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Between 0:12 and 0:21 in https://youtu.be/5nUr3Flf8l4, did the sheriff say that

this visual artifact (or effect?) was very bland. was not invoking (or inmoting?) any emotion at all.

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What does the visual artifact or (effect) mean here?

What's it about emotion here?

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  • he said that his face showed no emotion
    – jsotola
    Commented Sep 17 at 0:42
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    "His facial affect (whatever that means!) was very bland. He was not emoting any emotion at all." To say "emote an emotion" is tautology (saying the same thing twice).
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Sep 17 at 7:54
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    This question can't be answered without watching the video, which isn't strictly a no-no but is a bad idea, and points toward the fact that it's not actually a question about language. It's not specifically in our rules that questions asking for transcription of audio are off-topic, but I feel like they should be.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Sep 17 at 19:52
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    I’m voting to close this question because it doesn't seem to be about the workings of the English language, just about audio.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Sep 17 at 19:52
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    @AndyBonner They included a transcription in the question, but they got several of the words wrong. Is this a Catch-22? You can't ask a question if you don't know English well, but it's specifically for people who are just learning English.
    – Barmar
    Commented Sep 18 at 19:30

2 Answers 2

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His facial affect was very bland.

His face was blank, expressionless.

"facial affect" refers to the look on a face as it reveals mental state, such as surprise, anger, bewilderment, fear, amusement, awe, hatred, mania, etc.

It's a psychological/criminological term.

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    To add to your answer (feel free to edit this into the answer) definition of 'Affect' (reference below) "Affect is the external and dynamic manifestation of a person’s internal emotional state, and hence is present in all individuals. It may or may not match a person’s stated mood. Affect is judged in terms of its type, intensity, range, variability, and degree of correspondence to the content of conversation. Normal individuals demonstrate a variety of emotions, of variable intensity, that usually match and change in accordance with the thoughts and feelings being verbally expressed."
    – Spehro 'speff' Pefhany
    Commented Sep 18 at 19:51
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    From The Psychiatric Mental Status Examination, by Trzepacz and Baker. 'Bland' is one of the possibilities. " For example, a patient who describes him- or herself as depressed may have an affect that is bland and indifferent."
    – Spehro 'speff' Pefhany
    Commented Sep 18 at 19:53
  • Yes, thank you for identifying the technical use of "affect", seemingly not in the other commentators' lexicon. Perhaps more familiar to those who have read in recent social sciences.
    – Luke Sawczak
    Commented Sep 19 at 11:45
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It is neither - he said "facial affect".

To affect can mean to display something, such as an emotion. The sheriff is saying that the suspect's face displayed little or no emotion ("bland" has a secondary dictionary definition of "showing no strong emotion"). It is generally believed that psychopaths show no emotion or remorse over killing so it feels like the sheriff is trying to support their arrest and belief that this is the right man.

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    Affect in this case is a noun. It doesn't make sense to say "to affect". It is a property of your face, basically
    – roganjosh
    Commented Sep 19 at 11:52
  • @roganjosh actually no - "facial affect" is a noun phrase. It's common in psychology. Lots of noun phrases contain verbs but phrases have internal logic so the meaning of the verb is relevant to my answer.
    – Astralbee
    Commented Sep 19 at 12:31

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