If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a facial expression is priceless. According to this  USA Today article, facial coding is finding its place in the business world. Dating back to the 1960s, facial coding was studied by psychologist Paul Ekman, who found that facial expressions are learned early and universal. To support this, a study published in the February issue of Psychological Science found that students could identify the most successful people when faced with 1,000 photographs of CEOs.

Dan Hill, an expert in facial coding, came to these conclusions after viewing YouTube videos of well-known CEOs:

• Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had a high percentage of positive expressions, though he displayed "small, weak social smiles and touches of contempt."
• Oracle CEO Larry Ellison displayed 100 percent negative expressions. Hill points to his raised lower chin and lips pulled together "with anger and some disgust and sadness mixed in."
• Dell CEO Michael Dell scored 47 percent positive in his facial expressions, though Hill said he "strikes me as chagrined and a little defiant."

Read the rest of the article to find how the other CEOs were evaluated.