Body Language For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 6

Mastering Lip Reading

In This Chapter

Recognising how the lips reveal thoughts, feelings, and emotions

Differentiating the smile

‘Read my lips,’ said President George Bush when running for President in 1988. Although your lips are the doorway to verbalising messages, they’re equally adept at revealing emotions, thoughts, and feelings without uttering a word.

In this chapter you discover how the various lip positions, including pursed lips, a pout, and a lop-sided grin, tell the story of what’s going on inside.

Revealing Thoughts, Feelings, and Emotions

The lips are made up of a complicated series of muscles running over, under, and around the sides of your mouth (see Figure 6-1). Because the muscles can work independently of one another, they can pull and twist your mouth into all kinds of positions. One side of the mouth can mirror the other so that the whole mouth conveys the same message, as with the turned up sides of your lips in a genuine smile of happiness or the downward turn of your lips when you’re sad. Your lips can also pull in opposite ways, one side going up, the other side going down. The upper lip can rise in a sneer. The lower lip can tremble in fear.

The complicated series of muscles that control the lips include the orbicularis oris muscles, which sit ...