Let Those Little Fingers Do the Talking
EXPERTS HAVE long known humans communicate with much more than just words. Nonverbal cues are critical in everyday situations, from parenting to dating to acing a job interview, or even getting served in a timely fashion at a restaurant.
These cues are also important for assessing the people around us, including public figures. Plenty of research shows that hand gestures, posture, facial expressions and other visual communication cues (even how close a person stands near others) are ripe for interpretation. Often-cited (and -debated) research from psychologist Albert Mehrabian suggests that 55 percent of human communication is through body language, 38 percent is the tone of voice, and only 7 percent of the message understood is the result of what the person says. This assertion may not hold true in all circumstances, but it does suggest that nonverbal cues are critical to communication.
What makes this particularly interesting is that often these visual cues don’t match up with what the person is saying, especially if that person is famous. More recent research suggests that when people’s nonverbal communication isn’t in line with their words, visual cues are probably a better way to read their thoughts and feelings. Take, for example, Donald Trump.
In mid-january, Trump held his first press conference as the incoming president. The event quickly turned raucous as Trump denied he had any involvement with the Russian government and criticized members of the press. Amid his more obvious, aggressive forms of communication (yelling and finger-pointing) was the message that he was on the defensive and perhaps had a little something to hide, says Patti Wood, a body language expert for more than 30 years, a speaker and the author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma.
Wood has been analyzing the nonverbal communication of politicians since George W. Bush was in the White House, and she has made some interesting observations about Adolf Hitler’s salutes and Sarah Palin’s winks. Trump, she says, is a great study of how gesturing, posture and facial expressions can be confusing and persuasive. “He is the perfect person to show the nonverbal has the power,” she says of Trump. “People don’t hear the words, they don’t really pay attention to [his] verbal message. It doesn’t matter at all.”
When Wood assesses someone’s communication skills—verbal and nonverbal—she thinks about what’s customary for any person in a given scenario and environment (in this case, a high-profile press conference). She also considers the “baseline” behavior of that particular person. Wood has been studying Trump’s idiosyncratic communication habits over the past 18 months and says there have been some small changes in the way he addresses the public since he began campaigning for the presidency. For example, Trump now raises his hands higher when he
gestures, suggesting he has a higher opinion of himself since winning the election.
The way he evokes feelings through facial expressions has also evolved. At the beginning of his campaign, Trump had what she calls a “broad emotional range,” meaning he could move freely from facial cues of laughter to rage and anger. “And then I noticed a transition where he stayed in anger more often,” she says.
But there are also many things that remain consistent, such as his habit of evading questions and then providing answers that are seemingly unrelated and ultimately fall apart into fragmented language. “His baseline is often the baseline of someone being deceptive,” says Wood, adding that these are communication cues she looks for when asked to analyze a video of an interrogation. “He’s someone who doesn’t use complete sentences and chooses to answer questions with an odd mix of words. That would typically be an indication of deception.”
That verbal communication is underscored by visual cues, such as Trump’s trademark gesture: the A-OK symbol. In public speaking, many people are trained to clench their thumb and finger tips together to evoke the message “I’m being precise.” However, Trump’s gesture is different, and Wood says that can be confusing to people watching and listening. In that way, the hand movement becomes a great distraction from his imprecise verbal communication. Trump, Wood adds, also uses plenty of “weapon-like gesturing.” This includes “chopping motions,” which he employed at the press conference when he declared, “I have no ties with Russia.” When he reprimanded Buzzfeed for publishing an unverified intelligence document outlining his ties to the Russian government, he moved his hands aside as if “pushing something out of the way,” Wood says. That’s a less subtle visual cue. Unsurprisingly, it’s one of the uncommon occurrences when his verbal and nonverbal communication actually match up.
Even when Trump isn’t at the mic, his body language sends strong messages. (It didn’t take a PH.D. to conclude that Trump’s lurking behind Hillary Clinton during the second presidential debate was an attempt to intimidate her.)
During that press conference, after Trump gave up the podium to his attorney, others on the stage, including his daughter Ivanka, stood formally with arms folded, hands in front of their groins. This is what’s known in the public speaking world as the “fig-leaf position” because private parts are being shielded. It’s a stance that’s customary at public meetings like press conferences and evokes respect but also vulnerability.
Trump wasn’t guarding his loins at this point. He stood on the sideline swaying, what Wood calls “self-soothing.” He also bit his lip several times, a subconscious cue that indicates “self-punishing” and suppressed anger, she says.
In several instances, Trump turned his head slightly to see behind him, which reflects a “primal need to be an alpha animal and know your territory,” Wood adds. It also didn’t take long before Trump’s entire body faced the audience. Meaning: “I want to be the center of attention.”
In short, she says, the 45th president of the United States looked bored.
“HE DOESN’T USE COMPLETE SENTENCES AND ANSWERS QUESTIONS WITH AN ODD MIX OF WORDS, TYPICALLY AN INDICATION OF DECEPTION.”