Essentially people see a lot of "emotionally ambiguous" faces throughout the day. How we feel internally is directly related to how we interpret this external ambiguity. If we are depressed, we will see sadness. If we are anxious, we will see fear. And if we are aggressive, we will see hostility.
The NPR story discusses an experiment that aimed to retrain how a sample group of troubled teens interpreted ambiguous faces.
And guess what... it worked! Check out the story get the details, but what this reminds me of is how important a teacher can be.
As teachers we are primary agents in creating the atmosphere of our classrooms. If we enter our classrooms and approach our students in negative or even ambiguous ways, students may be confused and best and hostile at worst.
So put a smile on your face, be positive, and make sure that you are contributing to the atmosphere you want in your classroom.
I listened to that same exact story on NPR. So interesting!
ReplyDelete