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.
I’ve listened to clips of Cruz on the radio and was impressed by his logic and eloquence.
But when I see Cruz on TV the combination of the voice, the cadence, the gestures and the facial expressions make me want turn the channel.
The nut in the room is the one who is expecting a sh*t eating grin and bright 'moonie' eyes, not the guy who looks serious.
Life is full of people who will smile in your face and stab you in the back.
Maybe the other guys are smiling because they are screwing America and getting away with it.
Someone with a serious demeanor would likely have a handle on the gravity of the situation.
FReepers didn’t used to cite Leftist academics spouting pseudo science to bolster their point. Interesting this PhD has never made any observations on facial tea leaf reading for Clinton, Obama, or any other Democrat.
Have you found anything from academia that ties Cruz to global warming yet?
Wish I could get over it but I don't know if I could watch any one-on-one debate with him vs. Hillary....Gaud, that would be masochistic! Don't know if I could get used to the idea of voting for him.
Likeability carried Reagan over the top. The man had charisma. I was a terrible liberal teen during his first administration and even I admitted at the time that he was a likeable man.
I will vote for Cruz if given the opportunity. But I can’t deny that charisma makes a difference in electability, especially with the razor thin margins we often see.
No, Lincoln and Washington would not win squat today. Theirs was an era of newsprint and untelevised debates. It’s a different world, now.
I don’t think you have to be pretty. But I do think you have to project a certain charm or likeability, ideally.
I find him likeable but not on a Reagan scale. Reagan was one in a milion.
My assessment: Cruz doesn’t suffer fools well. He’s trying not to show his disgust at the incredulous comments coming his way. He’s the smartest guy in the room and he knows it. He has to check demonstration of his internal emotion because people are intimidated and threatened by his intellect and their own ineptitude in attempting to relate to him. This is a norm for intelligent people.
The problem with the Voting Public can be traced back to the Nixon - Kennedy Debates. The first Presidential Debates ever Televised.
Those who listened to the Debate on the Radio thought Nixon won hand’s down. Those that watched it on Television thought Kennedy won hands down.
Optics, optics, optics. The other issue is that Cruz’s voice grates on some People just as Palin’s or even Hillary’s voice grates on some People.
We must look outside the FR Bubble if we have any hope of understanding the typical American Voter.
I say this as a Cruz Supporter with Trump as my second choice, so I don’t have a Dog in the hunt for those who want to refute my Opinion. I believe the facts side with me in this situation, like it or not.
Heck, even FR Members can’t agree on things and we all are Political Junkies who rely on fact based information.
Is this facial impairment typically comorbid with the type of memory problem that could cause someone to forget to report million dollar loans?
Funny how the Shrikes at “Pshrink Today” would be the first to tell us all and condemn us all that we shouldn’t “judge a book by it’s cover” or that we should NEVER hold in disdain some schmuck who has a face covered in tattoos and bits of metal.
Funny how the Pshrinks over there are telling us to Judge Ted Cruz by the look on his face.....
How very non-judgemental of the Liberal Pshrinks over there. /s
Are they gonna attack Donald Trump next for his facial expressions? Probably...
Dr. Cytowic is a neurologist who gained attention with a book on a rare disorder synesthesia involving the senses being mixed up (”seeing” smell, for example). In this comment, he is speculating about body language, a cultural phenomena. The fact that Ted Cruz is of mixed, Hispanic and Irish-American upbringing, argues against the kind of generalization Dr. Cytowic is attempting. The doctor should at least acknowledge the fact that Ted Cruz disagrees with the party establishment tactic of “go along to get along,” is a plausible alternative hypothesis to explain his being dislike by the Republican establishment. He should also point out the facility some people, e.g., Bill Clinton, have, in being able to lie to people because of their mastery of communication including body language.
Since we are engaged in pop psychology, I thought I’d share the following: Donald Trump seems utterly transparent, well, if you discount his tendency to exaggerate. It’s not just his politically-incorrect language. It’s his body language. Could this all be an act? If it is, he’s great at it.
[ Why so much negativity toward a (western) Canadian? It’s not like the guy is from Quebec... ]
Everyone Canadian I have met who lived in the provinces between British Colombia and Ontario has been VERY conservative. In fact a former Boss of a my Boss was from Saskatchewan originally and he CAME to the U.S. in order to fight in Vietnam in the early 1970’s when he turned 18.
I have no doubt the people in liberal Canada Hate the people in their “Fly over country” just as much as New York liberals do.
You need to write a catechism for Ted.
Ever hear of a poker face?
He’s not my first choice, but if he gets the nomination I will vote for him. Maybe Cruz can get the Rubio people to program his face like they’ve programmed Rubio’s face and voice box.
Cruz/s perennial doleful, woebegone expression is a dead giveaway.....he thinks it makes him look sincere.
And those Count Chocula eyebrows....yikes.
I always knew that Clinton and Obama were monsters, because they were Democcrats, and therefore pro-abortion.
I am amazed how many “Christians” and “conservatives” think you need to listen to pro-abortion politicians to find out whether they are “honest” or have “integrity.”
Dogs are good judges of character.
Anything is better than whats on top of Trumps head.
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