Celebrity2 min(s) read
Expert known as 'Human Lie Detector' exposes what interviewer was 'really thinking' in controversial Sydney Sweeney interview
A facial expressions expert - known as the Human Lie Detector - has shared her own analysis of the interviewer who spoke to Sydney Sweeney about her controversial American Eagle jeans commercial.
It's been exactly a week since the Euphoria actress attracted further backlash in her GQ interview, published November 4.
What particularly stirred attention was her comments about the controversy surrounding her American Eagle ad. The ad was widely deemed problematic. Critics argued that it appeared to trivialize sensitive topics around race and that it supposedly supported the idea of eugenics.
GQ features director Kat Stoeffel gave Sweeney - the face of the ad - an opportunity to respond to the controversy, to which the actress said, “I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.”
While Sweeney addressed the ad’s fallout in a composed manner, another layer of the interview emerged following an analysis by facial expression expert Annie Särnblad.
On November 10, Särnblad, an expert in reading facial expressions and author of Diary of a Human Lie Detector, posted a video in which she analyzed the nonverbal cues of the GQ interviewer.
Known for her ability to decode microexpressions, Särnblad's analysis of Stoeffel's facial expressions while interviewing Sweeney was very telling. Her observations suggest that Stoeffel’s facial reactions may have conveyed much more than what was expressed verbally.
What the interviewer was saying without actually saying it - according to the expert
In her video, Särnblad breaks down Stoeffel’s microexpressions, starting with what appeared to be an attempt at empathy. “Notice the tinted eyebrows with the raised cheeks. Now, usually when our inner eyebrows rise and our cheeks rise together, that's the expression of empathy,” Särnblad noted.
However, she quickly identified that Stoeffel’s smile lacked the sincerity typically associated with genuine empathy. The lack of movement around her eyes suggested that this was not a true expression of warmth or understanding. Instead, Särnblad categorized it as “fake empathy.”
Fake empathy and contempt
Särnblad also pointed out signs of contempt in Stoeffel’s expression. “Contempt is a one-sided smile, and here you notice it with one corner of her lips lifting more than the other,” Särnblad explained. She further noted the deepening of Stoeffel’s nostrils, which is another indicator of disgust.
Together, these facial cues suggested that Stoeffel was not fully aligned with her words of understanding and empathy, but instead, was possibly harboring judgment or even disdain.
The combination of what Särnblad calls “fake empathy” and “contempt” ultimately led her to describe Stoeffel’s expression as one of smugness.
By examining these subtle facial details, Särnblad’s analysis suggests that there was more to the interview than what was immediately visible to the audience. While Sweeney’s responses were composed and measured, Stoeffel’s body language may have revealed a deeper, unspoken tension beneath the surface.