Thursday, October 13, 2011

Negotiation Secret # 704:
False Mastication and
Contraction of the Central Forehead



















This is Raj Rajaratnam. He is founder of the hedge fund management firm, the Gallon Group. Earlier this year he was found guilty on all 14 counts of securities and conspiracy fraud. Today he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. In this photo he is chewing on the inside of his right cheek. In Body Language lingo this is termed "false Mastication" since there is no food in the mouth. It is a strong signal of anxiety. In addition, his central forehead is mildly contracted. When the peripheral forehead is relaxed and the medial (aka central) forehead is contracted - think "pain" - either emotional or physical pain and either experienced directly or via empathy for another person, group or animal 

If you should see false mastication in the context of a conversation, there is a high likelihood that the anxiety is deception-related.

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