Have you ever observed someone talking to you or someone else? Have you noticed anything in the way they stand, the tone of their voice or the expressions on their face? If so, have you observed body language or microexpressions. Body language is a form of nonverbal communication that involves gestures performed consciously or unconsciously. (Navarro) Microexpressions are very short facial expressions that last from one twenty-fifth to one fifteenth of a second while a normal facial expression lasts from half a second to four seconds. Microexpressions are revealed when a person attempts to hide an emotion other than the one they are portraying, whether they do so on purpose or not; microexpressions are strictly recognizable (Ekman). Body language and microexpressions allow humans to communicate with better understanding than simply talking to each other, but what do certain microexpressions and forms of body language mean, and how can you spot them? The discovery of microexpressions was made by Haggard and Issacs, who called them “micromomentary expressions”. Haggard and Isaacs conducted interviews in a psychotherapeutic context and noticed that microexpressions appeared when a patient did not know what he was feeling, so his repressed feelings showed up on his faces as microexpressions. These two scientists realized that microexpressions could not be viewed in real time, so they had to record their interviews and review them in order to read patients' faces correctly (Ekman). At this point, Paul Ekman and WV Friesen have elaborated on the work of Haggard and Issacs and provided new information. They found that microexpressions flowed out of a face with...... middle of paper ......n. 2014.Ekman, Paul. "Microexpressions". Paul Ekman Group LLC. Np, nd Web. December 16, 2013.Evanas, Cassandra. “Read my face: deciphering microexpressions.” Divine Carolina. Np, nd Web. December 17, 2013.Navarro, Joe. “Body Language Basics.” Psychology today. Np, August 21, 2011. Web. December 16, 2013.Navarro, Joe. “Private Behaviors in the Study of Nonverbal Communications.” Psychology today. Np, Jan. 1, 2104. Web. Jan. 2, 2014. Scheve, Tom. “What are microexpressions?” How things work. Np, nd Web. December 17, 2013. Straker, David. “Eye Body Language.” Eye body language. Np, nd Web. 02 January 2014.Vaughan Tremmel, Pat. "Microexpressions complicate face reading." Medical news today. MediLexicon International, 3 August 2007. Web. 02 January 2014. Zetter, Kim. “What does a half smile really mean.” Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, September 2, 2003. Web. December 25. 2013.