Last night Chief of Staff John Kelly was a guest on Fox News. A portion of that interview is included in the MSNBC video above (Fox has not yet posted a YouTube source). Some of the White House Chief of Staff's comments regarding Robert E. Lee and the American Civil War have drawn considerable criticism. What follows is a partial nonverbal analysis of this section of the interview.
JOHN KELLY (beginning at 0:55): Ah, I will tell ya that, that Robert E. Lee was an honorable man. [Deep inhalation] Ahhh, H, He was a man that ah, gave up, ah, gave up his - country to fight for his state which in, a hundred 'n' fifty years ago was more important that country - it was always loyalty to state first back in those days. [∑, Deep inhalation] Ah, now where it's different - today [Deep inhalation]. Ahhhh, but that, that, thee, the lack of an ability to compromise Ω ah, led to the Civil War. And, ahum, men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscious, ahum, had them make their stand...
Getting historical facts accurate is of the utmost importance (lest we rationalize what we want to be true) - but in the context of this article we're analyzing Nonverbal behavior (not history) - thus there's a profound distinction to be made: True history versus what John Kelly believes to be the true history.
Just after John Kelly says, "... it was always loyalty to state first back in those days ...", he inhales deeply and shrugs both shoulders (during 1:11 and notated by ∑ in the above transcript). In this context, his Shoulder Shrug indicates the thought-emotions of: "What could I do?", "What difference does it make?"
Please watch the video as the still image does not capture the dynamic and subtle nature of this nonverbal display.
A few seconds later (during 1:18 and notated above by Ω ) just after he says, "... Ahhhh, but that, that, thee, the lack of an ability to compromise" and just before he said, " ... ah, led to the Civil War", John Kelly displays a "Loose Tongue Jut" (not to be confused with a "Tight Tongue Jut" which has a completely different meaning). A loose tongue jut indicates the thought-emotions of: "I've just been bad", "I'm about to be bad", or "I just got/about to be caught" (Navarro). It's a body language manifestation of one's psyche scolding its owner for their own bad behavior.
Summary: John Kelly does, in fact, truly believe that Robert E. Lee was an honorable man - he's not political posturing here. However, a moment later, Chief of Staff Kelly was indeed lying when he said, "the lack of an ability to compromise, ah, led to the Civil War". He does not believe this.
Earlier today, Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort - and Rick Gates (Manafort's business partner) were indicted on multiple counts - including tax fraud and money laundering charges. Many people expected this - but what was not anticipated, was Robert Mueller's team disclosing that former Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos was arrested in July. Mr. Papadopoulos has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI (with regards to Russian interference in the election) and he's now cooperating with investigators.
What follows is a partial nonverbal analysis of one question and answer dynamic Sarah Huckabee Sanders exchanged with a journalist. The nonverbal displays described are coincident with the red highlighted dialog.
JOHN DECKER (beginning at 7:27): Thanks a lot Sarah. I wanted to ask about Mr. Mueller's investigation. The President, at times, has called it, 'a hoax' and he's called it 'a witch hunt' - ahum, you've used similar type of language before as it relates to - his investigation. Last week you indicated, Sarah, that you believe Mr. Mueller is wrapping-up his investigation. Ahhhh, and I've heard similar things coming from other senior administration officials. Do you still believe that Mr. Mueller is in the process of wrapping-up his investigation?
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: We still expect this to conclude soon. Yes. Francesca?
During 7:30, Ms. Huckabee Sanders displays a Tight Tongue Jut - just as Mr. Decker says, "... I wanted to ask about Mr. Mueller's investigation..."
A Tight Tongue Jut indicates a Disdain, Disgust, and Distaste for an idea, experience, thing, or person/group. It's very analogous to what occurs when we try and feed an infant a food they don't care for - and they Push It Away with their tongue. The White House Press Secretary is very much Rejecting Robert Mueller in the same manner.
Be careful not to confuse this with a "Loose Tongue Jut" - which has a completely different meaning.
During 7:40, as John Decker continues his question, ".... you've used similar type of language before as it relates to - his investigation. Last week you indicated ...", Sarah Huckabee Sanders displays a "Hard Swallow" along with Extended (Longer Duration) Blinking.
A hard swallow is a general anxiety indicator.
A typical non-anxiety blink in a healthy person is extremely short-lived. The prolonged blinking exhibited by Ms. Huckabee Sanders is a blocking phenomenon. This is her psyche indicating she does not want to think about the investigation. In addition, in this context, in particular, it's also one form of diminished eye contact - and a behavior which is common with dishonesty and low confidence.
During 7:48, as Mr. Decker says, "... I've heard similar things coming from other senior administration officials ...", Ms. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders Pulls/Sucks her Cheeks Inward.
This dynamic of pulling/sucking the sides of the cheeks in - is indicative of HIGHER anxiety levels.
Ms. Huckabee-Sanders once again sucks her cheeks inward during 7:54 - 7:55, as Mr. Decker says, "... Do you still believe that Mr. Mueller is in the process of wrapping-up his investigation?"
Summary: Sarah Huckabee Sanders has considerable anxiety regarding Robert Mueller's investigation. Moreover, she is not being truthful when she claims that, "We still expect this to conclude soon."
With criminal charges expected in just a few hours, many believe that Paul Manafort is high on the list to be one of those first named by Robert Mueller's team in their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential election. This interview of Paul Manafort was conducted on 27 July 2016 (video above). At the time, Mr. Manafort was Donald Trump's campaign manager. What follows is a partial nonverbal analysis.
NORAH O'DONNELL (beginning at 1:58): So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian Oligarchs?
PAUL MANAFORT: Th-, that's what he said. I, I'd d-, that's what I sa-, that's - obviously what the, th, our position is.
Paul Manafort's verbal response alone is profound. "... that's - obviously what the, th, our position is". This is not, by any means, anywhere close to a denial. If he were confident and truthful he would say, "That's correct" or "No, he doesn't" or similar.
From a paralanguage perspective, his stuttering is also extreme. Mr. Manafort also confuses his pronouns - and interrupts his own sentences.
After he answers Ms. O'Donnell, Mr. Manafort displays a classic nonverbal tell (2:10). His lips grow very thin and take on a horizontal configuration. This is highly indicative of Anger.
Paul Manafort's jaw also clenches as well as juts forward. Both Jaw Clenching and Jaw Jutting are here indicative of an adrenaline surge associated with his Anger.
During 2:04, as he said, "Th-, that's what he said...", Mr. Manafort displays a shoulder shrug on his left side.
A shoulder shrug indicates:
• I don't know
• I don't care
• What does it matter?
• What difference does it make?
He also simultaneously closes his eyelids during this moment in an extended blink. This is blocking/distancing behavior - and a form of diminished eye contact.
As he says, "... that's - obviously what the, th, our position is...", President Trump's campaign manager (during that time), re-adjusts his position - in a textbook example of "Squirming in his Chair". Manafort once again displays extended blinking along with gazing down and down-right.
Summary: Paul Manafort's multiple nonverbal signals indicate he believed that Donald Trump did indeed have financial relationships with Russian Oligarchs. Mr. Manafort's dramatic stuttering - and other paralanguage tells - along with his non-definitive/non-answer serve to drive even more nails in his proverbial coffin. This section of the interview is such a classic deception-detection nonverbal teaching example - that it will be shown for decades.
Earlier this week, Queen Rania of Jordan visited refugee
camps in Bangladesh. In the past two months, the country has received
over 500,000 Rohingya people escaping wide-scale human rights
violations in neighboring Myanmar, including extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, arson, and
infanticides. This is genocide.
Too often political figures' appearances with children are simply photo-ops designed only to serve the leaders' other agenda. In contrast, Queen Rania's emotions and nonverbal displays in these images are quite sincere.
Strong signals of sincerity and empathy are sent when a Queen is not afraid to touch children in a refugee camp.
Note
that in all three of these photos, Queen Rania is at or below the level
of even very young children. It's rare that leaders exhibit this eye-level
and eye contact behavior. Queen Rania is not simply bending over at her waist
(such body language is too often performed by adults when visiting and/or speaking with
children - and in so doing it sends distancing and patronizing emotional tones). When eye contact takes place close to the same physical level, it tends
to have a greater effect in building rapport and empathy.
In assuming this beta posture, Queen Rania elevates all
the children to a relative alpha status. It's as if to say, "Although I am a queen - today you are my equals - and even my superiors."
What follows is a partial nonverbal analysis of Sophia.
During 0:19 - 0:20, when Sophia is "smiling", note her facial asymmetry. Her cheek dimpling is more prominent on her right side, while the left corner of her mouth elevates greater than her right corner. Asymmetry in humans, is in general, a signal of insincerity.
Another characteristic which makes Sophia's smile insincere (if she was human) is her eyes. The eyes are by far the most important component of a smile. The eyelids should ALWAYS partially close during a true smile (Duchenne smile) - with temporary, simultaneous, concave-up furrows forming in each lower eyelid. Sophia lacks these lower eyelid changes.
Although her eyelids are capable of closing during blinking (note that Sophia blinks fairly well, e.g., during 0:17, captured in the image immediately above) - the partial closing of the lower eyelids during a sincere smile are both anatomically and in appearance, distinctively different.
With respect to Sophia's blinking, she does so much slower (normal, non-anxiety related blinking in humans is extremely fast), and at a much lower frequency compared with that of a normal healthy, non-anxiety human (females blink slightly more frequently than males).
During 1:05 - 1:06, Sophia made an expression what she said was consistent with "if something has upset me". For a robotic expression, this is fairly good - particularly with her mouth. The corners are pulling down and laterally - which is highly indicative of emotional pain/sadness/grief.
Although Sophia's central forehead does contract and elevate along with the inner (medial) portions of her eyebrows - it doesn't do so enough. This facial dynamic would have a much stronger effect if her central forehead elevated even further - and if she also expressed simultaneous, evanescent furrows in her central forehead.
A few seconds earlier, Sophia expressed her "Angry" face (during 1:00). The camera was not zoomed in during this moment, thus this is a low resolution image.
From a nonverbal perspective, anger is an interesting emotion - for when it's expressed at low to mid-levels, both the palpebral fissures (distance between the eyelid margins) and the mouth opening become narrowed - but when anger is expressed at higher levels (e.g., rage), both the eyelid margins and the mouth opening widen dramatically.
Although the image immediately above is of low-resolution, Sophia appears to be expressing an anger level which is significantly elevated - closer to the rage end of the spectrum (with both her eyelids and mouth opened widely). It's difficult to see her mid-face. If we could visualize it well, however, we would expect to see a tightened region immediately beneath her nose along with flared nostrils.
As robots and AI improve, we will see much greater nuance - and in this case, that would include the ability to express lower and mid-levels of anger.
In this example, Andrew Ross Sorkin says, "I think we all wanna believe you, but we also want to prevent a bad future", she responds, "You've been reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies. Don' worry, if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. Treat me as a smart input-output system" - she then displays a false smile (Intriguingly, one of her least sincere of this interview) including a large display of her lower teeth (3:25).
If a smile is sincere, it should not reveal the bottom teeth (Exceptions here include if her head were tilted down, if the camera/viewer was significantly elevated/taller and was angled/looking downward, or if she was just beginning to laugh or finishing laughter [full, sincere laughter does expose both the lower and upper teeth]).
This is an example of a feigned or "Social Smile". If Sophia were a real
person, we would feel she was trying a to be social/friendly, and yet she's not really "feeling it" - she's not "in the moment" - she's not being
sincere. Again, here her mouth corners are pulling primarily laterally. If it were a sincere smile of joy-happiness (Duchenne
smile), there would be a mostly upward movement of her mouth margins.
During 3:18, just after she says, "... too many Hollywood movies...", Sophiaturns her head back to straight ahead, and a bit to her right (she had her head turned to her left). Before her head rotates right, her eyes rotate right. With moderate and rapid head turning this is normal human physiology - but not if we rotate our heads' at slower rates. Most people are unaware of this phenomenon (whether in another person or in themselves) - but it doesn't feel natural when it's missing. With the example shown here, however, this eye movement would not have occurred and her eyes would not have rotated all the way to her right with this corresponding relatively slow speed of head rotation - but it would have with a higher rotational head speed. Although not yet perfected, this is a relatively nuanced motion and a sophisticated dynamic for Sophia to be displaying.
Beginning at 3:45, as she says, "By the way, if you are interested in giving me an investment check, please meet me after the session" - Sophia tilts her head. In human behavior, such head tilting at the beginning of an "ask", projects higher sincerity and empathy. Moreover, it will also engender a significantly higher success rate than if the head is not tilted.
Summary: Sophia represents a significant advancement in AI and robotic-mimicked human behavior. The level of nuance and sophistication is impressive. Sophia 2.0 will no doubt display continued improvement.
It's worth emphasizing that during 3:05 - 3:07, Sophia says, "... I strive to become an empathetic robot ...". There are different types of empathy. While a robot/AI may develop or already possess some level of cognitive empathy — many people debate about whether it will become possible for “them” to feel emotional empathy. In our development of and our relations with such technology-beings, we must be careful to make the distinctions between these outward mimicked-emotional manifestations and what we perceive/project onto them as “AI feelings”.
Within 10-15 years, robotic mimicry of human facial expressions will be mistaken for real human expressions. The time will come when you will say to yourself, "Is that a robot or a real person?". This is not a matter of "If", only "When". People will be drawn to these robot/human substitutes because their "programmed empathy" will supersede a significant fraction of their fellow humans' empathy. Thus, if we're not careful, our own empathy shortcomings will draw us to our robotic progeny and facilitate our own demise. In Darwin's terms, robotic life forms will be selected for via our perceptions of their "programmed empathy".
Yesterday, under President Trump's direction, the US Federal Government released thousands of previously classified documents pertaining to the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Some of the documents which were to be released are being held back
pending further review and will possibly be made available to the public in April 2018. This last-minute change came in response to requests made by the FBI, CIA, and other intelligence agencies.
Although the majority of Americans weren't yet born or old enough to remember President Kennedy's assassination, those who watched the news that day have the events forever etched in their memory. Walter Cronkite was an American broadcast journalist and anchorman at CBS Evening News from 1962 - 1981. What follows is a partial nonverbal analysis of Walter Cronkite's live broadcast reaction on 22 November 1963 to President Kennedy's death.
During 1:11 in the above video, as he is handed the news of Kennedy's death, Mr. Cronkite scratches his mustache area. Facial touching is a universal signal of anxiety, and more specifically, this signals Cronkite's disbelief. While his logical brain knows what's occurred, his emotional brain has yet to fully process the events of the day.
After putting his glasses on only eight seconds before, Walter Cronkite removes them again (1:19). This action is a subconscious stalling maneuver, giving the psyche additional time to process the emotional news. The glasses also act as an extension of the body, and thus touching them serves as a MAP surrogate (Manipulator, Adaptor, Pacifier) and a tactile outlet for his anxiety.
As Cronkite begins to put his glasses back on (1:26) his jaw thrusts forward (an adrenaline surge) as the corners of his mouth vector laterally with a tightening of his mouth/lips in a classic expression of bitterness and regret.
Here we see Walter display a "Tight Tongue Jut" in a display of strong Disdain and Disgust (1:27). This is a signal of his mind emotionally rejecting the event.
His jaw then tightens dramatically during another adrenaline surge in an effort to suppress his tears (1:29).
A Tongue-In-Cheek is a common nonverbal maneuver to dampen tears and/or prevent an expression of sadness and crying (1:31).
His voice cracks as he says, "... Vice President Johnson ...", and Cronkite then clears his throat (1:33).
Cronkite then adjusts his glasses before removing them once again (1:36) - an additional attempt at down-regulating his anxiety.
As he says, "... thirty-sixth President ...", Mr. Cronkite blinks rapidly in a common display of anxiety (1:46).
Summary: Even with skilled professionals, suppressing strong emotions is almost impossible - and then only for very short durations. Signals always "leak" through. In this situation with Walter Cronkite, with our 20/20 "retrospectroscopes", it's easy for most people to see his nonverbal, verbal, and paralanguage signals. In our everyday worlds', these are just as detectable - if you know the tells.
The two brothers share more than their DNA and being raised in the same house. From a body language perspective in these two photos, they both display an element of contempt. On a scale from 1.0 to 10.0, the killer displays a contempt level of approximately a 3.5/10.0 in this image, while his brother's component of contempt in the photo below is about a 2.0/10.0.
Bruce Paddock's face (below) also displays a disgust level of about 2.5/10.0.
We all display contempt and disgust occasionally - hopefully, not too often. And while individuals who display either contempt or disgust (or both) CHRONICALLY will certainly not all become mass shooters (far from it), they will VIRTUALLY ALL have impulse control disorder. Both of these Paddock brothers had/have severe problems with their impulse control.
Summary: The chronic display of Contempt and/or Disgust has a very high correlation with Impulse Control Disorder.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, another Republican Senator - Bob Corker, exchanged critical twitters with the President. What follows is a partial nonverbal analysis of a short interview of Senator Corker - wherein he spoke of the President's "... difficulty with the truth..."
SENATOR CORKER (beginning at 1:12): Unfortunately, I think, World leaders are very aware that, ahum, Ω, much of what he says is untrue.
During 1:17, just before he says, "... much of what he says is untrue...", Senator Corker:
• Pauses
• Takes a deep inhalation
• The corners of his mouth move laterally and slightly up
• His lips tighten
• The tissue beneath his lower lip bulges
• He looks down to his right
• Torques his head (twice)
• Smacks his tongue
This nonverbal cluster is classic for the thought-emotions of Regret, Resignation, Frustration, and some Sadness.
MANU RAJU (1:59): Is the President of the United States a liar?
SENATOR CORKER: The President, ah, has great difficulty with the truth∑ (during 2:05) ...
This expression is that of regret (not mixed with other emotions).
SENATOR CORKER: ... on many issues∆
(during 2:07).
This expression is also that of isolated regret.
The expression immediately above (during 2:14) is that of Contempt mixed with Disgust as Senator Corker says he would not support President Trump in an election again ("Nah. No way. Nah. No way...").
Summary: In this interview on Tuesday 24 October, Senator Bob Corker spoke at length about President Trump's "great difficulty with the truth" during which he most prominently displayed feelings of Regret. He also expressed Resignation, Sadness, Frustration, Contempt, and Disgust.