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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Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3879: Donald Trump, Wiretapping, Adam Schiff & Russia - Body Language and Emotional Intelligence (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Today the leaders of a crucial US House of Representative committee conducted a press briefing in which they said they had seen no evidence of President Trump’s allegation that he or his staff had been wiretapped by President Obama during Trump's campaign.

The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes (R-CA), said, “We don’t have any evidence that that took place." The top-ranking democrat on the committee, Adam Schiff, agreed (D-CA), saying, “I have seen no evidence that supports the claim that President Trump made.”

The video above contains a portion of this press briefing. In this clip, only Representative Schiff is speaking.

From a body language perspective, one thing, in particular, jumps out regarding Rep. Schiff - his eyes. More specifically, both of his upper eyelids are, throughout most of this segment, opened much wider than baseline.

This "White and Wide" configuration of Adam Schiff's eyes (eyelids) is due to a hyper-adrenaline state. It's a very common physiologic response to anxiety. Even a person who's accustomed to being on national TV will be a more nervous when it involves an investigation with such high ramifications.

Although it's not captured in this portion of this press conference, it's crucial to note that Rep. Schiff and Rep. Nunes did not agree on whether or not there was yet, any evidence that Trump's campaign staff had any improper contact with the Russians during the campaign.

When a question regarding evidence of any possible link was posed, Mr. Nunes said, "Not that I'm aware of", while Rep. Schiff interjected saying, "You know, I, I'm, I wouldn't answer that question, ah, as categorically as my colleague and - ah, you know we're not privileged to talk about the contents of the investigation, but I, you know, I-I think we need to be very precise, ah, when we talk about this, ah-um - and I, I just don't think answer that, answer categorically, ah, and not in this forum." Thus it is possible that the details regarding this specific disagreement was the reason for Adam Schiff's heightened adrenaline.

The eyes are always of the utmost importance in the endeavor to accurately interpret (or project) nonverbal signals. What some people would call "subtleties" are often glossed-over or go completely unnoticed. And, in this example, Representative Schiff's eyelid changes are far from subtle.

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3878: Sean Spicer, White House Briefing, Donald Trump's Wiretapping Allegations 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3876: John McCain's "State of the Union" Interview re: Donald Trump, Michael Flynn, Wiretap Allegations and Russia

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3874: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Denies that Carbon Dioxide is the Cause of Global Warming

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3872: "Fearless Girl" Statue in Manhattan's Financial District

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

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3811: Hayden Panettiere, Stephen Colbert and Personal Space

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3657: Abbey D'Agnostino, Nikki Hamblin and the Olympic Spirit

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3647: Yusra Mardini, Refugees, Syrian Swimmer, and Sincere Smiles


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