Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3893: Devin Nunes' Statement to Press Outside White House after His Controversial Meeting with Donald Trump - Body Language and Emotional Intelligence (PHOTO)
























This photo was captured immediately after Representative Devin Nunes' now very controversial meeting with President Trump at the White House on 22 March 2017. Afterward, in his statement to the press, Nunes, who is chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, also revealed the existence of previously undisclosed FISA investigations. Many have noted that disclosing FISA's activities in such a manner is a violation of the law and antithetical to some of the basic principles for which FISA exists.

Thus within this context, Devin Nunes' facial expression in this moment is understandable. This nonverbal display is a classic example of an "Inward Lip Roll". As the name suggests, this facial configuration involves the lips are rolling inward, usually completely (momentarily with no view of the lips) and are gently to moderately "bit" by the upper and lower teeth. Sometimes abbreviated as ILR, the inward lip roll is a signal of the subconscious effort to suppress the growth of strong emotions - not only outwardly - visible for all to see, but also "inside" one's own psyche. The ILR can be thought of as a natural down-regulating mechanism.

Most of the time, the ILR is associated with the attempt at controlling what are thought of as traditionally "negative" emotions - such as anger, fear, frustration, disgust, sadness/tears, etc. Yet it's also seen during attempts to prevent "positive emotions", such as joy-laughter - the display of which (in the wrong settings) would have negative ramifications.

In our everyday interactions with others, we rarely have the benefit of such background information as we have here with Rep. Nunes. This is precisely why recognizing nonverbal signals as they occur in real-time is so very crucial - for people truly speak much more with their faces and bodies than they do with their words.


See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3892: Sean Spicer to April Ryan, "Stop Shaking Your Head"

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3890: Ted Koppel on why he thinks Sean Hannity is bad for America 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3888: Paul Ryan's Response to the House's Failure to Overturn Obamacare and Pass the American Health Care Act (AHCA) of 2017 - "This is a disappointing day for us" 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3868: Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, The West Bank and Anxiety 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3856: "Belle" Clip - Beauty and the Beast  

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3815: Donald Trump's first Press Conference as President-Elect

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3799: Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia - Full Lips and Lip Pursing

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3634: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the Democratic National Convention, Emails and Body Language



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