Posted on 02/08/2016 10:57:30 AM PST by TigerClaws
It’s hard to look at Ted Cruz’s face. He’s a brilliant orator with a sharp legal mind. But his expression unsettles me. I know my reaction is visceral and automatic, but as a neurologist it is my business to notice things out of the ordinary and probe them. The Senator’s atypical expressions leave me uneasy.
Before I say why, note how many colleagues and former associates "loathe" him. A Bush alumnus told The New York Times' Frank Bruni, “Why do people take such an instant dislike to Ted Cruz? It just saves time.†Former Senate Majority leader Bob Dole says, "Nobody likes him," while Rep. Peter King sees "malice." According to The Washington Post, screenwriter Craig Mazin, Cruz's former Princeton roommate, has called him a "huge asshole," and "creepy." He's Tweeted, "Getting emails blaming me for not smothering Ted Cruz in his sleep in 1988." The distaste for Cruz even extends beyond the U.S.: Germans say Backpfeifengesicht, meaning a face in need of a good punch.
Humans learn to read faces from the day they are born. Infants readily respond to smiles. They imitate others’ facial expressions and gestures. During the first months of life, brain activity readings trace the development of their body maps. These brain maps allow an infant to recognized similarities between self and other—the foundation on which all social cognition rests, especially trust.
Our stone–age ancestors learned to read faces and rapidly tell friend from foe. While we live in a far different environment, we still possess the same stone–age brain as our distant relatives. Like them, we judge instantly. Automatically and more quickly than conscious reflection could manage, we weigh whether we like a new face or dislike the person behind it. Our social circuits, which are largely emotional, tell us whether to trust a person or not. Given a million years of practice, our brains are good at this.
Senator Cruz’s countenance doesn’t shift the way I expect typical faces to move. Human faces can’t help but broadcast what we feel, what we may be thinking, and even what we may intend. Many animals likewise broadcast what’s happening in their heads, as Charles Darwin illustrated at length in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.
Skill in reading faces is so fundamental to our species that 54 facial muscles orchestrate its endless nuances, which others read like a book just as we read them. Only some of these many facial muscles are under voluntary control, which is one reason it is so hard to maintain a poker face or counterfeit a smile.
I have rarely, if ever, seen a conventional smile from Senator Cruz. In a natural smile the corners of the mouth go up; these muscles we can control voluntarily as well. But muscles circling the eyes are involuntary only; they make the eyes narrow, forming crow’s feet at the outside corners. Even the Mona Lisa’s smile shows this. The eyes give away one’s game and let us tell forged from genuine smiles. Grandma may have told you to put on a happy face, but you can’t if it isn’t heartfelt.
No matter the emotional coloring of Senator Cruz’s outward rhetoric, his mouth typically tightens into the same straight line. If it deviates from this, the corners of his mouth bend down, not upwards. The outside of his eyebrows bend down, too, when he emotes, something so atypical that it disturbs me. Typically a person’s eyebrows arch up, as does the corrugator muscle that furrow the forehead. What is such a downturned face signaling?
Downturned expressions usually signal disagreeableness or disgust. But I honestly don’t know because such an expression is rare in the context of public presentations that are meant to win people over. He may well be unaware that the message of his body language is incongruent with his words.
And then there is that open “O†of the Senator’s mouth that photos capture over and over. I don’t know what to make of it. But he makes it when he overtly emotes—shows us as well as tells us that he is determined, irritated, or above it all—whereas speakers who are angry, indignant, or rhetorically displeased push their mouth forward in a pout. He doesn’t. Google “Ted Cruz smiling,†and judge for yourself. For the record I am not a Democrat. I’m at a loss to verbalize what unsettles me so when I watch the freshman senator. But it leaves me cold.
Hey I support Trump. Cruz is my #2 choice and as a Trump supporter, THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT A S LOW AS YOU CAN GO.
What a piece of garbage.
And most serial killers are very personable and friendly, that’s how they lure their victims.
Trump does scowl too much.
Yeah, the guy who wrote the “hit piece” looks like a child molester to me.
What disgusting things he’s saying about another human being who really can’t help the way God made his smile. A new low.
I find it condescending when people talk to their audience as though they are ignorant. Cruz speaks to his audience as though he credits them to be rational beings.
Lol
As a Cruz supporter, I had to laugh at your description, because that's similar to what I thought when I first saw him on a Texas debate stage in 2012. To be honest, there were probably more times I "tuned him out" during the first stages of his campaign, than I listened to him.
What brought me back to his message? A townhall meeting where a guy got in his face about his "racist" attitude against illegals. The guy was pretty radical....but Cruz never got angry, treated the man with respect and listened to what the guy had to say. After the guy finished, Cruz thanked him for his opinion....then began telling him what he (Cruz) believed and why. You could see all the "air" come right out of the guy because Cruz wasn't attacking back......he was just "talking" to him one on one about their differences.
I liked that Cruz was strong enough in his convictions that he didn't have to pander in the face of aggression...so I started watching his campaign, researching his record and I eventually voted to send him to Washington
I think THAT CRUZ was the guy Iowan's met when he was explaining why he wouldn't support the ethanol mandate, which is a big reason he won so BIG in Iowa, even though the media likes to throw the "he got the religious vote" mantle on him.
I think we'll know how well he would or would not hold up against a Democrat after this nomination process. I expect to see the RINOS (and others) demonize him, beat him down, ridicule him, etc, similar to what that guy in the townhall tried to do. If the Cruz I like stays front and center, I think he'll take the Republican nomination and eventually SLAUGHTER the Socialists (aka Democrats) in the Presidential race.
But that's just my opinion...and it's worth as much as you paid for it
I agree. Let me tell you a little secret. Some years back I ran a little sideshow containing oddities and such. I was able to spin a yarn so wide and vast convincingly that I could get folks to believe that a stick in a box was indeed a 105 python from the forests of Borneo. That, that mermaid there was truly caught off the Turks and Cacaos and until recently, resided on the mantle of a bar. Blah, blah, blah.
Facial expressions, tone of voice and speaking with authority do go far.
Pop psych b.s.
“Bob Dole says, “Nobody likes him,”
Did anybody like Bob Dole?
Decent fellow.
Served our country in WW2.
Darn near died from his injuries.
Was he the perfect conservative, no.
Have they found any conservatives who hate Cruz? Or is it just RINOs like Dole, Boehner and Peter King?
And people still pretend this is about Cruz’ personality?
I don’t know. But I bet it might have something to do with telling voters that they have a violation for not voting, and telling other campaign supporters that their candidate has dropped out and endorsed the weird expression guy.
Trump is teaching us all about mud diving.
Psychology Today? Aren’t they the same genius types who believe that gender is “fluid” and a child can just “choose” to be another gender- no harm, no foul?
Yeah, I think I’ll pass on their analysis of somebody’s facial expressions. *Sheeesh*
What, the picture of the doctor?
Yes. LOL! My late Mother-in-law used to say first impressions were usually best.
When I look at the good doctor...........well, God loves him.
Very true!!
Blah, blah, blah. : )
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