Donald Trump, Small Hands, Big Hands and More. Why Size Matters When We Vote for President.

Donald Trump

Small Hands vs. Big Hands and More. Why Size Matters When We Vote for President.

Have you seen the video of Trump defending the size of his hands from Rubio’s attack and inferring he does not have any problems with his size? 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/mar/04/trump-defends-his-manhood-after-rubios-small-hands-comment-video

Whether you will like him or not, I find it fascinating that the topic of hand size was mentioned by a presidential candidate. I am not surprised that any man with a large ego would defend his manly size. There are reasons why size matters when we vote for president.

You know I do research, write and speak about body language and first impressions. The popular vote tends to go to the most charismatic candidate and specifically the most alpha candidate. We want our leaders to be large! So, typically, the tallest and heaviest candidate wins the popular vote.  Hard to believe it but, even today in our advanced industrialized nation we want a strong healthy tribal leader who will protect us and take down the big game for us. And it does not matter if we are male or female our primitive limbic brain wants a strong, powerful leader that will have healthy genes to make good babies. 

We should vote for a president with the highest credibility as there is more to leadership than charisma and alpha power, but again and again it is the most charismatic, alpha candidate who we vote for. In the study, Harvard undergraduates who were shown ten-second silent video clips of unfamiliar candidates from 58 past gubernatorial elections consistently chose the candidate who won. They didn't hear a word the candidates said, but they almost without exception picked the winner. Their choices were made purely on the basis of body language. In fact, when they could hear what the candidates said, the students were no better at predicting who had won. Body Language trumps what a candidate says.

As to size of gestures and Trump's hands, here is something else that is interesting. Power is also communicated by gestures. Research shows that charismatic leaders use gestures in fact four times as many as others do when they talk. Charismatic speakers from Bill Clinton and Martin Luther King from Cesar Chavez to Donald Trump are charismatic people. Now picture their gestures. Now specifically think of Trump's gestures. We see him punctuating almost every sentence with a strong gesture. 

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. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.