Can you spot a con? What Madoff's face is saying

What can you tell from a person's face and body language that might help you recognize a shyster? Is it true that we all "leak" clues about ourselves? I believe that there is much to read from a person's face and body as well as from how they speak. And that's exactly what this blog is all about.

Each of us does in fact "leak" a great deal about who we really are. We leak this information in a variety of ways and in a variety of areas. Our facial lines, language constructs, body movements and home and office accoutrements all send out clues about us.

Let's start with Bernie, and in particular Bernie's face. Anything pop out at you when you first look at this face? How about the raised brow? Notice how his left brow goes up further than the right brow. We call this a judging brow.

You can identify the kind of person who makes this face with some regularity by the lines on their forehead. The lines on the side above the raised brow will be higher, deeper and more rounded than those on the other side.

So what kind of person has these sort of facial lines? The judging brow comes from a person who is usually a command and control personality (a Driver). They are good at judging and finding fault in others. They perceive themselves as "better than" and are extremely internal, meaning they get their sense of what is good or bad from within themselves and don't care about what anyone else thinks.

Starting to get the idea?

The second clue from Bernie is his mouth. His lips are clamped shut. It's as though he is hiding behind or prohibiting the truth from passing. His lips serve as a psychological gate keeper.

The combination of the lips and brow work together to create a look of smugness or contempt. It is a look we can learn to recognize. On the right here is another of my favorite examples of this brow and lip combination. Stay tuned for more examples.