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Showing posts with label Politian's body language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politian's body language. Show all posts

The Body Language Of Norway's Oil And Energy Secretary Of State.

A reporter from the Norwegian leading daily asked me to contribute to an article about the body language of Norway's oil and energy Secretary of State. My response is below the request and video he sent.

He has got a lot of criticism for the past months, and his popularity is not good at the moment.
"Would you be kind to watch this clip from the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, and tell us what you see in Secretary of State, Terje Riis-Johansen's body language. How do you read him?" "He is the man at the left. The other one is a political commentator. I guess you don't know the language, but that is kind of the idea behind this request." Here is the video

http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/indeks/227241/


To give a complete read I would need to know what questions he is responding to and his nonverbal cues in response to the questions and as he answers.
Having said that. Here is what I noticed. He came in sat down and immediately crossed his arms in what I call the castle wall position and kept them there.
That is odd for any interview if you are comfortable and confident you keep your limps apart and your heart in view. He also hunches over further protecting himself in a defense position. It is obvious something is going on at the 1:51 mark or so on the video. His voice get more tense and he is hurling his response out as if they wear fighting fists.
The commentator gets a bit patronizing. Look at his mouth at 2:02. If you do a screen grab of that moment you will see his mouth turned down and held shut very tightly so that the chin wrinkles. That is suppressed anger. He hold his face in that position longer that a open exposed emotion would play across the face. Look closely at the eyes. There is anger there too. It is interesting that most people in this facial position believe they are showing a neutral facial expression. There is something else going on at 4:48 or so that he feels strongly about his voice get more staccato and he wants to emphasize a point.
Hopefully that is helpful for you. If there is another moment of the tape you would like me to watch let me know. I would love to know what was being discussed at those point.



Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://pattiwood.net/. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Bush's Yo' Blair Greeting

I have been blogging not only on this blog on body language, but also my speech coach blog about the increase in informality in communication. Here is an example from a media interview I did several years ago.

The link below contains some strong language by George Bush and my comments to a journalist.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8650086.stm

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Sarah Palin

Someone asked me recently about Sarah Palin's winks. Here is a reference and link to a read I did for the media of Sarah's winking in the Vice Presidential debates.

Winking Sarah Palin flirted with the entire nation during her vice presidential debate with Delaware Democratic Sen. Joe Biden Oct. 2 in St. Louis.

Not only that, she didn't wink once, but six times, according to body language expert Patti Wood, author of "Success Signals," who counted six.
http://palinsexismwatch.blogspot.com/2008/10/southwestern-michigan-college-daily.html

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://pattiwood.net/. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Media And Politians' Body Language

Politicians' public-friendly stunts
Does it impact their governing?

By JOANNE RICHARD, Special to QMI Agency

Last Updated: August 6, 2010 10:00pm
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Federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and his tour bus made a stop at MuchMusic in Toronto. (Michael Peake/QMI Agency) From singalongs to festival jigs, politicians are croonin’ and movin’ to the political beat.

Iggy got jiggy at MuchMusic recently. Federal Liberal party leader Michael Ignatieff staged a conga line and danced several feet onto his tour bus in downtown Toronto.

Remember Stephen Harper’s attempted singalong at the National Arts Centre Gala last year? And just last week President Obama made a sit-down appearance on The View, marking the first-ever appearance by a president on a daytime talk show.


According to Patti Wood, these politicians are working hard at increasing their likability factor in order to appear more approachable and connected. “Showing their soft, fluffy, likable side is a way of getting more media coverage.

“It’s a shift from gravitas to gregarious!” adds Wood, body language expert and author of Success Signals. “Politicians seem reconciled that it is difficult, if not impossible, to be credible to gain our trust and respect, so they are singing, dancing, and cracking jokes on talk shows in a bid for media attention that gives them popularity. They are using their charisma to at least be likable.”

Dr. Lillian Glass agrees. “Politicians are so vilified that they’re trying to make themselves appear more human and likable – they’re just building up their image points and leave a better impression for when the mud and dirt start to fling.”

Glass, a body language/communications expert, adds that although their songs and dances are superficial, they will impact how some people vote.

Author Sanjay Burman says that “seeing politicians who can’t dance but shed their insecurities to go out and have fun, makes us see a personable side to them.

“Stephen Harper shaking hands with his youngest son on the first day of school showed us he is just as stiff as we thought.”

And his singing stint was off-key in the warmth department too.

Burman, of burmanbooks.com, says that we love Obama as a person “because he shows us that he is the same as we are. He is intelligent, successful, loving, genuine and fun. He plays basketball, jokes during interviews and always has his family around.

“I have a problem trusting Ignatieff,” adds Burman, a master hypnotherapist and author of "Reading People and Do Everything They Tell You Not To Do."

“His eyebrows are always covering his face. He keeps his distance when shaking hands with people and even when he smiles he keeps a stern look.”

According to Hogan, song and dance are all for show. “They are trying to achieve their 51% and they know that people filter by identity prior to political views. It simply makes good sense to literally touch as many humans as possible. Those people you touch that you can identify, you are much, much more likely to vote for at the polls.”


When it comes to appealing to certain demographics, politicians know exactly where to aim.

Obama is losing support in the unemployed and also the upper income groups, says Hogan. "He's trying to get back "in" with the lower income America by hitting The View. It's a smart strategy on his part - it isn’t going to help a whole lot but it's probably better than not doing the gig!"

Looks count

Superficial, non-verbal cues, such as politicians’ appearance, greatly sway voting choices. Voters make judgments about politicians’ competence based on their facial appearance.

-June 2010 issue of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior

“Attractive candidates get more news coverage than less attractive ones, reports Patti Wood, body language expert. “And it’s more important for a female politician to be attractive if she wants to get media coverage.”

The bottom line: People generally want to be with good looking people – they even value them as being more worthy.
http://www.calgarysun.com/life/2010/08/05/14930736.html


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Politician's body language: Lying and Trust

Question from a reader "How do I predict politicians future behavior from past body language?"
I have a separate category for Politicians on my Levels of Liars list that I created for my Deception Detection public seminar. Here is what I have observed and read in the research:

• Any person whose success is based on deceit can begin to rationalize that he or she must lie to succeed. By the way, men tend to lie more often about their success than woman.
• Anyone who believes that they are lying for some perceived greater good (for example, “Once I get into office I will do right for the people.”) will lie with less guilt and will give fewer cues of deceit making it harder for us to tell if they are lying.
• Repeating the same information, true or false, overtime can make it possible for someone to believe their own lies. This is an interesting result of how the brain reacts to dissonant information.
• Staff members giving misinformation is another problem that is rather unique to politicians. They are able to rely on their staff, speech writers and others to give them correct information and unless the politician is very smart and does their own fact checking before they speak and is savvy enough to create a staff made up of people with integrity, he or she can run into trouble. Before I do a body language read of a politician I like to study their staff to check the integrity of their 'spin doctors'. Read a case in point--the fall out from the recent Vanity Fair piece on Sara Palin. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24392.html

Fox News Network's O'Reilly Factor



The ApprenticeTune in to the Fox News Network's O'Reilly Factor:
America's Election IQ @
9/17/08 @ 5 - 6 PM EST

Body language expert, Patti Wood has been asked to join the set of FNN's O'Reilly Factor at 5:45 PM EST! Be sure to tune in and hear Patti's amazing nonverbal insights on Palin's body language!

Check Patti's Website for more about Patti.


Here is a preview of her commentary on Palin's body language:
She is actively moving and manipulating space makes her looks powerful and action oriented. Gestures automatically act like an orchestra leader’s baton to animate the voice
Emphasizes her points making them more memorable to us.

Tune in tonight for more!