Thursday, January 10, 2013

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2263:
A.J. McCarron's Body Language
as hears about his Girl Friend's
(Katherine Webb's) new found Twitter Popularity





No question, he (and the rest of the Crimson Tide) played a heck of a game on Monday night as Alabama defeated Notre Dame 42-14 to win their second consecutive (and their third in four years) BCS Championship. As you may have heard though, A.J. McCarron's girlfriend and reigning Miss Alabama USA, Katherine Webb, received more attention than did her quarterback boyfriend. Brent Musburger gushed all over Webb's beauty on the television broadcast of the game. This serendipitous marketing gave her a heck of a Twitter boost - as she went from 2300 followers to over 200,000 in 24 hours.

In the above video, as McCarron is informed of Ms. Webb's meteoric increase in twitter traffic, he displays an excellent nonverbal example of mild-moderate surprise. At the 0:03 mark, note how his eyelids open rapidly and slightly wider and his mouth also opens slightly. While this is not dramatically displayed, his surprise is very real and sincere. True surprise is very short-lived and is virtually always replaced immediately by another emotion. Here McCarron's surprise is bumped by another emotion - that of joy-happiness.

At the end of this video (0:28-0:29) though, as A.J. reflects upon his girlfriend's new-found popularity, he laments that, ".... she's more famous than me now". Here his body language-facial expression conveys a mixture of both disgust (initially) followed immediately by contempt. This is a great example of how accurately reading nonverbals provides great insight into a person's thought-emotions. 

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2262: Katherine Webb (A.J. McCarron's Girl Friend)  Interview on "Today Show" - Her multiple Body Language Tells

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2159: Tom Hanks drops the F-bomb on GMA - Body Language of Fear, Surprise, MAPs and a Bitter Smile

Negotiation Secret # 387: Missy Franklin's Surprise and Disbelief

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2170: The San Francisco Giants, Surprise,  Bird Poop and Body Language

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1914: Sincere Surprise - Often Faked & Difficult to Capture  Spain Beats Portugal in Euro 2012

Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1261: Christine Lagarde's True Surprise - A Rarely Captured Expression

Negotiation Secret # 133: Blake Lively's Expression - Surprise or a Smile or Neither?

























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