amazing researcher José Piña spent months, and he found that right before a shark was about to go out of a deal, they would make a mouth shrug. I don't believe this. I'm disconnected. I doubt this. And so you want to look for that. If you say something and you see them mouth shrug, they probably don't believe you. And that can be a competence misalignment, right? Like, you want someone who has faith in what you're saying.
