Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2337: Rick Santorum at 2013 CPAC Body Language,Facial Tension & Hand Tension

We all have moments like this - when we're expressing strong (or very strong) emotions - but their words are very often not congruent. Here former Senator Rick Santorum is seen in this still image in the midst of a speech at the 2013 CPAC. Most people will see that Senator Santorum is expressing anger here. This is primarily displayed by his jaw jut (thrusting forward) and his teeth clenching. He also has significant mid-face tension and nostril dilation. What many people overlook is coexisting hand tension. Anger and anxiety are very often manifested via hand tension - however these are not always as obvious as Santorum's tight, raised fist. If you're unsure as to the subtle emotional signs you're seeing - look at their hands. Often, while their arms may be "resting" at their sides - their hands will very often show tension. This will often betray what's really going on in their emotional brains. Don't just listen to their words - for when their verbal and nonverbal communication are in conflict, the body language is always correct. 

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1918: Vladimir Putin - Pointing with Pen Surrogates Sharp vs. Blunt

Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1995: Barack Obama, Social Darwinism and the Political Point

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2132: Variations on a Theme - The Palm-Forward Dominant Spider (The Claw) vs. The Split-Finger Fastball

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2161: Body Language of the Third Presidential Debate -  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney - What Did They Do With Their Hands - When They Weren't Talking?

Nonverbal Communication Analysis #2291: A Tight Fist and Tension in The Face - Jay Carney's Body Language as he defends  Chuck Hagel's performance during  Senate Confirmation Hearings

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1888: Rod Stewart & Ron Wood - How the Hand and Face Collaborate

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1812: Jamie Dimon on JPMorgan Chase's $2 Billion Loss - The Day After

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Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1517: Signals of Acquiescence and Regret Rick Santorum Drops Out

Rick Santorum suspended his campaign for the U.S. Republican Presidential nomination today. At the 0:06 - 0:07 mark-time in this video, Santorum displays a forward head and neck movement as he looks down that's moderate in frequency and amplitude (acquiescence). It has a twisting motion to it and it finishes-up with a forward-bounce component. There is also bilateral eyelid closure (emotional blocking-trying to wipe it from one's mind) occurring at the 0:07 second mark. Together with the asymmetrical (more pronounce on Santorum's right, so there's an element of contempt here as well), thinned-lipped, pulling back of the corners of his mouth (at the 0:10 mark) - constitutes a nonverbal cluster consistent with that of bitterness-regret-acquiescence. 

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Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1465: Santorum's Anger Eyes - White and Wide Confrontation with Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times

This video of Rick Santorum showcases a fantastic body language example of the transition from mild anger to moderate-severe levels of anger (rage). Notice how the Republican Presidential hopeful's eyelids at first (with milder anger) grow closer together - into what some will call a "squint" configuration (think Clint Eastwood in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" - Clint is famous for this "look"). A few seconds later however, Santorum's eyes appear larger as his lids open up and his anger grows. This lid opening exposes more of the "whites of the eyes" (sclera) and is highly characteristic for moderate to severe degrees of anger. This is most notable at the 1:07 - 1:08 mark and again at 1:12 -1:17 and here it is considerably more prominent in Santorum's Left eye. There also is a large amount of mid-face tightening as well as thinning of Rick's upper lip. This is a classic anger cluster. When these nonverbals are accompanied by the hand gestures of finger pointing with arm-hand chopping, there is a significantly increased chance of physical altercation. In many other settings, without family members and cameras looking on, being in the national spotlight, etc. this probably would have occurred. 

Santorum's use of "...come on man..." towards the beginning of this encounter was a form of verbally withdrawing his sword and attempting to apologize for his profanity. But after a short lull, his anger re-escalates. A very brief (microexpression) of rage occurs again at about the 1:54 mark.

It is interesting to note the gentleman to Santorum's left during this episode (wearing a pink and purple stripped tie). Probably a senior campaign assistant, his Inward Lip Roll" (ILR) was a nonverbal cue to us that he was, from a surrogate-empathy point-of-view, fruitlessly trying to control Santorum's temper. An Inward Lip Roll is a signal that our psyche is trying to control an outward display of negative emotion. This campaign manager was, for a moment, trying to prevent Santorum's anger from escalating - much like a fan contorts his body in an effort to "help" a player on the field to make a catch.

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Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1450: Rick Santorum's Contempt and Frown - The Proverbial Twisted Smile

Rick Santorum is showing us a classic body language display of contempt in this image. Any unilateral smile is highly suspicious for this very toxic emotion. The "squinting" or partial closure of the former U.S. Senator's right eye is highly congruent with contempt and taken together with his unilateral "one-sided, pseudo-smile"- clinches this emotional diagnosis. Notice that neither of Santorum's lower eyelids have the required concave-up furrow characteristic of all sincere smiles (See Secret # 353: Brad Pitt's Smiling Eyes - Sincere and Insincere Smiles). Note also that the squinting lid and contempt-mouth findings occur on the same side of Santorum's face. 

What is most intriguing and a brilliant nonverbal tell here - is that the left side of Rick Santorum's mouth is frowning. The right side of his face is displaying contempt and left side of his face is signalling sadness. This is the proverbial "Twisted Smile".  Regardless of your speaking ability, your resume', your platform or your looks - you won't win votes or get people to follow your lead with this facial expression.

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Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1446: Tension in the Mouth - Tension in the Hands

This is former U.S. Senator and Republican Presidential Candidate hopeful, Rick Santorum during a political rally recently in Illinois. Notice the tension in his hands and the corresponding tension in his mid-face and mouth. If there are negative facial emotional displays - there is a very high correlation with tension in the hands. They tend to strongly mirror each other. The reverse is also true. If the face is relaxed - the hands tend to be tranquil as well. This nonverbal tell is particularly valuable during negotiations, sales and in similar contexts. Frequenting cross-checking these two areas will help to nuance your body language interpretive skills.

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Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1270: Quantifying a Smile - Elizabeth Santorum

This is Elizabeth Santorum's sincere smile after she's held it bit too long (for which a politician or his daughter has many an occasion) and thus starts to display her bottom teeth. Ms. Santorum's eyes display the required (for a sincere smile) partial closure as well as the concave-up furrow on each lower lid (see also: Secret # 353: Brad Pitt's Eyes - Sincere and Insincere Smiles). Her forehead is relaxed and smooth without any muscle contraction - also a must for a sincere smile. Elizabeth's upper teeth are perfectly displayed which is also characteristic of the joy-happiness emotion - however the lower teeth are beginning to show. A few seconds before this photo, her lower teeth were covered. Her sincere smile has been held too long (externally displayed as well as emotionally-internally felt) and so it has "degraded" to an 80% sincerity level (still an outstanding "Social Smile" - and indeed much better than most). It now has to be partially forced - so the corners of the mouth pull a bit less upwards, and a bit more laterally.

If Elizabeth's mouth were the same as in this photo, but her eyes were open in a relaxed-resting state, her smile would be insincere. The partially closed eyelids with the concave-up furrow is a body language absolute when measuring the authenticity of a smile.

Rick Santorum sent Elizabeth, his eldest child, to Hawaii a couple days ago to campaign for him. The photogenic and articulate woman had her job cut out for her. Her father needs all the primary & caucus victories he can get. At the time of this post, the polls in the 50th State are not yet closed.

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Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1207: Never Let Them See You Sweat

Rick Santorum is wiping the sweat from his forehead. That's okay. Everyone Sweats. But didn't Momma tell you never to let 'em see you sweat? It's not necessary to tilt your head down to wipe one's forehead - but Santorum and most everyone does this when anxiety is a contributing factor. Self-touching (although here there is a handkerchief "insulating" - for the most part - against a direct touch) fits into a class of nonverbal behaviors known as Manipulators, Adaptors or Pacifiers (MAPs). There are certainly some exceptions, however the vast majority of MAPs indicate anxiety. Often there is another coexisting negative emotion being expressed as well. Rick has a mild amount of mid-face tightening along with subtle nasal flaring. We cannot see the right side of his face - and thus this could be a subtle display of contempt - if unilaterally expressed. If both sides of the former U.S. Senator's face looks like this - then this body language is a mild display of disgust.

Tonight was a huge disappointment to Rick Santorum, as Mitt Romney won both the Michigan and Arizona Primaries. Chin up Rick. There's always Super Tuesday.

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Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1197: Fingers Held Close Together

This is Rick Santorum at the recent CPAC Conference in Washington D.C. When the index finger and the thumb are held a short distance apart, this may indicate the obvious - "a little bit" or "a small amount", etc. - but this body language can also denote reluctance or skepticism.

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Dating & Romance Body Language Secret # 1139: Is Their Hug Sincere? Karen & Rick Santorum

If someone says they love you, how do you know it's truthful? Well, one way to tell is the quality of their hug. What are the characteristics of a sincere hug? In this photo of Rick and Karen Santorum, they are locked in an embrace during a recent Primary victory celebration. When the palms are flat, this is a signal of true affection. We cannot see Rick's hands, however Karen's are certainly flat against her husband's back. If someone hugs with just a finger-contact, at the very best, they are not fully present in the moment. Hugs are rare enough - only seconds in our lives - and important enough - that they should always command 100% attention. More typically though, with a finger-tip hug, affection is simply minimal or absent. 

Although, we cannot see it here (because the image is cropped), another characteristic of a truly affectionate hug, is contact between the waists and lower bodies. This is certainly true with a spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, etc. - but also with child-parent, or sibling-sibling relationships - but only in the presence of true affection.

Karen Santorum also exhibits another affection-absolute of a sincere hug - that of eyelid closing. Forty percent of the mass of the brain - and thus a corresponding amount of the blood supply and oxygen goes to our visual brain components. Moreover, we get a full ninety percent of our sensory input through our vision. When we close our eyes, a bit of this massive blood supply gets shunted to the other parts of our brains - e.g. the other four senses, our cognitive centers and our emotional brain. Thus in the act of closing the eyelids, we are trying to "drink in" the full emotion of the moment. We are trying to maximize our hug-experience. If a person does not close their eyes during a hug, they are not emotionally engaged - the only question is why? Is it because they are distracted .... or apathetic?

Karen Santorum's hug is very sincere. She is experiencing the full emotion of the moment. Few feelings compare with the giving and receiving of true affection. Seek it. Give it. Covet it .... and don't take it for granted.

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Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1139: How Not to Build Rapport

Rick Santorum is incredulous. Anytime you see a unilateral smile - it's always suspect. An insincere "smile" is asymmetrical. Contempt also has this characteristic. Most otherwise socially adept, educated and experienced people mistake contempt for a coy smile. Not so. Moreover he's not looking at the person who's speaking. We don't look directly at those we don't trust/believe, don't respect or don't like. 

What would think if your spouse, business partner, client or child was wearing such a face? I highly doubt Mr. Santorum is making this expression in a premeditated-deliberate fashion. If he were an accomplished actor, I'd still doubt it. Like most of us, he's much less self-aware than he believes. On the very small chance this Body Language is rehearsed and/or deliberate and on cue, I'd advise him to stop immediately.

If you're trying to garner votes, one must look engaged - even if you disagree with what is being said. If you want to take the Michigan Primary (and the Republican Nomination) from Mitt Romney, dial-up your "warm and fuzzy" a bit Rick. The former U.S. Senator of Pennsylvania should be leaning forward in his chair - not backwards - certainly not with his arms crossed. This body language cluster transmits feelings of disengagement, defensiveness, closed mindedness, incredulity and contempt. Rapport will not be developed or fostered this way, yet politicians continue to ask for your votes displaying such nonverbals and salespeople continuously try and close the deal when prospective clients are configured this way - at all the wrong times.

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Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1131: Romney's Handshake, Santorums Bicep's, and Dominance

Mitt Romney is show here at one of the many recent Republican Presidential Debates in a dominance-display handshake-maneuver that politicians use to their DISADVANTAGE continuously on the voting public. The body language of grabbing the forearm, elbow, or here the bicep of the other person with your LEFT hand, while shaking their Right - is always negatively received by that individual (Pease). So if you want their vote, their allegiance, or for you non-political leaders - their blood, sweat and tears - DON'T SHAKE HANDS THIS WAY! 

Romney - like all the other republicans (and democrats, independents, etc.) make this mistake all the time. In the above example however, Mitt is playing this to his advantage, because he's trying to look dominant over Rick Santorum - not trying to get his vote. Thus this is one of the few exceptions to the handshake nonverbal rule, of not touching the other person with your left hand. Romney's trying to appear dominant and here he's succeeding.

At the time of this post, according to several recent polls, the former Massachusetts Governor and the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania are in a statistical tie for the Republican nomination, with Romney holding an edge with women and white collar workers, while Santorum is winning over more of the "Tea Party" conservatives, born-again Christians and the self-described "highly motivated" republicans. 

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Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1059: Santorum's Dominant Spider

This Hand Gesture Rick Santorum is using, is known as "The Dominant Spider". It tends to be used by primarily by alpha males and somewhat less frequently by alpha females. Although not as dominant or negatively received as the closed-palm or nearly closed-palm down gesture (see Secret # 222: Palms Down vs. Palms Up), it should be used sparingly and for very brief moments in order to assert authority and dominance. If over-used (which doesn't take much and is a strong tendency for the alpha-personality types to do), the audience (even an audience of one) will feel domineered and patronized. 

Tonight the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania is certainly feeling very dominant - so spiders abound. As of this writing, he is projected to win both the Minnesota Caucuses and the Missouri Republican Presidential Primary. It's still too early to call Colorado's Caucuses, but Rick may have just pull off the hat trick. 

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Negotiation Body Language Secret # 831: Santorum's Hands and the Alpha-Beta Hybrid

Where to put the hands? Well, this topic is very context related. It is NEVER a "one sized fits all" scenario. However, here Presidential hopeful, Rick Santorum, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania shows us a great "Alpha-Beta hybrid" with regards to his hands. Santorum has both hands in his back pockets, and while this is not a configuration you should hold for the duration of any speech or presentation, 20 to 30 second portions of this body language sprinkled throughout an appearance conveys an approachable and open personality. 

This variation of the Arms-Akimbo nonverbal is a good compromise between the prototypical ALPHA thumbs-backwards-hands-on-hips arms akimbo (see Confidence Secret # 14: High and Low Confidence Drivers: Arms Akimbo and Assertive Attitudes) and the BETA thumbs-forwards-hands-on-hips arms akimbo (see Dating & Romance Secret # 227: Are You Comfortable Around Your Ex?). They're difficult to see, but Santorum has his thumbs positioned forward and outside, while his fingers are inside of his pockets. This thumbs-forward is a BETA nonverbal. However, the elbows/arms sticking out (laterally) from the body is an ALPHA body language signal. Hands in the pockets is a BETA beacon. But his thumbs out of pockets shifts the sign to a bit more in the ALPHA direction. 

Rick Santorum's feet are an intermediate distance apart - which is also a good ALPHA-BETA mix in the right setting. Here however, I'd recommend the former Senator stand with his feet a bit more apart. For a Presidential Candidate, his foot-to-foot distance is a bit too demure. He'd look a bit more like Ronald Reagan or John Wayne with his feet a shoulder width apart. On the eve of the South Carolina Presidential Primary, Santorum needs a little more "Gipper".

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Negotiation Body Language Secret # 398: Rick Santorum's Anger and compensatory MAPs

In this image of the Republican Presidential Candidate hopeful at a January 5, 2012 Northfield, New Hampshire town hall meeting - Rick Santorum demonstrates two significant nonverbal mistakes that an experienced speaker should never commit. The former Senator from Pennsylvania is compressing and tightening his lips in a highly characteristic horizontally straight line. This configuration is very consistent with the emotion of anger. The mild (Santorum's left) to moderate (right) partial closing of his eyelids is also congruent with mild to moderate anger and incredulity.

Mr. Santorum is also self-touching. Self-touching fits into a class of nonverbal behaviors known as Manipulators, Adaptors or Pacifiers (MAPs). With rare exceptions, speakers of any profession are ill-advised to self-touch any body part - particularly their face or the other hand. Like many other MAPs, the "Hand Wringing" seen demonstrated here by the former senator - is a body language tell indicative of anxiety. Santorum has enjoyed a recent surge in the poles with a very near win in the Iowa Caucuses. The New Hampshire Primary tomorrow will, of course, provide many more opportunities for Santorum and the other five remaining republican candidates to show us their nonverbal anxiety.

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Negotitation Body Language Secret # 717: A Tale of Two Ricks,Where to Point ....and Not to Point

At the final Republican Debate prior to the Iowa Caucuses (Jan. 3, 2012) last night in Sioux City, Rick Santorum demonstrated one of the few directions a speaker should ever point with their index finger extended in the classic pointing gesture - Up. The only other direction advisable is at oneself. Governor Rick Perry however, points at the audience - which any debate coach will tell you, is a major nonverbal faux pas. Pointing at another is universally negatively received by audiences the World over (Pease) and should be strongly avoided. Interestingly, even when a candidate (or anyone else) points at someone else, this evokes feelings of empathy for those being pointed at - ergo Perry loses votes every time he points.

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