Neurologist explains why Ted Cruz's face is creepy

[elleblue]

Thought this was both funny and interesting. Plus they use my favorite new word backpfeifengesicht. lol

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Neurologist explains why it’s hard to look at Ted Cruz’s creepy ‘unsettling’ face

As he has risen in the polls, more attention is being paid to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s overall electability as a man who looks, as one fellow Princeton classmate described him: “about as telegenic as an undertaker.”

The answer as to why so many people dislike the Texas Republican instinctively is one the intrigued Dr. Richard E. Cytowic, a professor of neurology at George Washington University.

Writing in Psychology Today, Cytowic noted that Cruz’s “atypical expressions” left him “uneasy,” and that he was not alone among people who have watched Cruz up-close and from afar.

“Note how many colleagues and former associates ‘loathe’ him. A Bush alumnus told the New York Times’ Frank Bruni, ‘Why do people take such an instant dislike to Ted Cruz? It just saves time.’ Former Senate Majority leader Bob Dole says, ‘Nobody likes him,’ while Rep. Peter King sees ‘malice.'” Cytowic wrote. “According to The Washington Post, screenwriter Craig Mazin, Cruz’s former Princeton roommate, has called him a ‘huge asshole,’ and ‘creepy.’ He’s Tweeted, ‘Getting emails blaming me for not smothering Ted Cruz in his sleep in 1988.’ The distaste for Cruz even extends beyond the US: Germans say Backpfeifengesicht, meaning a face in need of a good punch.”

According to Cytowic, the distaste for Cruz’s face starts with his smile.

“As a neurologist it is my business to notice things out of the ordinary and probe them,” he wrote. “Senator Cruz’s countenance doesn’t shift the way I expect typical faces to move. Human faces can’t help but broadcast what we feel, what we may be thinking, and even what we may intend.”

“I have rarely, if ever, seen a conventional smile from Senator Cruz. In a natural smile the corners of the mouth go up; these muscles we can control voluntarily as well. But muscles circling the eyes are involuntary only; they make the eyes narrow, forming crow’s feet at the outside corners,” he continued. “No matter the emotional coloring of Senator Cruz’s outward rhetoric, his mouth typically tightens into the same straight line. If it deviates from this, the corners of his mouth bend down, not upwards.”

“Downturned expressions usually signal disagreeableness or disgust. But I honestly don’t know because such an expression is rare in the context of public presentations that are meant to win people over. He may well be unaware that the message of his body language is incongruent with his words,” he said before concluding, “Google ‘Ted Cruz smiling,’ and judge for yourself. For the record I am not a Democrat. I’m at a loss to verbalize what unsettles me so when I watch the freshman senator. But it leaves me cold.”


link

[One Girl In All The World]

I mean really, who could look at this face and not be creeped out. I can't imagine waking up to this everyday:

[cattledogkisses]

Something about that first photo reminds me of Mrs. Doubtfire.

[bellejar]

[bellejar]

Feb 7, 2016 17:04:29 GMT -5 cattledogkisses said:

Something about that first photo reminds me of Mrs. Doubtfire.

You're not alone:

Google Ted Cruz Mrs. Doubtfire. There's a lot of fun there.

[litebright]

“Senator Cruz’s countenance doesn’t shift the way I expect typical faces to move. Human faces can’t help but broadcast what we feel, what we may be thinking, and even what we may intend.”

YES. If the lizard people in power/reptilian conspiracy theory was true, Ted Cruz would be the first one I pegged as non-human.

[ringstrue]

So this basically supports the idea that everything he is saying is a lie?

[YeahSure]

Interesting article. I always think that he looks like a wax figure, or a dead person made over by a mortician.

[claudiajean]

I always assumed it was creepy because of who controls it.

[YeahSure]

[daisyn]

I've always thought Mr Burns

[imobviouslystaying]

Feb 7, 2016 16:55:25 GMT -5 One Girl In All The World said:

I mean really, who could look at this face and not be creeped out. I can't imagine waking up to this everyday:

In the first one he looks like the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

[WOT?*]

[summer]

I read the original Psychology Today article this morning, I think it had a bit more info. Then I googled "Ted Cruz smiling" and this dude is so right! His smile is a straight line and somehow doesn't match his eyes. *shudder*

[BlondeSpiders]

As my ex-husband gets older, he's starting to look like him.


I can't post a picture, it would be too mean.

[sushi]

Feb 8, 2016 19:18:09 GMT -5 BlondeSpiders said:

As my ex-husband gets older, he's starting to look like him.


I can't post a picture, it would be too mean.

You know, I met him, but I can't picture him. I remember only you
Weird.