Jun 23 2009
WASHINGTON - JUNE 23: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (C) listens to U.S. President Barack Obama during a news conference in the James S. Brady Briefing Room at the White House June 23, 2009 in Washington, DC. Obama was expected to discuss the high cost of health care, energy independence and the post-election disputes in Iran. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
What does this pic say? I would love to know what the President is talking about at this exact moment. All his advisers have pierced together lips, meaning they do not like what is being said. Emanuel is showing a large about of stress and concern in his forehead, he looks like a parent who is attempting to get the kids to settle down from the other side of the room- that stare that parents can deliver that stops kids in their tracks.◦
Friday, July 17, 2009
What Are You Saying?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Mark Bowden Talks About Body Language
Mark Bowden is a body language experts who appears on television "across the pond" frequently. Mark is an actor who advises business managers how to use body language in their roles as company leaders.
Below is a link when Karl Moore talks with Mark Bowden and this appears in video and transcript format.
Language of the Body from the Globe and Mail, appearing July 15th, 2009.
I really like his style and video presence; if you do also- I would suggest searching the larger video web sites to see more of his work on the television; he always is entertaining, informative and interacts really well with the on air talent.◦
Jennifer Garner Shows Spontaneous Surprise
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Judge Sonia Sotomayor Shows us the Percision Grip
WASHINGTON - JULY 14: Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor answers questions from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) during the second day of her confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill July 14, 2009 in Washington, DC. Sotomayor faces a full day of questioning from Senators on the committee today. Sotomayor, an appeals court judge and U.S. President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, will become the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court if confirmed. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
When someone is speaking and is showing you the precision grip it symbolically conveys that they are holding that concept in their hands. It reinforces what they are saying with great precision and accuracy. It is favorite among politicians and I have heard it called the politician's grip.
If you currently find yourself pointing as you are talking, it is much better to use this gesture, as people find pointing offensive.
If you see someone almost doing this, where the thumb and the forefinger almost touch (or are not together- in varying degrees) this is a clear signal of uncertainty. I see this among all types of people, but I especially notice it with lawyers who are defending those accused of crimes which is incredibility interesting (if the lawyer is incredibility confident- which most trial lawyers are- I have to think it could be a sign that the lawyer does not have confidence in their client's guilt or innocence depending on the situation and context).◦
Lying in Handwriting
One place where you can look is in the lower case "o" and "a" when searching for integrity and honesty.
There are many ways people can write the "o" and "a" and if you see huge inner loops this is a sign that a person is not trustworthy. You can also see this with hooks, or squiggles inside the oval.
Take a look at the following three examples:
It goes for your p's and q's, so mind your p's and q's... I am so sorry- I couldn't resist.
The cleaner the insides of these letters the more candid and blunt they are.◦
Roadside Crosses
As I have mentioned before on this blog, Roadside Crosses is released.
Look for this to be a movie in the future (about two years I would guess based on how long it is to put the right people together).
The main character is Kathryn Dance and the book covers a case lands on the desk of Kathryn Dance, the California Bureau of Investigations foremost body language expert.
On Simon&Schuster's website they have released an expert from the audiobook.
Click here to visit the website.◦
Victim or Faker?
There are times when someone accuses another of a terrible crime. I'd like to think someone wouldn't do such a terrible thing to another person. Unfortunately it does happen. Sometimes people want to be "the victim" because they like the attention they receive. Other times it is to hurt the other person. No matter the reason, it does happen.
We need to be able to determine the likely hood that the crime did or did not take place.
The below video is showing someone who was a victim. The crime was committed years ago, but the pain is still there. Watch it. Empathize with her pain. Try to understand it. This event will live with her for the rest of her life. I only hope she finds a way to find peace.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
One other gesture that is not shown in the video, in women, they will often place their hand in front of their neck, covering the space where their collarbone and neck meet. It is a reflex protective gesture.◦
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
How We Look at the Face
Prof Schyns said: “Facial expressions and the interpretation of them are a fundamental part of human communication and our study has revealed how the brain uses facial details in order to make crucial social judgements.
“Our study suggests that facial expressions co-evolved with the brain - the former to be deciphered, the latter to decipher. With time-resolved brain data, we reveal both how the brain uses different expressive features and how long it takes to process enough information for the critical social judgements we take for granted.”
There are six basic facial expressions: happy, fear, surprise, disgust, anger and sadness. All of these expressions have distinctive characteristics that the brain can easily distinguish between.
Volunteers in the study were shown each expression on 10 different faces, five male, five female, while brain-imaging equipment monitored how quickly different parts of the brain interpreted them.
The results showed that between 140-200ms of the picture being shown, an information processing mechanism starts independently in both left and right brain hemispheres, looking first at the eyes, then the rest of the face before zooming back in on specific features associated with the basic emotions.
By the end of this process, the brain has enough information to accurately predict the emotional state of the person displaying the facial expression.
To read the entire study, click here.
Abstract: Competent social organisms will read the social signals of their peers. In primates, the face has evolved to transmit the organism's internal emotional state. Adaptive action suggests that the brain of the receiver has co-evolved to efficiently decode expression signals. Here, we review and integrate the evidence for this hypothesis. With a computational approach, we co-examined facial expressions as signals for data transmission and the brain as receiver and decoder of these signals. First, we show in a model observer that facial expressions form a lowly correlated signal set. Second, using time-resolved EEG data, we show how the brain uses spatial frequency information impinging on the retina to decorrelate expression categories. Between 140 to 200 ms following stimulus onset, independently in the left and right hemispheres, an information processing mechanism starts locally with encoding the eye, irrespective of expression, followed by a zooming out to processing the entire face, followed by a zooming back in to diagnostic features (e.g. the opened eyes in “fear”, the mouth in “happy”). A model categorizer demonstrates that at 200 ms, the left and right brain have represented enough information to predict behavioral categorization performance.
Citation: Schyns PG, Petro LS, Smith ML (2009) Transmission of Facial Expressions of Emotion Co-Evolved with Their Efficient Decoding in the Brain: Behavioral and Brain Evidence. PLoS ONE 4(5): e5625. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005625◦
Obama Shows Open Palms
WASHINGTON - JULY 13: US President Barack Obama speaks to attendees in the Rose Garden of the White House on July 13, 2009 in Washington, DC. Obama was welcoming members of the Columbus Crew soccer team, Major League Soccer champions for 2008. (Photo by Robert Giroux/Getty Images)
Open palms is showing others you have nothing to conceal and creates a sense of honesty. If one, or both of the palms are facing up it is a good sign that you are hearing the truth.
Now, this is a well known trick among those who might be trying to deceive you- so if you are buying a car or being offered the deal of the century- look for other signs that put you on alert... The person showing palms up should be relaxed, and the palms up gesture should be smooth and natural.
WASHINGTON - JULY 13: Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor makes her opening statement during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee July 13, 2009 in Washington, DC. Sotomayor, an appeals court judge and U.S. President Barack Obama�s first Supreme Court nominee, will become the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court if confirmed. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Here we see it again over at the capitol. Judge Sotomayor was very calm and relaxed, which is a clear sign, that shows she is confident, because it is rare for anyone to appear relaxed at any senate hearing... much less a supreme court confirmation hearing.◦
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