Body Language Analysis No. 4289: A Royal Wedding, Suppression of Tears, and Meghan Markle's Mom - Nonverbal and Emotional Intelligence (PHOTOS)

If you watched Meghan Markle's and Prince Harry's wedding, you may have noticed Meghan's Mum - Doria Ragland. In these two images, taken seconds apart, we see Ms. Ragland with her lips rolled inward. Note that in these particular examples, her lower lip is doing so to a greater degree - but very often both the upper and lower lips are fully enveloped. 

An inward lip roll (ILR) is a nonverbal display often seen when a person is far from their emotional baseline - and - although they're rarely fully aware - the person's psyche is attempting to suppress these strong emotions. Thus this body language is a mechanism our subconscious uses to down-regulate both the inward growth - as well as the outward display of intense emotion.

It's more common to see this nonverbal down-shifting behavior associated with negative emotions (sadness, anger, frustration, etc.). An inward lip roll is an extremely common method we all use when trying to suppress tears. 

And yet the opposite is also true - for we all can think of examples when we found something very funny - and yet, due to the social context, we knew we shouldn't laugh - or even crack a smile.

Intriguingly, during a Wedding,  the emotions being felt - particularly by the parents - are often a mix of feelings - some happy and some a bit sad. 

It's extremely rare that a person fakes or acts an inward lip roll (even with accomplished actors) - therefore its display is a crucial insight into what a person is truly thinking-feeling. 

Well done Doria Ragland. Well done.

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See also:

Body Language Analysis No. 4288: Is Michael Cohen going to Flip on President Trump?

Body Language Analysis No. 4286: Aaron Schlossberg's Racist Rant

Body Language Analysis No. 4284: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Deadpool 2, and Alpha Up-Regulation

Body Language Analysis No. 4282: When Public Displays of Affection are More Frequent than those in Private

Body Language Analysis No. 4276: Waffle House Hero James Shaw Jr. Meets His NBA Idol Dwyane Wade

Body Language Analysis No. 4262: Wendy Vitter, the U.S. District Court, and Brown v. Board of Education

Body Language Analysis No. 4207: Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (Parkland, Florida), Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan, and Empathy

Body Language Analysis No. 4095: Celtics' Gordon Hayward Breaks His Leg in Dramatic Fashion During Game with Cavaliers

Body Language Analysis No. 4035: Hope Hicks, Jared Kushner, and Phone Tells

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Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3363: Chris Christie's Viral Video - Why do even Democrats love it? - Body Language Tells (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

A segment of Chris Christie's recent town hall style meeting in Belmont, N. H. has gone viral. And even Democrats like it. Why? - one reason is the subject matter. Many people from all walks of life, socioeconomic status and political ideologies agree with what the Governor Christie is saying here - that in the U.S., we must do some major rethinking for those in need of treatment for drug addiction.

Another reason Christie's speech struck a nerve is the fact that he shared very personal stories. The Governor spoke at length regarding his mother's addiction to nicotine and her subsequent death from lung cancer. The addiction of his law school friend and classmate to Percocet (Oxycodone combined with Acetaminophen) was particularly painful to listen to. Christie did an excellent job painting a story of this man's storybook successful life and then his profoundly sad downfall. The fact that these were personal stories with real people whom Christie had deep affection was translated into sincerity. And sincerity has a funny way of crossing partisan boundaries.

Sincerity is very often falsely ascribed when the opinion being expressed is in agreement with what we want to hear or believe. This phenomenon, among other things, is an example of what is known as "confirmation bias". Many other parameters influence our subjective experience when assessing for sincerity - these include factors such as our affection for the other person, their physical attractiveness, any financial benefit we may reap, if our employment depends on the outcome, etc. - it's a long list.

However in moments when we're closer to being objective beings, the feeling of sincerity is accurately sensed by most people if three key behaviors are in alignment - these are the verbal message, the nonverbal behavior and the paralanguage (vocal qualities). When all three of these are congruent - whether we agree with the opinion being expressed or not - we "feel" the other person's sincerity. In distinction, the next time you're listening or interacting with someone and something doesn't "feel" right - virtually always there is a significant disparity with these crucial three pillars of communication.

Gov. Christie's words (verbal content), his paralanguage (his tone, cadence, rhythm, volume, crescendo, decrescendo, etc.) and his nonverbal behavior were all in alignment during this speech. You may be a democrat, a republican or even Vladimir Putin - and you may even disagree with his opinion here - yet you should get a very high feeling of sincerity from this speech by Chris Christie.

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3362: Marco Rubio and Alleged Misuse of State Party Credit Card

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3233: Chris Christie formally enters the 2016 Presidential Race - What about his Body Language? 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3274: Chris Christie, Rand Paul, The Republican Debate and National Security

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3278: Chris Christie's Feeling Weak in the Knees - Body Language and The Republican Debate

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2951: Miss America 2015 - Sincerity, Surprise and Botox

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3308: Hillary Clinton's Apology - Certainly Late, Yet Was It Sincere?

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2911: Becky Hammon Part II - Blushing & a High Sincerity Quotient

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 1905:  Ann Curry's Smile and Sincerity Quotient 


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Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2397: Angelina Jolie on Motherhood & Her Own Mom - Body Language and Emotional Intelligence (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Today it was revealed through an op-ed written by Angelina Jolie in the New York Times, that she has recently undergone a bilateral mastectomy in an effort to prevent breast cancer. Jolie was told that her chances of acquiring the disease was 87% and electing to have the surgery performed has reduced her chances to 5%. This cancer association is correlated strongly with the BRCA1 & BRCA2 genes, which also carries with them a 50% chance of ovarian cancer. Jolie's mother, actress and producer Marcheline Bertrand died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56 in 2007.

Note: The original video is linked here, although since the original post, is no longer able to be embedded. The images below however, were captured from this video. 

In the above video, a 60 minutes interview from 2011(short and highly edited), Jolie speaks about motherhood, her own mom - and about the idea of her eventually giving up acting. Some of her body language displays are discussed below.

This expression in context is known as R2E2 which is an abbreviation for the "Rationalization Rapport Empathy Expression". This nonverbal can be seen in the above video at the 12:48 mark. It is commonly mistaken by many body language beginners as a disgust - and indeed may look very similar or identical to it - which necessitates the context of video and/or direct experience. 

This body language-facial expression is a signal that a person is trying to rationalize or get another person to co-rationalize an idea, action, plan etc. with them. Those who make this are not always completely confident of what they are saying and may very well be attempting to recruit their audience (even if it's just one person of course) to have empathy for their point of view. It can also be a subconscious signal that its user is trying to engender rapport. It often is clustered with an increase in the volume, pitch and rate of speech (paralanguage signals which she exemplifies here too). There is also very commonly a leaning forward of the the head, neck, torso as well as a reaching towards or often a touching of the person with whom they are speaking on their arm, arm, elbow or shoulder. These other verbal and paralanguage qualities serve as amplifiers of the R2E2. In this video Ms. Jolie shifts slightly in her chair with a subtle forward movement of her head, shoulder/torso.

Earlier, at 11:32, Angelina displays a body language cluster consistent with sincerity, vulnerability and affection - with a bilateral eye closed simultaneous with a head tilt. Here, the object of her affection is her mother. This occurs while the actress is fighting back tears. Take note also that her head tilt is towards the other person.

What would you think her nonverbal signals would indicate if her eyes did not close? What if her head & neck tilted away from the other person?

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2193:  Keira Knightley interview re: "Anna Karenina" - Body Language of "R2E2" Facial Expression

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2341:  Angela Bassett Interview - Rationalization Rapport Empathy Expression  R2E2, Body Language & "Olympus has Fallen"

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 1732:  Rationalization, Rapport, Empathy Expression & How Jewel got her name

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2097:  Mitt Romney's "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate" defense - Body Language of Rationalization, Rapport and Empathy

Negotiation Body Language Secret No. 353:  Brad Pitt's Smiling Eyes - Sincere and Insincere Smiles

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Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2261: Mom pulls Python off of her 2 year old daughter - Body Language & Microexpression of Fear

Tess Guthrie, a mother from Lismore, New South Wales, Australia had the scare of a lifetime recently. Waking to the hiss of her cat, she suddenly realized a snake had wrapped around her two year old's arm. She immediately grabbed the six foot python by its head and wrestled it off her daughter Zara. Although the snake had bit Zara three times, Ms. Guthrie probably saved her young daughter's life.

In this video Ms. Guthrie recounts the incident during an interview. At the 0:25 second mark she displays a great nonverbal example of a "Mouth of Fear" as she relives the emotions of that terrifying experience. This terror is manifested in a microexpression (extremely brief in duration) and is accompanied by a simultaneous but significantly more subtle tightening of the platysma. The platysma is a thin neck muscle which lies just beneath the skin on the front and sides of the neck and "tents up" - giving the highly characteristic (and yet very rarely noticed) "Neck of Fear". Although this neck muscular contraction is less prominent in this video example, it often is quite pronounced. 

These two body language signals - the "mouth of fear" and "neck of fear" virtually always co-exist and are extremely valuable nonverbal tells which are displayed many times a day in business, law, medical and sales professionals.

See also:

Body Language Secret # 702: Blake Lively's Mouth of Fear,  trying to Smile and  Forehead of Pain

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1927: Italy's Fans watching Euro 2012 Final - Expressions of Fear

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2031: Tina Fey arriving at Alec Baldwin's Wedding,  Fear-Empathy with a (partial) Sincere Smile - Emotional Dissonance 

Negotiation Body Language Secret # 931: Harbaugh's Body Language of Fear and Anxiety

Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1106: Subtle Fear Display of al-Assad

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2053: Strong Signal of Fear-Sadness Anxiety - Aurora, Colorado "Batman Shooting"

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1696: George Zimmerman's Testimony - Fear, Incredulity, Regret & Contempt

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2103: Great Example of a Microexpression of Fear 

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