Why Ted Cruz’s Facial Expression Makes Me Uneasy

Psychology Today ^

[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.

[pilgrim]

Someone sent this to me about Trump unveiled. But I wouldn't call it that.

[pilgrim]

Would fit in a Bond movie as a good villain!

[BlueDragon]

Germans say Backpfeifengesicht, meaning a face in need of a good punch.

How to say in German: Pencil neck faggoty God forsaking lying sacks of [unprintable on this forum]?

Can anyone say 'Rat-headed Rat-face? Translate that. Here's some face pics (and a few additional links) to help provide frame of reference;

tell us (white) America is a nation of cowards" on race.

finds nothing that he can pin on officer Darren Wilson (not for lack of trying)

DOJ publishes information which falsifies the preliminarily circulated narrative associated with the event. MB did not have his "hands up" but had attacked the officer, and was returning to attack again when he was shot dead. Yet Holder was too cowardly to go on record saying that publicly.

For reasons unrelated with race relations in the U.S., but instead for words and deeds of himself and agents within the DOJ under his authority, Eric Holder is found to be in contempt of Congress...

Eric Holder's Contempt

Eric Holder's stormy legacy includes being the only attorney general in American history to have been held in criminal contempt of Congress.

The contempt vote stemmed from the administration's decision to withhold from congressional investigators documents about Fast and Furious, the gun-running operation that put deadly weapons in the hands of criminal cartels.

We'd like to hear Holder's successor weigh in on that case. Ditto for the contempt finding against Lois Lerner, who took the Fifth under dubious circumstances during Congress' investigation into the IRS targeting of conservatives.

This presidential Administration did not only ponder using the IRS as a weapon against citizenry who were in opposition to them, and their political policies, as did Richard Nixon ---which was the main triggering motivation for those who initiated impeachment proceedings against Nixon--- they (the Obama Administration) went so far as to actually DO it.

There is more, a lot more. But there is one of Obama's closets advisers who almost entirely escapes detection.

From Department of Traitors the Enemy Within;

but nary a word concerning her from the mainstream press.

Love it's a bitch

Yeah when you call my name
I salivate like a Pavlov dog
Yeah when you lay me out
My heart starts beating
like a big bass drum...

[CyberAnt]

Maybe it’s because the Senator is not playing games like the rest of the crowd. He’s very serious .. and very concerned about what is happening to America and her people.

And .. since we already know he has the ability to memorize every spoken word .. then his mind is working elsewhere to accumulate the information he needs.

However, this is the second time I’ve seen this screed about Cruz .. and therefore, I think it’s had it’s due and should not be seen again.

It gets boring when people repeat and repeat articles because they didn’t get the response they were looking for; there weren’t enough Cruz bashers to make it worth while.

Personally, I don’t care what the doctor thinks. It’s his problem .. and I’m tired of hearing him complain about Cruz’s mouth .. Geeeeeez! Don’t we have more important things to deal with than that ..?????????????

[BlueDragon]

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.

What about wide open, fake "omg I'm so surprised!" ?

How about when they're smug, and pleased with themselves while mocking us all?

The smug Mockers;

Obama: 'I Am Not the Strapping, Young Muslim Socialist That I Used to Be'

The Hildabeast, from among the hearings she kept putting off, then told fancy-pantsuit lies one after another about Benghazi (emails, etc.) once Zippy the community organizer-in-chief had obtained re-election;

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Here is Ted's face-to-face response to a hostile voter in Iowa.

Ted is the model of empathy, composure, and intellect.

We all know how the leading brand deals with hostile, face-to-face questioning. Compare Ted to the leading brand.