Detecting the real from the fake.

From the article Social Rejection and Facial Expressions of Emotion, we learn that those who have been rejected socially are better at detecting real emotion compared to those who have not been socially rejected. The experiment focused on the fact that socially rejected people were able to tell when a smile was real or fake. The fact that the socially rejected were better at distinguishing between real and fake helps support the fact that basic emotions are in fact universal. Also, the article mentions that those who are socially rejected are better able to detect genuine facial expression because they have increased attention to social cues. Therefore, they can know when others are being real about accepting them into their group so it helps to minimize rejection. This shows the evolutionary perspective at work, people use previous experiences to know whether it was rewarding and approach the situation or to avoid it. For example, Candace, a character from a cartoon, is constantly trying to get Jeremy to like her, but it is a struggle for her because she was rejected by him and his friends because she has weird little brothers. When ever Candace approaches Jeremy she is able to tell whether he will be accepting of her before he even begins to talk. She notices that when he is alone that he tends to show more real emotions than he does when he is with his friends. By noticing this she avoids getting rejected and embarrassed by him because she learns when to approach him.

How would being able to detect real emotions benefit in a job setting?

What other ways besides being socially rejected could one use to better their detection of social cues?

Creshun White