Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3090: Lance Armstrong Lied - Again, Girlfriend Took the Blame - Body Language of the Mea Culpa Face (PHOTO)

Anna Hansen, the longtime girlfriend of defamed Lance Armstrong, took the blame for the ex-cycling star when on 28 December 2014 Armstrong hit two cars in Aspen, Colorado. Allegedly it was a mutual decision for Hansen and Armstrong to lie in the police in their initial report.

Hansen allegedly later told the police, "We've had our family name smeared over every paper in the world in the last couple of years, and honestly, I've got teenagers. I just wanted to protect my family because I thought 'Gosh, Anna Hansen hit some cars,' it's not going to show up in the papers, but 'Lance Armstrong hit some cars,' it's going to be a national story."

The image above shows the false seven time winner of the Tour de France - titles which have since been stripped from him - in a particular cluster of facial expressions which is extremely common when admitting fault and indeed it's called the "Mea Culpa Face".

The primary emotion being expressed in the mea culpa face is one of regret. Yet there also is significant anger present - although it is the secondary emotion. In addition, the psyche is attempting to suppress strong feelings in this moment both from growing and from being expressed. Do you see and can you separate all of these facial nonverbal components?

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3089: Walter White as "Sorta Greg" - "Say My Name" - Esurance Super Bowl Commercial

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2273: Lance Armstrong & Oprah Winfrey, Part II  Lance Gives Away More with His Body Language - He told more Lies

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2275:  Lance Armstrong's Insincerity - Body Language revealed in Oprah Winfrey Interview  Part III

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2269:  Travis Tygart's (Chief Executive of U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) Body Language re: Lance Armstrong Doping on  "60 Minutes Sports" Interview

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2586: Harrison Ford in "Ender's Game" - Microexpression and Macroexpression of Regret - Harrison's Brand and the Stanislavski Method

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2408:  Sen. Kelly Ayotte's Anxiety & Regret via  Senators Graham & McCain -  Republican Body Language in Response to  President Obama's National Defense University Speech

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2973: Rand Paul's Body Language Tells Us His Plan B for 2016

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2776: James Franco's Mea Culpa - Body Language Tells


_________________________________________________________________________________

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2275: Lance Armstrong's Insincerity - Body Language revealed in Oprah Winfrey Interview Part III

Another nonverbal signal of Lance Armstrong's insincerity is revealed in the way he touches his chest when trying to convey understanding and truthfulness. Most displays of "self-touching" are examples of what are known as MAPs (Manipulators, Adaptors or Pacifiers) and are, in general signals of anxiety - although when viewed in cluster-context, their meanings can be much more specific. 

At multiple times throughout his interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong touches his chest with only the tips of his fingers & thumb. During moments when we feeling true sincerity (not seen above), gestures of chest touching involve the whole hand including the palm. This "palmar touch" occurs with the whole hand contacting the chest over the heart (left side of chest) and/or the sternum/manubrium (although parts may extend to the right side of the chest). Note in the above video segment during the 2:30 mark, when the disgraced bicycler says, "...I understand ..." Armstrong touches with only his fingertips over his sternum. This is a great example where a person's words contradicting his body language. Whenever the verbal and the nonverbal are in disagreement - the nonverbal language always tells the truth.

It is contradictory body language to display a full-palm-to-chest nonverbal with one's legs crossed in the manner Armstrong has them configured throughout much of this interview (The "American figure-4"). If one had their legs crossed in this way, and then felt a moment of true sincerity, honesty, affection or empathy - the legs would naturally uncross. However, when clustered together, the "figure-4" along with the "fingertip-only to chest" contact are congruent with insincerity.

Another important distinction of the full palmar contact vs. fingertip only contact is made over longer time durations and multiple observations. Full palm-of-hand contact to the left chest or sternum is seen more often in individuals with higher empathy quotients and thus are very rare in sociopaths. Those with low empathy quotients (such as narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths) rarely display the body language of full palmar contact.

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2273: Lance Armstrong & Oprah Winfrey, Part II, Lance Gives Away More with His Body Language -  He told more Lies

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2272: Lance Armstrong's Mia Culpa with Oprah Winfrey  Body Language Part I

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2207: Body Language, Sincerity and Mahmoud Abbas  United Nations grants Palestine "Nonmember Observer State"

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1900: Palmar Touch of another Person, an Animal or Object

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1829: Dara Torres Interview with Piers Morgan - Embarrassment,  Visual Recall, Sexual Anticipation Lip Biting &  Sincerity Quotients

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2220:  Harry Reid on Jim DeMint's Retirement - A Body Language Tell of Insincerity

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2143:  Meyers and Bailey Leonard - The Illini, The Marine & The Reunion -  Emotional Processing & Sincerity

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2183: Barack & Michelle Obama's Tweet - The Palmar Touch, Body Language and an Affectionate Hug

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1866:  Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth are Engaged -  An Affection-Love Sincerity Signal

___________________________________________________________________________________

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2273:Lance Armstrong & Oprah Winfrey, Part II Lance Gives Away More with His Body Language - He told more Lies

In this clip of the Armstrong-Oprah Winfrey interview, Lance displays a great example of a cluster of anger. Freeze the video at 0:47. Note how Armstrong's lips stretch horizontally and grow very thin (particularly his upper lip). Alone, this nonverbal is highly consistent with anger. This body language co-exists with significant tightening of the disgraced athlete's mid-face and a dilation of both nostrils - both also correlative with anger.

In addition, Armstrong's eyelids are opened significantly wider than normal. In the context of the above mentioned facial displays, this amount of eyelid nonverbal is diagnostic of a moderately elevated level of anger.

Armstrong is an example of what Paul Ekman has termed a "Natural Actor". In short, he is a very good liar. He had most of the World duped.

At the 1:38 mark Armstrong says, "....I'm not the most believable guy in the World right now, I understand, but [then he takes deep breath] I did not do that", in reference to bullying and threatening others to use performance enhancing drugs. This is what is known, as couching a "truth within a lie" - he tells us a truth that we believe ("....I'm not the most believable guy in the World right now, I understand, but I did not do that ...") then he tells a lie ("...but I did not do that"). When the lie is buried within a truth, we are more likely to believe the liar. At the 1:45 mark he once again adopts the "thinned lips of anger and eyelids open wide of anger." And although not definitive, within the context of this massive mia culpa and his truth within a lie - this anger display is also suggestive of deception. Note also he inhales deeply an instant prior to saying, "... I did not do that". This deep inhalation at this specific time is strongly suggestive of anxiety-deception. A person telling the truth would not have to pause for breathe here. Then he stares directly at Oprah (we cannot be sure because she is not in this camera view, but very probably in her eyes). When in the midst of defending a lie, eye contact either goes WAY up (e.g., staring into one eye or switching between eyes) or drops off significantly during moment of the lie. Lance stared at Oprah. All of this indicates than Armstrong was lying about threatening his team mates. Armstrong did not come fully clean.

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2272: Lance Armstrong's Mia Culpa with Oprah Winfrey  Body Language Part I

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2181: Mitt Romney's Concession Speech - and the Body Language of Lip Smacking

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2156: Barack Obama's Body Language at Al Smith Charity Dinner - Comedy, White Lies and Facial Touching MAPs

Negotiation Body Language Secret # 393: Lying more common while Texting

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2033: Lie Detection, Sergey Lavrov and Syria

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1907: Governor Rick Scott tells a Lie 

Negotiation Body Language Secret # 339: Jon Corzine - When a Lie is Heard or Told

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1548: Trayvon Martin's Death - George Zimmerman and his First Court Appearance 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2269: Travis Tygart's (Chief Executive of U.S. Anti-Doping Agency)Body Language re: Lance Armstrong Doping on "60 Minutes Sports" Interview

In the above video, an excerpt from a recent episode of "60 Minutes Sports", Travis Tygart, the Chief Executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is interviewed by Scott Pelley regarding Lance Armstrong's doping charges. Although Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey will certainly reveal a lot when it is released to the public in two days, this soap-opera is long from over. The entire "60 Minutes Sports" interview helps to bring to light more allegations of wrong-doing - some of them criminal, against Armstrong.

From a body language perspective, this short video includes multiple nonverbal examples of contempt. In this segment, all of these displays are microexpressions - which are extremely brief, involuntary, nonverbal facial displays of true emotion (1/15 to 1/25 of a second in duration) and originate in the subconscious. Other emotions may be expressed via microexpressions as well. 

Some of these microexpressions of contempt exhibited by Mr. Tygart can be seen at 0:55, 0:58, 1:28, 1:30, 1:33, 1:35, 1:41, 1:54, 2:09, 2:11 and 2:26. Those who see these microexpression, and are not trained in nonverbal communications, may describe them as "facial tics". Tics they are not though. These microexpressions convey sincere feelings of contempt and some may describe them as very brief mid-face snarls or contractions of his cheek muscle as well as his "mustache area" and subtly Mr. Tygart's - all on his left side.

Intriguingly, Scott Pelley also displays a particular body language signal with some strong negative emotional tones. Can you spot it?

See also:

Negotiation Body Language Secret # 457: Salman Rushdie's Contempt Amplifier

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2058: DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's "False Contempt" The Importance of "Norming"

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1890: Eric Holder has (Emotional) Contempt toward Darrell Issa - while Rep. Issa is Very Excited to be Seeking  "Contempt of Congress" against Holder

Negotiation Secret # 389: Muammar's Constant Contempt

Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1407: Auboni Champion-Morin  Reunited with Kidnapped Son After 8 Years - Microexpression of Contempt

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1515: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's  Numerous Microexpressions and Subtle  Displays of Contempt

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2050: George Zimmerman's nterview on Fox -  Microexpression of Contempt and  Duping Delight

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2172: Governor Chris Christie's Body Language of Contempt -  Microexpressions and Subtle Displays

_____________________________________________________________________________________