Thursday, January 8, 2015

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3062: Phylicia Rashad interview regarding Bill Cosby - Body Language Tells (VIDEO, PHOTOS)





Phylicia Rashad has gone on record saying that she was misquoted in the recent (6 January 2015) Showbiz411.com interview wherein she defends Bill Cosby. In the interview Rashad had reportedly said, "forget these women" (in reference to the women who have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault and rape) - yet Rashad denies saying that she ever made such a statement. Yesterday, Rashad gave an interview with ABC News and she took significant effort to deny this saying, "... that was a misquote ..."

What follows are further clarifications and a partial body language analysis.




0:28 Microexpression of Anger as she say, "... he is generous ..."

[referring to Bill Cosby]














0:42

Forehead Contraction/Elevation

A Very Insincere Smile is to smile out of context to the conversation










0:43

Lateral vectoring of the mouth corners rather than an upwards direction

Tight mid-face, nostril flaring

Suppressed Anger disguised as false smile







0:45

Exaggerated mouth movement

Perceives herself as Alpha relative to others present (And in this context, not only the interview, but Bill Cosby's accusers)

Patronizing emotional tone







0:50

Pulling head/neck/torso backwards

Disgust/Contempt

Disbelief






1:01 - 1:03

Very Rapid Blinking indicative of High anxiety and is very isolated to this moment

"That is not what I said ..." rather than "...That's not what I said..."

Rashad's lack of a verbal contraction (that vs. that's) during this moment of very rapid blinking is highly consistent with deception.



The author of the article in Showbiz411, Roger Friedman, went on the record to clarify what Ms. Rashad said. Here is the direct quote from his post today:

"Folks, I have been out of pocket all day on a personal matter. Let me clear something up. I did not misquote Phylicia Rashad. But she didn’t mean for it to be taken the way it was, and I should have punctuated better. There was NEVER the meaning in ‘Forget those women’ that she was saying to actually forget or dismiss them. She meant, ‘those women aside’– as in, she’s not talking about that, she’s talking about Cosby’s legacy being destroyed. It was conversational. Somehow this got twisted. I am really sorry if the way I presented it made it seem like either one of us was forgetting anyone. I’ve been at a hospice on and off for 10 days with a family friend of 40 years. So really, let’s all calm down. What Phylicia was doing was defending her friend and his legacy. That’s what she said, that’s what I wrote, I’m sorry if it caused her grief. And no one asked me to write this. I’m just saying it because I like and respect her.  

PS I am also taking out the “Forget those women” because it was misunderstood, and not for any other reason."

So, although, according to Mr. Friedman, Phylicia Rashad did in fact say, "... Forget those women ..." but her context was inadvertently construed. What's interesting from a nonverbal perspective is that this deception is still detectible - event though her meaning was misunderstood in print. 





1:39

Eye Roll

Indicates a deliberate (conscious) display of contempt









See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3061: Jimmy Fallon Blew a Chance to Date Nicole Kidman

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3019: Bill Cosby, Rape Allegations, AP Interview

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3022: Bill Cosby's Decades-Long Trademark Look - What Does It Tell Us?

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

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2745: Vladimir Putin Deception regarding Crimea - Body Language 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2033:  Lie Detection, Sergey Lavrov and Syria

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2962: Denzel Washington, Lenny Kravitz & David Letterman - Body Language of ....

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2945: Roger Goodell's Interview regarding Ray Rice - Denies NFL saw Video before Monday

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