We usually look at their faces in determining the emotion of someone who we are listening to. But if you are that person who stares into their eyes for a very long time without blinking, please refrain from doing that. It is creepy and it would not be a great start to gain a friend. But new research suggests that if you really want to discern someone's emotion or intention accurately, better shut your eyes and use your ears. They discovered that voice depicts the internal state of others, because relying on both vocal and facial cues may not be the best strategy for emotion recognition. In fact, facial expressions can be masked with fake ones just as we usually do every day, smiling to cover up the sad face we actually wear. Plus humans are really bad at multi-tasking. Our brains cannot focus on finishing tasks at the same time. Thus, staring creepily and listening at the same time is not a good way of determining the real 'emoticon' they are using. Just use one sense that is hearing to interpret one's emotion accurately.

However, it would be hard to detect the actual emotion if your friend or partner has a robotic voice.