Body Language & Emotional Intelligence: Masters

Showing posts with label Masters. Show all posts

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Body Language Analysis No. 4380: Tiger Woods Wins his first Masters in 14 years - Nonverbal and Emotional Intelligence (PHOTOS)

Earlier today, Tiger Woods won his fifth Masters - his first since 2005. Woods has not been victorious in a Major since the 2008 US Open. Tiger, has who has fifteen Majors wins to his credit - is second only to Jack Nicklaus' eighteen. Some are already calling Tiger's comeback the greatest in sports history.

The image above (and the accompanying close-up) taken shortly after his win, captures some crucial nonverbal tells.

Note Tiger's lips are turned inward and held between his teeth. This display is known as an Inward Lip Roll (ILR). It's an extremely common signal of the suppression of strong emotions - good, bad, and bittersweet. Although it's not always successful, an inward lip roll will often prevent our thought-emotions from spiraling out of control - and it also helps to muzzle our full facial expressions. As with 99.99+ % of nonverbal behavior, the inward lip roll is almost always subconsciously driven.

Woods' mandible is momentarily thrusting forward. This dynamic is a Jaw Jut - a signal of an adrenaline surge. Holding one's arms high - along with the formation of fists are also manifestations of a rise in adrenaline. Intriguingly, if you adopt this configuration - right now - your adrenaline will also ascend (Go ahead, try it - Stanislavski in your living room).

Tiger's mid-facial area is highly contracted too. Specifically, his cheek muscles are tightened and pulled laterally (not upward as they would be if he were smiling). Moreover, his mustache area (the area above the upper lip and below the nose) is also quite taut (more so than with the majority of inward lip rolls). In addition, Woods' nostrils are also widely flared.

Whenever assessing body language, one should never overlook the eyes (most people are profoundly unaware of what nuance their own eyes are projecting in real time). Tiger's eyes are partially closed. This closure is active, not passive - with his lower eyelids showing significant tension.

You may notice that Tiger Woods' face is also reddened. In this context, it's a signal of both peripheral vasodilation (blood vessels increasing in diameter just beneath the skin, a form of blushing) - as well as decreased venous return secondary to an (unconscious) relative Valsalva maneuver.

SUMMARY: Captured shortly after his 2019 Masters victory, this image of Tiger Woods shows him in an understandably emotional moment - in the midst of an adrenaline surge - whilst also suppressing tears.

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See also:

Body Language Analysis No. 4379: Katie Bouman, Black Holes, and Emotional Processing

Body Language Analysis No. 4378: William Barr questioned regarding The Mueller Report

Body Language Analysis No. 4377: Donald Trump, "These aren't people, these are animals"

Body Language Analysis No. 4376: Jacinda Ardern and Donald Trump - a Study in Contrasts

Body Language Analysis No. 4375: Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Security Clearances

Body Language Analysis No. 4374: Nancy Pelosi's Clap-Back to Donald Trump during the 2019 SOTU

Body Language Analysis No. 4360: GE's CEO Larry Culp's CNBC Interview and Subsequent Stock Sell-off

Body Language Analysis No. 4343: Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, Anxiety, and Empathy

Body Language Analysis No. 4336: Alita: Battle Angel, Large Eyes, and Sexual Attraction

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Friday, April 12, 2013

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2365:
Lindsey Vonn & Tiger Woods -
Body Language at the Masters

The above image of Lindsey Vonn was taken yesterday at the Masters, where her boyfriend Tiger Woods is three strokes off the leader (Jason Day of Australia) going into Saturday's play. While the inward lip roll (ILR) is a body language signal of general anxiety, more specifically it is a sign that the psyche is trying to suppress a more outward display of emotions. Although most of the time the specific emotion being squelched is negative - most commonly anger, it can also be a subconscious mechanism to suppress laughter or joy. In such cases it can be part of a "duping delight" display. The other nonverbals with which it is clustered will help to differentiate the underlying emotions.

What emotion is Lindsey Vonn suppressing here?

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1511:
Hands Held High, Fiero & Oosthuizen -
An Albatross at the Masters

Louis Oosthuizen is shown celebrating with his caddy at the Masters Tournament earlier today. This video and image were captured immediately after the South African golfer hit an "Albatross" on the second hole. Otherwise known as a Double Eagle, this was only the four such a shot in Masters history as well as the first one ever televised (I'm not a golfer and I've never heard this golf term before today - but you've just got to love the metaphor - the bird with the longest wingspan on Earth).

Although there are exceptions, the vast majority of the times when the hands are lifted spontaneously over the head, it is a body language expression of positive emotions.

See also: Secret # 1490: Kansas Surrenders

At the 0:30 mark in the video, Oosthuizen and his caddy exemplify this principle in the universal, double-handed "High Five" - a shared Emblem of Fiero [and later at the 1:00 mark a largely - the more common and (largely missed) single handed variation]. An emblem is a nonverbal gesture, symbol or facial expression that has a well understood meaning within a region or culture. While the meaning of this particular emblem is recognized worldwide, the majority of the time an emblem's meaning will vary from place to place, so great care must be taken not to misinterpret them.

Note also that the higher spectator-fans (in golf, they're are termed, "the gallery") or any audience holds their hands higher during an applause - the greater is their approval & shared-joy experience.

Fiero is experienced - primarily or often secondarily via empathy - when a great obstacle is over-come - regardless of its source. The specific feeling for this elation is termed "Fiero". Coined by the Italian Psychologist, Isabella Poggi, the emotion has no direct English translation. Many find it ironic that in addition to being the World's lingua franca and often touted as having more words than any other language (difficult to quantify, estimates range from 250,000 to 500,000), English suffers from a relative lack of words to express the variation and nuance of positive emotions. At the moment when it's most intense, the face of fiero resembles that of pain (here an instant after the double high-five at about the 0:30 mark - and in the still image below). Shortly thereafter though, this initial, counter intuitive facial nonverbal (similar to the face expressed during sexual orgasm), transitions to the more well recognized face of sincere joy-happiness.

Fiero is a unique emotion, most commonly photographed or video captured at sporting events. Although it is most powerful when it's a shared experience - fiero does not require an audience and is not braggadocio. Here, both the athlete and the many fans bathe in its shared joy - although it is more muted in the etiquette of golf than with many sports (such as futbol/soccer, tennis or the Le Tour de France, etc.), it is still expressed and a crucial component of the human experience. It is fascinating to note - that with the exceptions of sporting events and many musical concerts - and to a somewhat lesser degree at religious services and at political events - full expression of fiero is rarely condoned or accepted. Thus it can be argued, that in addition to their more obvious, measurable and direct functions - these forums serve the further purpose - and perhaps a far more important one - of providing us an outlet to more fully express our positive emotions.

Alas, Oosthuizen finished second to Bubba Watson (who never had a golf lesson in his life) in a sudden death play-off. Don't feel too bad for him though - he made Master's history and walked away with $864,000.

See also: Fiero after Accomplishment

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Saturday, April 7, 2012

Body Language Analysis # 1502:
Tiger Woods' Meltdown at the Masters -
"I Want to Wipe it from My Mind!"

Earlier today, in round three of the 2012 Masters Tournament, Tiger had a major meltdown. His tee shot on 16 went into a bunker and Woods then kicked his golf club. He then gave us a great example of a body language cluster.

At the 0:29 mark of the video, he reaches up with his right hand and rubs both eyes. The "Double Eye Rub" is a classic nonverbal wherein the person's psyche is attempting to "wipe from their mind" what they just witnessed. At this point, Woods is primarily trying to erase the memory the loss of his temper rather than the just bad shot. Whenever both eyes are rubbed simultaneously - there is intense emotional processing taking place - the emotional mind is attempting to regroup (please note: "the single eye rub" means something completely different).

See also: Secret # 199: When a Lie is Told, Heard or Visualized by .... Vladimir's Eye

As the right hand completes the rubbing of his eyes, about a second later, it also rubs his nose heavily on the way down. No doubt Tiger's entire face was "itching". It is an extremely common and even expected for the face to "itch" during such times of stress. In fact, the number one reason people touch their faces' - is anxiety related.

Woods' mouth also takes on an expression that most would call a "wince" or "grimace" (0:29 - 0:31, and microexpression recurrence at the 0:32 mark). In this context, his lips-teeth-jaw configuration is one of emotional pain (primarily) coupled with an element of fear (secondarily). Although we cannot see his forehead, we would highly expect its central portion to be contracted (furrowed) with the lateral (outside) portions to be relaxed (smooth).

Few of us live under the microscope of media that Tiger Woods does. Like most professionals who are very good at what they do, Woods' emotions are not nearly as well in check as he desires or even believes them to be. One benefit of becoming a student of body language, is becoming much more aware of one emotions, retrospectively, in real-time - and sometimes even as emotions are in crescendo.

See also: Secret # 291: Obama and Biden, Visual-Emotional Blocking

See also: Secret # 29: Eye Rub When Someone Else is Speaking - Angela Doubts Vladimir

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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.

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