The names may change, but the face remains essentially the same.
Politician after politician, in scandal after scandal, faces the cameras with his lips pursed and pulled tight, narrowing them. The chin boss — the fleshy bump above the chin bone — is pushed upward, pulling the lips into an upside-down smile. Add a downward-cast gaze, perhaps a shake of the head, and: Instant Disgraced Pol.
On Monday, Representative Anthony D. Weiner became the latest in a long and unfortunately distinguished line of officials whose faces appeared all over the news wearing an expression that instantly telegraphs powerful-guy-confesses-impropriety.
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York is perhaps the standard-bearer of this parade as he admitted to patronizing high-priced prostitutes.
But President Bill Clinton, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and former Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey, when he announced that he was gay and had carried on an affair with a man, wore it too during their public falls from grace.
Likewise, there were Eric Massa, a former New York congressman who resigned after admitting to an inappropriate exchange with a state aide, and former Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who resigned during an ethics investigation related to his affair with the wife of a former top aide.
To interpret the meaning of that now-familiar face, City Room called upon Dan Hill, the president of Sensory Logic, a market-research firm in Minneapolis that uses facial expressions to quantify emotional response. He is also the author of “Emotionomics.” Here, in an e-mail and in a telephone interview, was his explanation:
Politician after politician, in scandal after scandal, faces the cameras with his lips pursed and pulled tight, narrowing them. The chin boss — the fleshy bump above the chin bone — is pushed upward, pulling the lips into an upside-down smile. Add a downward-cast gaze, perhaps a shake of the head, and: Instant Disgraced Pol.
On Monday, Representative Anthony D. Weiner became the latest in a long and unfortunately distinguished line of officials whose faces appeared all over the news wearing an expression that instantly telegraphs powerful-guy-confesses-impropriety.
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York is perhaps the standard-bearer of this parade as he admitted to patronizing high-priced prostitutes.
But President Bill Clinton, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and former Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey, when he announced that he was gay and had carried on an affair with a man, wore it too during their public falls from grace.
Likewise, there were Eric Massa, a former New York congressman who resigned after admitting to an inappropriate exchange with a state aide, and former Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who resigned during an ethics investigation related to his affair with the wife of a former top aide.
Lips pursed and pulled tight is a sign of anger. Anger as an emotion typically means you feel like you’re not in control of circumstances. It arises from lack of progress, confusion, feelings that one’s being dealt with unfairly, i.e. resentment. These are powerful men used to being in charge. So it likely signifies feeling vulnerable (not in control).
The chin raiser, where the chin boss pushes upward, causing the lower lip to push upward, could also be called an upside-down smile. It’s a muscle movement implicated in expressions of anger, disgust and sadness.
Disgust is an emotion that relates back, in evolutionary terms, to “bad taste” or “bad smell.” The bad-taste version is as if to protect the mouth from taking in something that is poisonous. Clearly, these scandals are (sometimes fatally) poisonous to the politicians’ careers. It’s as if the whiff of scandal tastes bad to them.
Eyes and head down both correspond to sadness, i.e., disappointment in oneself. Regret. Like disgust, it’s a sign of withdrawal, as if to remove oneself from what has caused shame or embarrassment.
The basic package you’ve got here is anger, disgust and sadness.
