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Clinton and Trump's Body Language Durring the First Debates.

Here is a another story I did on Clinton and Trump. I have been a media machine! I am being selective about what I post. I am also not putting up the TV interviews.


Here you go Patti. It's done r ally well online. Thanks again.





Patti Wood, MA, - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Body Language Expert reads Hitler in Documentary

The six part Hitler Documentary I was interviewed for begins this Sunday evening at ten on More4 if you can get it. It's been airing in other countries for awhile and will eventually be on the Discovery Channel. My shoot lasted 10 hours and I have no idea what segments of mine they will use, but it was a very interesting project. I studied his body language in videos for several months. I should have written a thesis on him! I have blog posts on some of my reads if you search with the word Hitler. 





Patti Wood, MA, The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Clinton and Trump, beyond words: What the handshakes, smiles, grimaces, finger-pointing and sniffles revealed

Clinton and Trump, beyond words: What the handshakes, smiles, grimaces, finger-pointing and sniffles revealed

Douglas Quan
Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016
It is often said that for voters, picking a leader has less to do with policy positions and more to do with who you would be most comfortable inviting for dinner. With that in mind, the National Post asked four body-language experts to assess Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s debate performance: Diane Craig, president of Corporate Class, Toronto; Mark Bowden, president of TruthPlane, Toronto; Dave Matsumoto, a psychology professor at San Francisco State University and director of Humintell; and Patti Wood, president of Communication Dynamics, Atlanta.
The handshake
Mark Bowden: Trump gets the advantage position by coming in on the audience’s left side, which means his handshaking hand is forward to the camera, which should make his arm bigger. But Clinton does a countermeasure by extending her arm out so he has to withdraw his arm back closer to his body.
Diane Craig: Trump put his hand on her back; that’s a sign of superiority when you do that.
Facial expressions
DC: Trump has this natural pout when he listens. Both corners of his mouth go down, like when a child is pouting. I don’t know if it’s because he’s used to getting his way. Another thing he does is his eyebrows go down. It’s a definite sign of anger, frustration. Clinton smiled a lot — almost too much. I felt that some of her nervous energy was going into her smile. The amount of smiling she did was betrayed from time to time with deep sighing. It’s a little more difficult to read her facial expressions because of her eyebrows — nothing’s moving. I was trying to watch, it’s like frozen in time.
MB: We saw a look of contempt, a one-sided frown from Trump, and an eye roll when Clinton said she prepared for the evening and ‘I prepared to be president.’ She pretty much had one signature gesture, which was her smile. For the most part, it was effective and well-executed.
Dave Matsumoto: Looking away and rolling his eyes were unmoderated to some extent. So Trump has more of a perception of genuineness. There’s less question about what he’s feeling, whereas Clinton has the same pasted expression throughout, a controlled expression, pursing her lips. Much of the time, her smile was asymmetrical. People might interpret it as a smirk and her laughing off of responses feeds into a perception she’s standoffish.
Patti Wood: Trump has a broad emotional range. He typically gets very happy and smiles a lot, and then he goes all the way to extreme anger. Broad emotional range actually creates likability in candidates. Clinton does not have broad emotional range and that works against her.
Other gestures
MB: Trump’s got some classic gestures that we’ve become used to. He does that OK gesture with his thumb and index finger, and swaps it for the L shape. It’s a precision gesture, he’s detailed. Then his hands squeeze together like a mechanical monkey that plays the cymbals. We also saw the ‘You’re fired’ pointing gesture. Whether we like him or not, at least we’re getting the brand.
PW: He typically has broad high gestures and lots of weapon-like gestures — pointing, jabbing, stabbing, slicing. You only saw the first edges of those so in that way he didn’t look as powerful as he typically does.
DM: Clinton shrugged when asked if she would support the outcome and the will of the people. To me, I don’t know whether that was intentional or not. Probably not. A shoulder shrug raises doubts about the credibility of what she’s saying. It’s typically interpreted as doubt or uncertainty.
Oddities
MB: What was different with Trump this time was the sniff, the big in-draw of air up the nostrils. We hadn’t noticed this before with him. It’s suggesting he’s under more pressure, in that fight or flight area, he’s out of his usual comfort zone. When he talked about his tax returns, he adjusted his microphone. That would be an indicator he’s showing more anxiety. He needs to start adjusting or augment his environment to feel safer or in control.
The split screen
MB: In the split screen, the camera was having to come in closer on Clinton in order to fill the frame; she’s obviously got smaller shoulders than Trump. So her face is always bigger on the screen. It causes her to look more powerful. She was a lot stiller too. Her gestures were more in the frame, so we could see more of her hands, whereas Trump’s gestures were outside of the frame. Good choice of Clinton wearing that block red. That’s aggressive.
DC: That red suit was not an accident, it speaks power. It’s a very structured jacket. There’s nothing distracting about what she wore. Also, Trump makes a lot of noises with his facial expressions when she speaks. He’s so expressive. Even though he doesn’t say anything, it’s noisy. It’s almost like he’s interrupting when she speaks.
PW: Something more subtle that I found interesting is though he said that Clinton did not have stamina, she showed even emotion and continuous solid ground throughout the debate. He started out yelling and gesturing, but about 45 minutes in you saw him gesturing less and grimacing more and placing his weight on his arms on the podium. If you look subtly at the musculature of his face, it pulled down toward the end of the debates, showing fatigue.
The takeaway
DC: Clinton seemed to be more in control of her emotions. When we talk about presence, being in control of emotions is critical. I think it made us more confident in her. She did look presidential, there’s no question about it.
MB: On the whole, the president we’re looking for is the one who can handle pressure. I go for Clinton on that, for sure. Who looked the most presidential? She did. Calm and assertive.
DM: Trump showed he was an emoting human. She showed she was a standoffish, arrogant person. If you watched that debate without words, that’s the impression people would come off with. Many people will see it as an advantage; the president should be above immediate, transient reactions on the spur of the moment. Whereas some people will think he was more genuine and showed more empathy to what the common people are like.
PW: Clinton couldn’t do the full range of things men do: she couldn’t grimace, couldn’t growl. That smile was bizarre in some cases, but I would’ve coached her to do the same thing. It’s a forced choice. She was masterful in how calm and composed she was.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Body Language Analysis of the First Presidential Debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump by Patti Wood



I'm fascinated by Trump's use of anger. He yelled through the first 20 minutes of the debate. Anger has the strongest pulling effect.  It pulls audiences strongly and it's highly persuasive. Being the angriest in the debate can make you look the most powerful. Check my blog for my articles on anger. For example, research shows that employees who are evaluated to be angrier actually get more promotions and higher salary.  Anger makes you look like the alpha dog.

There is a gender difference in how anger is perceived. Yes, anger can make a woman look more powerful but there is a cost.  For example, research shows that angry women are seen as less attractive. Hillary Clinton kept her anger in check. Typically her baseline voice is high and can seem strident. It was not strident or high tonight. Also look at my research on my blog about women's voices. Men hear women’s voices (higher range) in the loosely defined as the auditory brain or emotional brain.  Research shows that they therefore perceive women's voices as being more emotional. Also research says that voices are not seen as authoritative. 

Trump has something that's called, in body language research, a broad emotional range. He typically gets very happy and smiles a lot and then he goes all the way to extreme anger. This emotional range actually creates likability in candidates. Hillary does not have emotional range and that works against her.  It's one of the reasons she is seen by some as unlikable.

I do research on the DISC personality inventory and body language and  Hillary is a high C corrector with D. Trump is a high D driver with I influencer. That is how less emotional, nonverbal delivery can be perceived as cold and or rational. I think Hillary did a very good job, having said that, in controlling her emotions. Trump was yelling and interrupting her turn in a way that made him powerful but she continued on. Even if people don't like her you have to be impressed by that.  

I thought their head placement in the debates was really interesting. Her baseline tendency is to bring up her chin and look superior or hold contempt.  She didn't do that tonight.  Her head was evenly placed, she didn't look down, she didn't hold her chin up and it was evenly placed. She looked balanced and in control. Also typically Trump brings his chin up.  He did that occasionally tonight but what I found interesting was his listening face when she was talking. Baseline in debates he smirks, he smiles and he seems to enjoy listening to the other person. Waiting or not waiting for his turn to pounce. Tonight he had closed mouth down at the corners, look of displeasure and sometimes the sour post mouth but he had a head tilt and he kept his eyes on her. He was not showing his typical face playful "I am having fun" glee. He wasn't having fun he was fighting. 

Also interesting, the split screen I was watching on didn't show the broad gestures of either candidate. Trump typically has broad, high gestures and lots of weapon like gestures (pointing, jabbing, stabbing, and slicing.)  You only saw the first edges of those so in that way he didn't look as powerful as he typically does in debate. Both candidate’s gestures were synchronous. You can look at my blog about (feel show say) indicating honesty.   Smooth gestures that come at the same time words do indicates a person is being honest. Again both of the candidates tonight had synchronous gestures. 

Something more subtle that I found interesting is though he said that Hillary did not have stamina, she showed even emotion and continuous solid ground and energy throughout the debate.  Trump started out powerful yelling and gesturing but about 45 minutes in you saw him gesturing less and grimacing more and placing his weight on his arms on the podium as if to support himself. If you look subtly at the musculature of his face it pulled down towards the end of the debates showing fatigue. I've seen Hillary look that way but she did not look at all fatigued tonight. Typically voters choose the candidate that is the most charismatic. Charisma is determined by high likability, attractiveness and power. It's interesting when you compare this with what we assessed and in a first impression typically we look for credibility, likability, attractiveness and power. Research shows when somebody is highly charismatic it overrides our ability to tell whether or not they are credible. We are easily persuaded by somebody that is charismatic. 



Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

What Does Winking Mean? The Definition of Winking.


What Does Winking Mean? The Definition of Winking.

Winking can be a greeting, it can indicate interest, attraction and or indicate you have a secret connection Winking is a conscious deliberate set of body language cues. We tend to think it is just the closing of one eye, but what is also necessary is that the person looks at the receiver of the wink with his or her other eye. It is a fascinating combination of low and high power cues, and closed and open gestures.  
You stare with one eye to show interest and the wink with the other to soften the stare. Starring, extended eye contact can indicate a desire to attack.  So winking is a way of showing interest but softening what could be threatening continuous eye contact. That is why I recommend it in my chapter on flirting in SNAP Making the Most of First Impressions Body Language and Charisma.

Winking is sometimes done with a tilt of the head that is an additional softening cue. So a wink and tilt may indicate, “I am interested, but I’m harmless.”
The conspiratorial wink to one person can translate as, ‘You and I have a secret, we both understand, others do not.”
Winking can also be a slightly suggestive greeting and is reminiscent of a small wave of the hand as in “Hello there, beautiful!” or “Hello you hunk You.”
A perfect example of the softening/conspirator wink is given in the poem “The Night Before Christmas.” Santa gives traditional nonverbal cues to show he is harmless and not going to attack with, “A wink of his eye and a twist of his head.” Together these body language cues let the narrator of the story who just saw a stranger who just bounded into his living room carrying a sack is a charming interloper, not a dangerous intruder planning to abscond with the silver.
I remember being out with a group of friends, one of whom I had dated. A topic came up in the groups discussion that he and I had discussed and laughed about many times when we dated and I looked at him and gave him a wink and the exact moment he turned to wink at me!





Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

What Does Winking Mean? The Definition of Winking.


What Does Winking Mean? The Definition of Winking.

Winking can be a greeting, it can indicate interest, attraction and or indicate you have a secret connection Winking is a conscious deliberate set of body language cues. We tend to think it is just the closing of one eye, but what is also necessary is that the person looks at the receiver of the wink with his or her other eye. It is a fascinating combination of low and high power cues, and closed and open gestures.  
You stare with one eye to show interest and the wink with the other to soften the stare. Starring, extended eye contact can indicate a desire to attack.  So winking is a way of showing interest but softening what could be threatening continuous eye contact. That is why I recommend it in my chapter on flirting in SNAP Making the Most of First Impressions Body Language and Charisma.

Winking is sometimes done with a tilt of the head that is an additional softening cue. So a wink and tilt may indicate, “I am interested, but I’m harmless.”
The conspiratorial wink to one person can translate as, ‘You and I have a secret, we both understand, others do not.”
Winking can also be a slightly suggestive greeting and is reminiscent of a small wave of the hand as in “Hello there, beautiful!” or “Hello you hunk You.”
A perfect example of the softening/conspirator wink is given in the poem “The Night Before Christmas.” Santa gives traditional nonverbal cues to show he is harmless and not going to attack with, “A wink of his eye and a twist of his head.” Together these body language cues let the narrator of the story who just saw a stranger who just bounded into his living room carrying a sack is a charming interloper, not a dangerous intruder planning to abscond with the silver.
I remember being out with a group of friends, one of whom I had dated. A topic came up in the groups discussion that he and I had discussed and laughed about many times when we dated and I looked at him and gave him a wink and the exact moment he turned to wink at me!





Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

7 Body Language Tricks to Exude Confidence

Check out this cool article on how to appear more confident with these simple body language tricks!

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/14/7-body-language-tricks-to-exude-confidence.html?slide=8

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

7 Body Language Tricks to Exude Confidence

Check out this cool article on how to appear more confident with these simple body language tricks!

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/14/7-body-language-tricks-to-exude-confidence.html?slide=8

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Responding to Inapropiate Touch, Your fitness/yoga instructor likes to get a little too handsy /touchy-feely. How to handle it without risking to lose your membership or make uncomfortable other attendees?

  • Responding to Inapropiate Touch, Your fitness/yoga instructor likes to get a little too handsy /touchy-feely. How to handle it without risking to lose your membership or make uncomfortable other attendees?

 The Chicago Tribune asked for my insights as a body language expert. Here’s the link, ladies! It was a treat working with you and I added the links to your websites in your bio as well!
Below that are my more detailed comments. 

There is vast scientific knowledge and data from researchers around the world that proves that positive touch makes us better communicators, better friends, and better people. Human Touch is vital to our physical and emotional development and to our overall sense of health and well-being. But, touch that we don’t want, touch that makes us uncomfortable even it its well-intentioned is another thing all together. How do we say, “Stop!” to something others may see as such a warm and wonderful thing? By saying simply what’s true for you and requesting what you would like and ideally getting agreement that the toucher understands. “I notice that you are a very touchy huggy person” “I am not that way, I am uncomfortable with that, you know everyone is different. So could you please honor my need for space?” (Making eye contact and getting nonverbal and or verbal agreement.” Then if you wish say. “I appreciate it.” I suggest a question and a response from the person to act a promise/contract. This is a soft request. Use a clear even strong tone. Not accusatory but not soft and pleading.  If someone has been inappropriate or creepy I would suggest a stronger message and that you do this in the presence of others who know what has happened and have your back. Years of research on touch and giving workshops on sexual harassment have taught me that many people don’t know that their touch bothers others people, they just don’t get it. And when it is made clear they stop. Oddly, the true bully harassers often stop too if there told and or if they are given clear consequences.. Women, who research shows understand nonverbal communication more effetely than men think that their nonverbal message of discomfort should be enough. Sometimes, they may think a tight smile or an awkward laugh or freezing in place or pulling away from touch is enough, But, not everybody can read the signals clearly.  Women sometimes, want to much to being nice. They don’t want anyone to be uncomfortable, even the very person that doesn’t seem to be seeing their discomfort the person who is not sensitive to their feelings. So you need to bring the message from the complex emotional nonverbal world to clear logical neocortex words and say it out loud and clear. “Stop!”
(By the way you gym membership is not as important as your personal safety and comfort and if you saying what you want and need to feel safe bothers other people, they are not the people you should be around.”






Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Responding to Inapropiate Touch, Your fitness/yoga instructor likes to get a little too handsy /touchy-feely. How to handle it without risking to lose your membership or make uncomfortable other attendees?

  • Responding to Inapropiate Touch, Your fitness/yoga instructor likes to get a little too handsy /touchy-feely. How to handle it without risking to lose your membership or make uncomfortable other attendees?

 The Chicago Tribune asked for my insights as a body language expert. Here’s the link, ladies! It was a treat working with you and I added the links to your websites in your bio as well!
Below that are my more detailed comments. 

There is vast scientific knowledge and data from researchers around the world that proves that positive touch makes us better communicators, better friends, and better people. Human Touch is vital to our physical and emotional development and to our overall sense of health and well-being. But, touch that we don’t want, touch that makes us uncomfortable even it its well-intentioned is another thing all together. How do we say, “Stop!” to something others may see as such a warm and wonderful thing? By saying simply what’s true for you and requesting what you would like and ideally getting agreement that the toucher understands. “I notice that you are a very touchy huggy person” “I am not that way, I am uncomfortable with that, you know everyone is different. So could you please honor my need for space?” (Making eye contact and getting nonverbal and or verbal agreement.” Then if you wish say. “I appreciate it.” I suggest a question and a response from the person to act a promise/contract. This is a soft request. Use a clear even strong tone. Not accusatory but not soft and pleading.  If someone has been inappropriate or creepy I would suggest a stronger message and that you do this in the presence of others who know what has happened and have your back. Years of research on touch and giving workshops on sexual harassment have taught me that many people don’t know that their touch bothers others people, they just don’t get it. And when it is made clear they stop. Oddly, the true bully harassers often stop too if there told and or if they are given clear consequences.. Women, who research shows understand nonverbal communication more effetely than men think that their nonverbal message of discomfort should be enough. Sometimes, they may think a tight smile or an awkward laugh or freezing in place or pulling away from touch is enough, But, not everybody can read the signals clearly.  Women sometimes, want to much to being nice. They don’t want anyone to be uncomfortable, even the very person that doesn’t seem to be seeing their discomfort the person who is not sensitive to their feelings. So you need to bring the message from the complex emotional nonverbal world to clear logical neocortex words and say it out loud and clear. “Stop!”
(By the way you gym membership is not as important as your personal safety and comfort and if you saying what you want and need to feel safe bothers other people, they are not the people you should be around.”






Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

The "Not Face" What is the face that shows you don't want to do something.

So how often do you use a "Not Face?"
This is my year of saying "Yes!" So I think I also need to be aware of not giving a "Not Face."
The 'Not Face' is a universal part of language, study suggests: Computer analysis shows how this...
Researchers have identified a single, universal facial expression that is interpreted across many cultures as the embodiment of negative emotion. The look proved…
www.sciencedaily.com
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…/2016/…/160328084915.htm
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

The "Not Face"

So how often do you use a "Not Face?"
This is my year of saying "Yes!" So I think I also need to be aware of not giving a "Not Face."
Researchers have identified a single, universal facial expression that is interpreted across many cultures as the embodiment of negative emotion. The look proved…
www.sciencedaily.com
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…/2016/…/160328084915.htm
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.