Friday, March 4, 2016

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3488: Donald Trump Brags about the size of penis - but His Body Language Indicates Anxiety/Deception (VIDEO, PHOTOS)





As if out of an episode of The Twilight Zone, last night during the U.S. Republican Presidential debate in Detroit - Donald Trump bragged about the size of his penis. This was in defense against an earlier implication not to his liking by Senator Marco Rubio.

"Look at those hands. Are they small hands? [pause, audience laughter] And, he referred to my hands, 'If they're small - something else must be small'. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee it. All right."

During 0:09 - 0:10 as he says, "... tee you there's no problem ...", Trump adjusts his microphone. This is what is termed as a MAP surrogate (Manipulator, Adaptor, Pacifier).

Most politicians are pretty good liars - Trump however is a very skilled liar. Upon studying his behavior in detail, one characteristic you'll notice is that, unlike most people he commits very little self-touching (most of these displays are considered MAPs) - even during blatant lies which can be very readily fact-checked. This is highly unusual. Either Trump has, over the years, become very good at not committing self-touching, or, telling lies doesn't bother his psyche. It's extremely common for a person to touch some place on their body during a lie.

The example highlighted here is somewhat of an exception. While the microphone is not part of his body (or clothes) - it acts as an extension - a surrogate. Examples of MAP surrogates include biting or cleaning eye glasses, fidgeting with a pen/pencil or smoking. The microphone needs no adjusting. This behavior is a manifestation of Trump's very significant anxiety.

Of course, it would be a difficult fact to cross-check Donald Trump's assertion. And while anxiety during a declarative statement is not 100% indicative of deception - at multiple times past, when Donald Trump has lied (fact-checked), he displays this same particular anxiety tell. Thus for him, this body language display is very correlative.

Rod Serling where are you?























See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3384: Donald Trump Repeats Controversial 9/11 Claims

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3487: Scotty Pelley to Hillary Clinton, "Have you always told the truth?" 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3258: Hillary Clinton speaks out on "inaccuracies" of private email controversy 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3424: Donald Trump, "Hillary Clinton created ISIS with Obama" 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3396: President Obama's Oval Office Address - Dialing up The Alpha

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3325: Vladimir Putin, the United Nations, Russian Soil and Confidence Levels

Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret No. 1460: French Presidential Election - Marine Le Pen and Fear-Anxiety

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2400: One Way Deception Could be Minimized in the Court Room - O.J. Simpson's in Court


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