Body Language of
Presidential Candidates, Super Tuesday, Body Language of the Presidential
Candidates. Who Will Win?
The Body Language of the Presidential
Candidates in their Super Tuesday speeches and in their previous media
appearance.
Here are my rough notes. First I will
start with their Super Tuesday Speech reads and then follow that with their
previous speaking body language. You will find the Super Tuesday notes in blue
ink and the general notes on the candidates’ body language in black.
Hillary Clinton
In her Super Tuesday Speech in Florida
Hilary Clinton started with high energy and maintained high, happy energy
throughout the speech. In fact, she was the happiest speaker of all the
candidates in their Super Tuesday speeches. She has previously given many
deceptive, defensive and sarcastic cues, but she was coached well for this
speech and often showed the palms of her hands and we read that as someone who
is being open and honest. Again we need to see that to override the
preponderance of negative cues we have seen in most of her media appearances.
In this speech Hilary had what I call “UP”
body Language. Her gestures were upward so her hands came to or above her
shoulders. She even brought the corners of her mouth up and smiled throughout
her Super Tuesday speech. Her voice went up in energy at the end of her
sentences, rather than down in distaste and disgust with the line of questioning
or her lack of confidence as I have been seeing. Her word messages were also
up. She was thanking people, talking about a positive future, with statements
such as, “…we need more love and kindness.” Though she made negative comments
about the other candidates they were not crudely derogatory messages instead
they often ended with a positive message that made her appear hopeful and
positive such as, “… Not build a wall but build ladders of opportunity.”
Her appearance was great. She looked well
rested, her skin glowed. She looked pretty. Her voice was raspy but not quite
as strained as I have heard in her other recent speeches and during recent
debates. This stronger voice made her sound stronger and more like a winner.
Though at the end of the speech she pushed her voice and it was a bit
strained. Her volume went up and her
gestures stayed “UP” so she read even at the end of her speech as energetic and
positive. Though she did much better than she has in the past few months at
warmth and congruence of her word message with her delivery, and was the best
of all the candidates in her Super Tuesday speech, she still seemed canned and
fake and less sincere than say, Bernie in his speeches. Read about the
importance of silhouette in my previous post. In this speech her silhouette was
up and erect.
A link to the video of Hilary’s Super
Tuesday Speech and body language
http://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/03/02/hillary-clinton-super-tuesday-miami-entire-speech-sot.cnn
In her speeches and interview before
Super Tuesday Hilary Clinton shows many shoulder shrugs of uncertainty.
When Hilary is asked a tough question, often a question about the email
server, she looks down before she answers which indicates that she is looking
down on the question and is preparing her message and not speaking from her
heart. Her voice is raspy and shows great vocal strain. I think the
effort to keep her voice in lower more powerful register and speak loudly is
straining it. Unfortunately, that strain sounds to a potential voter like a
lack of strength, and perhaps a lack of character. I rather like the anger she
is showing in current speeches and television appearances. She needs to be
angry to fight and look powerful against Trump’s overriding anger. Look at my
blogs on anger to note how we read anger as power. There is an interesting
video where she is asked a question about being paid 650,000 dollars for
speaking to Goldman Sachs where she steps backward as she begins answering the
question, she is symbolically walking away from the question. If she had
brought the rest of her body language down with that step back to show she felt
shame in taking that speaking engagement that would have been interesting and
understandable, but instead she raises up her body language and defends herself
and delivers the line, “That’s what they paid me” with humour. It got her a
laugh, and she justified that all secretary of states do this, but it did not
garner my respect.
Bernie Sanders
Bernie’s Super Tuesday speech started with
this wonderful image of him surrounded by people bouncing his blue posters so visually
the posters danced all around him. That lifted up his nonverbal image,
transferring it to him and making him look hugely popular at the start of his
speech. That was a great nonverbal set up. Unfortunately he himself did not
look energized. He did his usual holding on to the podium, putting his full
weight on it making him look like he needed help standing up. He was much
more negative in his verbal and nonverbal messaging than I have seen him in his
other speeches. He made several sour pursed lip expressions and a few downward
turned and tight lipped angry looks and looks of disgust. This was a profound
contrast for his iconic warm smiling likeable image. He also yelled a
lot. Even when he made positive statements he made them sound negative.
Normally he is inspirational when he talks about certain things. But, in this
speech, when talked about global warming and got to what should have been a
positive uplifting message that I have seen him give in rousing to action way
he said, “Together we are going to transform our energy system away from fossil
fuel to energy efficiency and a sustainable energy…” as he yelled and then had
a voice and delivery that went down and petered out. When he said, what is
usually a spirited, inspirational statement, “Healthcare is a right for all
people” he sounded angry and tired and a bit defeated. I want to emphasize in
previous speeches he gave these same messages without the raspy tired voice and
with upward gestures and smiles that made his message seem like he could do it! His
overall silhouette is bent over in a tilted C like position making him look
older and weaker than the other candidates.
In Bernie Sanders previous presentations he has a warm, genuine smile that is
the most likable, believable smile of all the candidates. He also shows great
integrity in his messaging, that his word message tracks and agrees with his
body language and vocal cues. When someone is telling the
truth their voice and body language comes in its natural order feel show say,
you see the candidate express his emotion then they say the words. Specifically
a person who is telling the truth feels the emotion first in their limbic brain
then shows it in his body language and then he goes to his neocortex and thinks
about the words that go with that feeling and says them. When a candidate is
lying they think of the lie they want to say in their neocortex, then he says
it before they forget it then he thinks about what feeling should go with it,
then he has to switch to his limbic brain to show that nonverbal behavior. So you
see and hear a dissonant set of messages. So you hear the candidate say the
words but the facial expression and gestures are off, slightly delayed and off
and it makes you feel uncomfortable.
Republican Ben Carson
Not rah rah. He started his Super Tuesday speech
with an odd sideways lean and lots of “shuttered” eyes, that is his eyes were
closed for long periods of time as he spoke and his voice was its usual soft
matter of fact slow paused filled delivered. These Lean and Eye Shutter alone cues show his
weariness and lack of confidence but, add in the other cues and we really
feel it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6AyxjPeVAU
When he smiles and tells a joke he is charming,
but those moments are far too few. In
general he has a lack of affect, specifically a lack of warmth or in any way
energetic facial expressions. This is especially apparent in the times the
camera is on him as he listens. Over all his shoulders sloped downward
significantly that creates a tired, submissive silhouette. He has a slow pace,
and again overall lacks significance. I will say in the last debates he got
better at gesturing upward and open in his planned rehearsed statement.
Another non alpha characteristic is his eye’s natural base line position
is almost closed, and it along with his slow pace makes him look sleepy and
somewhat closed and perhaps deceptive. He tilts his head quite a bit when he is
speaking which makes him look submissive. He has gotten better at
gesturing, but his gestures over all are slightly lower and much quicker than Trumps
which makes him look less powerful and less long lasting. One characteristic
that bothers me is his little smirk. He gives
a downward smile smirk at the end of his planned diatribes that are irritatingly
smug. Oddly when Trump does it he swaggers and it makes him look conceited but
oddly powerful, narcissistic but powerful and we will choose the most
powerful candidate. When Cruz smirks
just that tiny bit without the big swagger delivery and strong voiced statement
it makes him look a bit like naughty little boy.
Marc Rubio
He pushed and rushed his voice and delivery at the beginning of his
speech rather than coming out strong but centered and building to intense
delivery. (Hitler by the way was a master at the slow build that took his
audiences on a journey and made him a leader you wanted to follow on his
journey.) Interesting that right after Rubio said it was great to
be in Florida and great to be back home that he went to his first real message
of his speech, “….and Donald Trump is a con artist.” Rather than an up lifting
motivating message. Also interesting that during his pauses he is still making
odd mouth movements. He will give a message, pause and then pulls his lips
closed tight, then rub his lips together then sometimes wet them with his
tongue. This shows both his discomfort and stress and shows he does not fully
feel confident in his messages. Notice how on the tape he does a lot of
pointing down, not just when he talks about Trump, which would make sense, but
when he gives messages that are positive. So after he says “Right Here,” which
could have a downward message, “We are going to send a message…” He could and
should have gestured up with both hands, open them outward swept out to the
full crowd to show the inclusive “we “and then brought his hands up and towards
him to show that they were all in support of him and he would lift them up and
win. The little point up he did was weak. Again his lack of confidence
that Trump wouldn’t get there, or also that Rubio himself was holding truth
back, he may think he is a bit of a con artist.
Super Tuesday Speech http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/03/01/marco-rubio-super-tuesday-florida/81181262/
He is young and attractive, but during
the debates he is shorter and smaller than Trump. He is good at bringing up his
volume to interrupt and speak over other candidates and he smiles as he does
it. He smiles at lot, but anger trumps happiness. (Go back to anger is the
strongest emotion research at the top of this article.) tongue cleanse,
meaning the tongue comes slowly out of the mouth as if it has to be cleansed by
the teeth as it exists this cue shows he would like to get the taste of what he
is saying out of his mouth. He has a tendency to pull in his lips as he is
listening to the tough questions which indicates he is holding in his true
emotions and perhaps his true thoughts on the issue and can indicate that the
next thing out of his mouth could be a lie. He is more congruent with his
facial expressions and his words and that makes him look more honest.
Ted Cruz
In his Super Tuesday speech he was
serious, his overall body language was subdued. His head came forward and down as
the field is divided. Donald Trump’s nomination remains more likely and that
would be a disaster for Republican. His facial features slope downward at the
outside edges giving him a tired and negative appearance. The most striking thing
about his body language, the most disconcerting is his eyes and brows don’t
move in sync with the rest of his face or body language. When he is
saying positive things, his brows don’t go up and his eyes don’t open wide.
Because the upper part of the face is the most honest this lack of congruence
makes him look insincere, and not fully truly happy.
On a good note,
when he is in flow with a prepared answer or speech he has a lot of energy. His
gestures have improved and he gives more and they are in often feel, show, say
synchronous motions that match what he is saying and they make him look, at
least in his lower body, that he is sincere. Again these congruent gestures
occur during his prepared statements. But overall his gestures are
slightly lower and are more darting and short lived making him appear less
forceful and confident than he could be. For example notice the breadth and
length of Trump’s gestures. I am not endorsing Trump, rather you need to know
that our primitive limbic brains see the candidate with the most powerful,
larger, bigger and long lasting body language cues.
Donald Trump
Super Tuesday – Voice Strain, held onto the podium. Slight lean to
the left. Not exuberant. Looked tired. Less Gestures, Lower, fingers didn’t finger
points and chops in weapon like gestures, scowls and grimaces and yells a lot.
This combined with his BIG hair, big head and jaw and height make his imprint as
the aggressive alpha male candidate. In addition, he has a low, growly
voice.
In the analysis of the Debates from the past hundred years the
candidate with the lowest voice won. Lower tones in the voice are formed by a
larger larynx. Trump is the lion roaring and that can win over a “nice”
candidate. Anger can “trump” nice.
Donald Trump and his finger.
WOOD: Oh, yes! Oh, yes! That wonderful aggressive weapon-like pointing. He also
adds the chopping motion. He chops the other candidates to pieces. He also does
that in a forward motion. So all of that together is very aggressive. He goes
right towards us.
[14:25:11] And in some way that can be appealing to us because we want that
alpha candidate. That grimacing, all that growling like a lion, can appeal to
us. Isn't that odd? Isn't that interesting?
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.
