As a Nonverbal/Body Language Expert, the most common inquiry one hears (by far) is, "How can I tell when someone is lying?"
While the ability to suss-out truth from lies is profoundly important, what's equally - and perhaps more crucial is the ability to detect sincerity vs. insincerity. For a person who has overall insincere personality traits - may very well NOT be lying to you right now - they will. Bet on it. And, they will lie more often. Moreover, because such individuals are particularly good at getting close to you - causing you to drop your guard and gaining your trust - their lies will do more damage.
Thus, detecting insincerity is, very much, the art of detecting liars when their not lying (yet).
There exists a multitude of nonverbal insincerity tells. One excellent guideline is - any time you sense a person is trying too hard to convince you (whether it's via their words, their vocal qualities [paralanguage] - or their body language) - with high probability, they're trying to deceive you.
One common nonverbal signal of insincerity is seen when a person opens their upper eyelids widely - out of context - and does so frequently.
This begs the question - what are some normal emotional contexts for widely opened eyelids?
• Fear
• Severe Anger (Rage)
• Surprise
It's important to point out that with all three of these emotions, the other portions of the face have dramatically different configurations, but for the purposes of this discussion, we're limiting our analysis only to the eyelids.
In the first 3 minutes 18 seconds of this video, Rudy Giuliani opens his eyelids very widely 10 times. On average, that's one such display every 19.8 seconds. But he wasn't enraged, he wasn't afraid, and he wasn't surprised.
So why did he open his eyelids so widely and so frequently?
Rudy Giuliani was trying too hard - much too hard to convince his audience. This behavior is a nonverbal analog to a person using too many exclamation marks. He is acting, although he's not very skilled at it. Don't fall for this ruse.
SUMMARY: Rudy Giuliani's pattern of frequent and dramatic displays of widely opened eyelids in this video is a highly reliable nonverbal signal of insincerity.
Group Appearances and One-on-One
Online Courses Available
See also:
Body Language Analysis No. 4274: Ariana Grande, Jimmy Fallon, and Recalling the Manchester Bombing
Body Language Analysis No. 4272: Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in Holding Hands - Alpha and Beta
Body Language Analysis No. 4270: Donald Trump Brushes Dandruff off Emmanuel Macron
Body Language Analysis No. 4268: Benedict Cumberbatch, Schadenfreude, and The Grinch
Body Language Analysis No. 4222: Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird, and Embarrassment Anxiety
Body Language Analysis No. 4217: Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther, Anxiety, and Alpha Up-Regulation
Body Language Analysis No. 4063: The Murder of Laci and Connor Peterson - Scott Peterson
Body Language Analysis No. 3946: Melania Swats Away Donald Trump's Hand as They Arrive in Israel
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3885: Vogue's 73 Questions with Selena Gomez
_____________________________
