What Hillary Clinton’s Body Language and Voice during the
Benghazi Hearings Can Teach Us About Emotion and Perception
By: Patti Wood MA, CSP
What was Hillary’s "Listening Face”
showing us? And how a female voice is "heard" as being more emotional
than a man’s voice.
I was asked to read Hillary's listening face for Poppy Harlow’s
show on CNN. I analyzed six hours of video as well as video from her previous
hearing and stills that the media used to report on both events. Though my
segment was bumped for a press conference about the massive flooding in Texas,
I thought I would share what we can learn from a listening face. Whether
you love her or hate her you may be fascinated to see how different she was and
to note how the media portrayed her.
Here is one of the videos that I read:
Clinton had to make
a considered choice of what her listening face would be during the hearings.
There are gender differences in how emotions are perceived. The men
questioning her were often loud, raging and abusive. I have seen
powerful men in her hot seat be loud and raging and defensive right back.
Being aggressive did not serve her well the last time she was questioned
about Benghazi and she chose overall to be self-contained. It’s fascinating
that many of the editorials have called her cold and uncaring.
If she had been too
emotional, or specifically, too angry in response to questions she would have
been seen as a raging woman. Let’s be frank, as a women, she couldn't yell
back without being called the “b” word. If she appeared too upset as key
information about the attacks was shared, she would have been seen as an overly
emotional woman.
Her “listening face” is often a "Cover Smile,” with her lips tightly
pressed together and the edges in this case turned down at the corners ever so
slightly. A cover smile is an attempt to cover true emotional state; her cover
smile is slightly turned down at the corners. If you look at the four
stills I pulled whatever you may think of her as a candidate, she did a great
job of being neutral.
Look at her photos:
I think the head
resting on her hand is more to contain her feelings. She is not bored as the media has portrayed
her. She is calm outwardly and inside trying not to laugh at their behavior.
Men actually use cover smiles more often than women, and the turn down at
the corners is more extreme and if you look at the eyes and the rest of the
face you can typically see the emotion they wish to "Cover." See the
photos here from my story on men's cover smiles. Hillary has upturned
full cheeks, her chin is up, along with her tight smiles are more sardonic. She
is covering amusement or motherly frustration with their histrionics.
I would love to say something about her voice. For years we have heard
her voice and I know I have thought it often high and shrill but it was not
high and shrill during this testimony. She was very careful through much of the
testimony to bring the register of her voice down. This helped her
tremendously. Men hear a female voice in a different section of their brain
than they do a male voice. They actually hear a female voice in the auditory
section of their brain (emotional) so when a man hears female voices they hear
it as more emotional than a man's voice.
The female voice is actually more complex than
the male voice, due to differences in the size and shape of the vocal cords and
larynx between women and men, and also due to women having greater natural
`melody´ in their voices. This causes a more complex range
of sound frequencies than in a male voice. What is interesting
is that when a man hears a female voice the auditory section of his brain that
is in his emotional right hemisphere is activated so he hears the voice as
being more emotional rather than rational. Female voices sound more emotional
to men than their own based purely on where they are processed in his head!!
Notice how you perceive the emotions of men versus women not
only in political candidates, but also in your daily life.
Here is a
related article of mine on
"Lying,
the Body Language Mouth Cues, Cover Smile"
This is an expression I call the cover
smile. Yes, most people who give this expression believe they are covering
their true emotions with a smile. They are giving out many cues that say what
they are truly feeling, but they really believe they are doing a good job
fooling you and perhaps deceiving themselves in the process. Of course the dog
is just being cute, that video of him with the Chi Wawa was a set up. He will
tell you all about what really happened in his Oprah interview. Here are the
tips so you can learn how to uncover the lies of a cover smile.
This cover smile with lips pressed tightly
together is typically found in men and I think comes from the need to keep a
“stiff upper lip.” This is the expression described when someone is smiling
through the pain. And their true pain as this set of body language cues shows
is an attempt to hide many intense emotions of sadness, fear and anger. I see
it in men who typically have very strong egos and power that are caught and
brought down. They have spent their lives covering up their true
emotions.
There are several photos above of this
expression in former Governor Blagojevich. Look at his chin. See the puckering
of the skin. You see that puckering in babies the moment they are about to
let a big ole cry. And that is what he would like to be doing, but he has to
keep that in. In these photos I am not seeing true sadness, just the desire to
cry out. True sadness would be visible with more of a pout, downward pull of
the mouth and more puckering around the eyes. The muscles around the inner
eyebrow are hard to consciously control.
If you look at the photo below you will
see how Paula Deen’s inner eyebrows pull together and curl up. (They would pull
more, but she may have had Botox or the muscle cut during plastic surgery.)
Congressman Wiener’s expression is a suppressed
fear, disgust and anger. If you cover up his mouth and look at just his eyes
you will see the whites around his eyes and his sideways glance, and wrinkled
nose of disgust. The wrinkled nose is a unique movement of the face given in
disgust. Symbolically it says I don’t like how this smells and physically it is
an attempt to stop the flow of air and odor into the nose. If I knew exactly
when he gave that expression, I could tell you whether he was disgusted with
himself for what he did or disgusted with the media at a particular question of
bringing his behavior to light. The wrinkled, upraised chin and tight lips show
the suppression of two emotions fear and anger.
Spitzer also has a cry cover smile. His chin
is more raised and more defiant and proud and more of the bottom lip is raised
and held inside the mouth. The corners of the mouth come down significantly in
a way that is more common to this expression showing his need to smile through
the pain. Cover his mouth and you see his eyes are more hooded downwards at the
corners and sad. You can also compare it to Paula Deen’s and you can see more
wrinkle and pull in his eyebrows. This combination reminds me of the classic
sad clown painted face.
To train yourself to read the cover smile
start watching for it on TV. If you want to chuckle while you do it you can
watch the characters of Modern Family who often hide their irritation with a
cover smile. Here is a funny twist on the cover smile that shows in the
character on the left how it can show light irritation and playfulness.
My clients in my speaking and consulting
business ask me what it is like to be able to read people. Oddly I often think
of this expression when they ask, because when you see behind the smile to the
true heart of a person you often see their joy, their inner child and pain. The
next time you see someone smiling through the pain, you can be compassionate
and see the truth of their heart.
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.
