The above video contains an excerpt from Betsy DeVos' 60 Minutes interview which aired on Sunday.
The US Secretary of Education has less variability in her facial expressions than the vast majority of people. This phenomenon - sometimes referred to as a 'Living Mask' - elicits uneasy emotions in others.
One of Ms. DeVos' primary default expressions is a 'smile' - which, almost always is a feigned smile. Moreover, her smiles/false smiles very frequently occur out-of-context to the subject matter.
The image above was captured from 1:25 in the video, just after Leslie Stahl says, "No, but your argument if you take funds away, ah, that the schools will get better, is not working in Michigan..." - Ms. DeVos wasn't smiling - but then, upon hearing Ms. Stahl's statement, her face reconfigured.
Her expression is a false smile because:
• Her lower eyelids do not have evanescent, dynamic, concave-up furrows
• The corners of her mouth are vectored primarily laterally (rather than upward, as with a sincere smile)
This statement by Leslie Stahl, should not have been answered with a feigned or real smile. This type of behavior raises red flags. It 'feels' odd - for it's a highly out-of-context response.
Throughout this interview (and most of her public appearances), there are numerous similar examples such 'Masked Smiling'.
It's crucial to make the following distinction: Ms. DeVos, like anyone, can certainly exhibit 'Duping Delight' - however, near-constant, smiling (feigned or real), is another phenomenon (although both are examples of smiling out-of-context).
Summary: One reason Secretary DeVos is felt to be insincere is due to her longstanding nonverbal behavior pattern of:
• Very Low Facial Expression Viability (A 'Living Mask')
• Smiling Far Too Frequently (Smiling Out-of-Context)
Fascinatingly, these are exactly the same nonverbal reasons many people fear clowns/clown masks - because they are unchanging, insincere smiles.
Osteen was interviewed several times on several different national networks this morning. One of these interviews is included above. What follows is a partial nonverbal analysis.
Comparing the above interview of Pastor Osteen to videos a few years old, you should notice several long-term patterns:
1. You probably recall that Joel Osteen has a prominent facial tic in the form of dramatic and long-standing blinking. Facial tics have both involuntary and voluntary components. Anxiety is one common factor which typically increases facial tic behavior.
2. He has an asymmetrical mouth configuration while speaking. Evaluating old videos show this dynamic is also longstanding - although it appears to be a bit amplified during this exchange.
Although it can be simply a form of a long-term habit/tic-like phenomenon, asymmetric mouth dynamics during speaking is also commonly correlated with insincerity/deception and bravado/swagger. Excluding tic-like etiologies, the Venn diagrams for these latter two behaviors overlap significantly.
3. Asymmetrical Smiling. Joel Osteen also has a longstanding tendency of smiling much of the time whether he's speaking or not. Osteen does this fairly dramatically - also with a strong bias to his right side.
When a smile is sincere - and it's beginning or fading, asymmetry is not uncommon - however the asymmetry should not be maintained throughout the duration of the "smile". If the smile is routinely one-sided and constantly present, it's a very safe bet the smile is insincere.
4. Constant smiling. This particular behavior of Osteen is profound - but, once again, it's been present for years. Anytime a person displays any facial expression with a continuous or near-continuous frequency - especially when it's far from emotional baseline, it's a tremendous red flag of insincerity.
Whenever a person's face assumes, what for them is a "default expression" (sad, happy, angry, critical, etc.) - and maintains this "facial pose" - it becomes much easier for the brain to deceive. When the stakes are high, convincing deception is a difficult act - it takes significant mental focus, and even then most people can't readily pull it off. Therefore, when a person wears a "living mask" (a constant, practiced, and for them, easy default expression) it's much easier to lie.
As a rule, a person who constantly smiles - out of context and out of proportion - is to be strongly avoided.
5. Stuttering is often correlated with facial tics and tic-like behaviors. Stuttering can be correlated with anxiety, and thus sometimes indirectly associated with dishonesty and insincerity - however, there is no direct relationship.
6. Hard swallowing. You'll note that at several times Osteen's "Adam's apple" (Thyroid Cartilage surrounding the Larynx) moved up-and-down during what is known as a "hard swallow". These actions are good general indicators of a dry throat and anxiety.
7. Touching with fingertips but not full palms when gesturing to the chest. Several times when gesturing to his chest (obscured somewhat by the banner at the bottom of the page), Osteen touches with his fingertips but not with a "Full Palmar Contact". This absence of full contact with the palm of the hand when touching one's chest during a declaration of honesty is also correlated with a lack of sincerity.
8. Constant head nodding. In this context, this action is indicative of (significant) anxiety.
9. You may notice that Pastor Osteen does not answer questions directly - but rather meanders and answers indirectly. Although of course, not body language, such a paralanguage pattern is suspicious, but not definitive, for deception.
10. Osteen's verbal timeline - e.g., when the storm began, when he said the waters receded, when the water truly began to recede, when the church released the statement, when the city asked for help, and when the church began to take people in - all do not appear to line-up. This could, of course, be simply due to Osteen's anxiety and the rushed format of a TV interview.
Summary: Much of Pastor Joel Osteen's behavior seen in this video is chronic - and not specific to this particular interview. Such findings muddy the water. Yet much of this long-term behavior is correlative with insincerity. Moreover, this not just one or two items - but multiple findings indicative of anxiety and insincerity. Thus while there is insufficient evidence in this video to indicate Pastor Osteen is being deceptive with respect to the Hurricane Harvey controversy, there are ample nonverbal findings here correlating with a chronic, low level of sincerity.
From a nonverbal perspective, Trump and Putin share something in common - they both have a relatively limited set of facial expressions. This behavior allows them to more easily hide their true thoughts and feelings behind what are essentially, "living masks".
One of Vladimir Putin's default expressions is shown in the image below. Notice that his head is tilted slightly downward and the camera is positioned above his head. This gives the appearance that the corners of his mouth are pulled upward - however they're retracted straight back and laterally. Putin's central forehead is also contracted and vectored upward along with his central (medial) eyebrows.
When you see this configuration ("cluster") of facial expressions, always think of these three thought-emotions:
1. Arrogance
2. Contempt
3. Disbelief
It's important to point out that all three of these emotions may be manifested via other expressions. And, of course, disbelief can occur without arrogance or contempt, but arrogance and contempt very often have an accompanying component of disbelief. Which of these thought-emotions is President Putin experiencing in this moment? What specifically allows you to differentiate between these three feelings?
As expected, all three actors did an amazing job - not only did they 'bring the funny', but they uncannily replicated the three characters ... and some of their flaws.
What follows are some particular nonverbal signals by Hanks, McKinnon and Baldwin acting as Wallace, Clinton and Trump - and these expressions captured elements of insincerity that Chris, Hillary and Donald routinely project.
If we were working with Chris Wallace, we'd be telling him to not speak out of the side of his mouth. While some people do this routinely as an idiosyncrasy (or facial tic) - it's statistically relatively unusual. Medical causes - such as peripheral facial nerve palsy or stroke are potential causes which should be considered.
Depending on the other nonverbal signs with which it's clustered, asymmetrical speaking can also indicate an admission of fault or acquiescence. Much more commonly however, particularly when being interviewed on TV or in some other significant spotlight - speaking out of the side of the mouth is a signal of bravado and/or insincerity (the Venn diagrams of which overlap). Tom Hanks does a fantastic job capturing Wallace's mouth movements.
One question I routinely get asked is, "What the most important nonverbal signal to look for when assessing for insincerity?" Of course, the nonverbal tells of insincerity are many, however the most common one is an over-use of the forehead muscles (both in amplitude and in frequency). It's also very common, although not required, that excessively opened upper eyelids often accompany such over contracted forehead displays.
Now of course, in the context of an emotional debate, it's normal that people will open their eyes wide and elevate their forehead muscles when emphasizing a particularly important opinion or recommended course of action. And although Secretary Clinton has improved this body language faux pas of late, she did slip back into this previous pattern multiple times. She tends to do worse on this issue during her speeches and interviews - and improves when it comes to debates.
When people over-use their forehead muscles, they are trying to hard to sell you a thing or more commonly an idea/opinion.
Kate McKinnon was spot on.
It's hard to believe, but Alec Baldwin improved even further in his near perfect portrayal of Donald Trump. One striking pattern Trump has - is a very low variability of his facial expressions. Said another way, his face goes into its default settings easily and routinely - which acts as a living mask. The expressions he does make tend to be more extreme - but the overall variety of his expressions are relatively minimal. Depression and other conditions of a blunted affect are possible causes to consider when we see faces adopting these physiologic masks - but it's also is a method some psyches use to minimize mental workload - thus making it much easier to multitask - and therefore to also tell lies. Insincerity takes more work - and if one's face isn't moving quite as frequently, this frees up more mental energy for deception.
Summary: Tom Hanks, Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin near perfectly portray Chris Wallace, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump - and in so doing, also accurately captured some of their classic insincerity signals.
One is a Brit, the other is American. One is 19 years old and the other is 70. One is a woman and the other is a man. Yet there seems to be many more parallels between Marina Joyce and Donald Trump than there are differences.
Similarities between Donald Trump and Marina Joyce:
1. Both have tremendous internet presence
2. Both are actors (although not quality acting and not in the traditional sense)
3. Both project very insincere personae
4. Both use hand gestures (Illustrators or MAPs)
A. Far too often
B. In a manner often incongruous with their words
5. Both consistently display a limited variation of facial expressions
(a sort of mask, or default setting making it easier to deceive and be insincere)
6. Both include penises in their public discourse (a form of sexual display out of context)
7. Both market their personalities as end-products
8. Both use Botox
9. Because of Botox, their facial expressions are limited even further
(and some other facial expressions tend to "misfire" and over-display)
10. Both have limited variation of their vocal tones
11.Both frequently repeat themselves
12.Both use limited vocabularies
13.Both blink their eyes at a frequency greater than normal (e.g., anxiety display)
14.Both shout or talk with a volume that is out of normal for context (narcissistic behavior)
Take home point: Of course not everyone is running for President or a star YouTube vlogger, yet in the everyday world we see this same behavior all around us. Limited and repetitive Nonverbal Behavior, Vocabulary and Vocal Variety - are patterns of behavior in those with poor acting skills - but also ubiquitous in those who are insincere and narcissistic.
This website serves as a reference source for the art and science of
Body Language/Nonverbal Communication. The views and opinions expressed
on this website are those of the author. In an effort to be both
practical and academic, many examples from/of varied cultures,
politicians, professional athletes, legal cases, public figures, etc.,
are cited in order to teach and illustrate both the interpretation of
others’ body language as well as the projection of one’s own nonverbal
skills in many different contexts – not to advance any political,
religious or other agenda.
