Saturday, October 29, 2016

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3739: Hillary Clinton's Statement regarding FBI Probe - Body Language and Emotional Intelligence (VIDEO, PHOTOS)





Yesterday Hillary Clinton made a statement addressing FBI Director James Comey's recent decision to notify Congress regarding the bureau's review of emails which are potentially related to her personal server.

What follows is a partial nonverbal analysis of Secretary Clinton during her statement and the subsequent Q &A.

When a person reads a speech, prepared remarks, a script, etc., - they tend to be of lower confidence and of lower emotional comfort. This behavior is very common (even with experienced speakers) and is particularly true when the words are written by another person(s) rather than by the person who's reading them. An extremely common body language phenomenon accompanying such scenarios is standing with one's feet close together.

When she's reading her statement (which was no doubt prepared by others), Hillary Clinton's feet are indeed closer together. However after she finishes reading and prepares to take questions, Secretary Clinton then readjusts her feet - moving them further apart (0:56 -1:00 and more so during 1:08 - 1:10). Although we cannot see this directly, we can see her head and shoulders move lower - (this is not be confused with the separate and also significant nonverbal superimposed actions of the relaxing of her shoulders, arms, hands and face).

Please watch the video to appreciate this relatively subtle yet nonverbally profound dynamic.

The fact that Secretary Clinton moved her feet apart (along with her other relaxing displays) when it was time to answer questions is significant. This switching to a higher confidence stance - as well as her more relaxed torso, arms and face when she went into 'an unscripted mode' strongly suggests that she believes she is innocent of any new wrong-doing.

In distinction, a person who believes they are guilty may 'say all the right things' - however their feet will stay close together (e.g., 'at attention') - and other body language and facial expressions would also grow even more tense once they 'moved off script'.





















 See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3738: Gary Johnson Loses His Temper

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3734: SNL's spoof on the 3rd Presidential Debate - and 3 Insincerity Flags

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3724: The 2nd Presidential Debate - Donald Trump v. Hillary Clinton - Emotional Intelligence and a Profoundly Telling Body Language Signal 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3705: Hillary Clinton v. Donald Trump Presidential Debate - Trump: I'm 'smart' for paying no taxes

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3697: NYC Bombing Suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami in Custody - Body Language, Threat Assessment and Emotional Intelligence

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3670: Paul LePage's Voicemail Rant

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3508: Batman V Superman - Sad Affleck? (NOT!)

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3619: Lone Protester, Baton Rouge Police and Body Language

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2470: NYC Mayoral Candidate Anthony Weiner & His Wife Huma Abedin - Body Language Tells, Part II


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