The Wall Street Journal reports that Transportation Security Administration teams have begun watching for “vocal timbre, gestures and tiny facial movements” that may suggest that someone waiting at a security checkpoint is “trying to disguise an emotion.”
The agency is testing a biometric contraption that could be used to screen air travelers in the future. For now, the TSA is hoping that humans armed with a 30-question emotion-detector checklist will be able to identify the evildoers in our midst. If a passenger scores high on the list, the TSA will pull him or her aside for a little investigation. “All you know is there’s an emotion being concealed,” says Paul Ekman, a psychologist who is advising the agency. “You have to find out why the emotion is occurring. You can find out very quickly.”
