On August 5th Amit Elor won the gold medal in the freestyle wrestling category at the Paris 2024 Olympics. In this case we will be analyzing her non-verbal language through Dr. Paul Ekman's PACS system
The PACS model classifies and analyzes people's micro-expressions in 7 major categories, which are Joy, Sadness, Fear, Surprise, Anger, Disgust and Contempt.
Because our emotions are almost never pure (in the sense that it is almost never just one emotion), what we can analyze are emotional frames, which are sets of micro-expressions in a very specific time window, in this case the moment of victory and recognition of Amit Elor in the match.
For Amit Elor, the moment of victory seemed intense and overwhelming. She was also visibly exhausted and appeared to be under significant stress.
Still, the predominant emotion appears to be joy, mixed with surprise, fear and sadness.
What does this combination of emotions mean?
At the moment her victory is announced, Amit Elor appears to be experiencing a moment of intense joy, combined with surprise and a hint of fear and sadness. Later, at the moment of recognition, she seems to maintain this emotional frame.
The specific combination of these emotions would seem to be communicating: "I am happy, although I am surprised to have won and I am somewhat saddened by how my victory came about".
This is certainly one interpretation of many possible ones, but it can give us a guide to be better oriented if we had to communicate with her.
It is important to remember that the interpretation of emotions through the PACS model is fallible, and it is only a tool. The most important thing to learn to interpret others' emotions is to develop our own sense of empathy and remember to always see people in good faith.
PACS in your organization
If you need help implementing this tool with your work team you can request an exploratory call here.
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