Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3488: Donald Trump Brags about the size of penis - but His Body Language Indicates Anxiety/Deception (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

As if out of an episode of The Twilight Zone, last night during the U.S. Republican Presidential debate in Detroit - Donald Trump bragged about the size of his penis. This was in defense against an earlier implication not to his liking by Senator Marco Rubio.

"Look at those hands. Are they small hands? [pause, audience laughter] And, he referred to my hands, 'If they're small - something else must be small'. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee it. All right."

During 0:09 - 0:10 as he says, "... tee you there's no problem ...", Trump adjusts his microphone. This is what is termed as a MAP surrogate (Manipulator, Adaptor, Pacifier).

Most politicians are pretty good liars - Trump however is a very skilled liar. Upon studying his behavior in detail, one characteristic you'll notice is that, unlike most people he commits very little self-touching (most of these displays are considered MAPs) - even during blatant lies which can be very readily fact-checked. This is highly unusual. Either Trump has, over the years, become very good at not committing self-touching, or, telling lies doesn't bother his psyche. It's extremely common for a person to touch some place on their body during a lie.

The example highlighted here is somewhat of an exception. While the microphone is not part of his body (or clothes) - it acts as an extension - a surrogate. Examples of MAP surrogates include biting or cleaning eye glasses, fidgeting with a pen/pencil or smoking. The microphone needs no adjusting. This behavior is a manifestation of Trump's very significant anxiety.

Of course, it would be a difficult fact to cross-check Donald Trump's assertion. And while anxiety during a declarative statement is not 100% indicative of deception - at multiple times past, when Donald Trump has lied (fact-checked), he displays this same particular anxiety tell. Thus for him, this body language display is very correlative.

Rod Serling where are you?

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3384: Donald Trump Repeats Controversial 9/11 Claims

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3487: Scotty Pelley to Hillary Clinton, "Have you always told the truth?" 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3258: Hillary Clinton speaks out on "inaccuracies" of private email controversy 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3424: Donald Trump, "Hillary Clinton created ISIS with Obama" 

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3396: President Obama's Oval Office Address - Dialing up The Alpha

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3325: Vladimir Putin, the United Nations, Russian Soil and Confidence Levels

Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret No. 1460: French Presidential Election - Marine Le Pen and Fear-Anxiety

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2400: One Way Deception Could be Minimized in the Court Room - O.J. Simpson's in Court


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Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3384: Donald Trump Repeats Controversial 9/11 Claims - Body Language Tells (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Donald Trump is making several claims regarding the events of 9/11 and what he alleges he witnessed that day. One of his assertions is examined below.

Beginning at 0:15 in the above video, Trump says, "... I have a window in my apartment - that specifically was aimed at the World Trade Center because of the beauty of the whole downtown Manhattan. And I watched as people jumped and I watched the second plane come in."

During 0:27 - 0:28 Donald Trump adjusts the microphone stem.

Starting again at 0:38, Trump continues, "Many people jumped and I witnessed it. I watched that."

During 0:39 - 0:40 he again adjusts the microphone stem








As with most politicians, Donald Trump is a very skilled liar. One example of his nonverbal behavior which supports this - is that he rarely displays a self-touching tell, more specifically a MAP (Manipulator, Adaptor, Pacifier) when he lies - yet here he commits a MAP surrogate. He adjusts the microphone in lieu of touching his face or another part of his body. The microphone of course DOES NOT need adjusting. Watch for this in the future - for it's one of Donald's Deception Displays.

Trump is either very good at suppressing these anxiety/deception tells - or more likely, he does not feel very much anxiety when he is lying.

Although this body language signal stands on its own (anxiety associated with a high likelihood of deception), it's interesting to also note what CNN's Sara Murray points out  - that Trumps apartment is about 4 miles from where the World Trade Center stood. Of course it's possible from that distance a person could watch the events through a telescope or binoculars - however if he had used his unaided eyes, it would have been impossible. This would have required visual acuity 5 times better than 20/20 - and no human being has ever come close to that level of vision. Moreover this would be only the acuity required to discriminate what would have be perceived as a tiny black spots. The vision required to differentiate a human being from the other debris at that distance would have to be much greater.


See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3383: Barack Obama and Francois Hollande Shake Hands

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3293: Why is Donald Trump a Better Liar than Most Politicians? - Body Language  

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3250: Donald Trump regarding John McCain: "He's no hero" - Body Language Tells us what he really thinks

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3368: Donald Trump, Insincerity and Starbucks - Body Language 

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

Nonverbal Communication Secret No. 1459: Geithner Gets His Alpha On

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3256: Katie Holmes on Jimmy Fallon

 
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