Vanderhasselt, M.-A., Kühn, S., & De Raedt, R.

I’m confident that we can all surmise when those moments might occur. While the poker face has its uses, there are times when it might be best to be emotionally open and authentic, right in the moment. The second is that these tools should be used wisely. The first is that as humans, we should appreciate that we have unique tools built into our brains that allow us to modulate negative emotions. There are a couple of take-aways regarding the anatomy of the poker face. But it allows us to maintain composure in difficult situations, whether they occur at the workplace or in our personal life. Of course, instituting the poker face doesn’t mean that we’ve actually changed the way we feel about the incident (Susie most likely went home that night and cried herself to sleep).

Physically, we are able to suppress our emotions by controlling our facial expressions, body language, and other physical signs such as tears, flushed skin, or trembling. That cognitive reappraisal helped her pull off the poker face instead of bursting into tears.

In the example above, Susie took her initial heartbreak and told herself that she was better off knowing this about Roger now instead of later. They found that both cognitive (thinking) strategies and physical abilities are used to remain calm and relatively “unreadable” in the midst of negative feelings.Ĭognitively, we reappraise the negative situation to put a new spin on it.

A group of researchers from Belgium and Germany recently studied the anatomy of the poker face. What allows us to pull this off? Funny you should ask. (On the other hand, maybe cats almost have the poker face figured out.) Did you know that the poker face is a uniquely human phenomenon? When you think about it, we really don’t see a Labrador Retriever hiding his disappointment when he finds out he’s not getting any table scraps.

Why is it called poker face