Hillary's strange body language during NBC interview -- did she reveal dishonesty?

[HamdenRice]

I was watching Hillary's interview on NBC's today show, when, for the first time, I noticed something very strange about her -- her body language.

Hillary tends to vigorously nod her head or shake her head from side to side while talking. Psychologists who have developed the analysis of body language from a pop interest into a serious science, believe that head nods represent approval, understanding and affirmation, while the head nod represents disbelief, disapproval and negation.

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:HlhoM28h7F0J:vismod.media.mit.edu/tech-reports/TR-544.pdf+%22body+language%22+%22head+shake%22+lying&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4

In other words, head nods and shakes by a silent listener can represent agreement with another speaker, but they can also represent in a talker affirmation or negation of what the speaker is saying. Hillary has a tendency to vigorously shake and nod her head while she herself is talking which may represent her own feelings about what she herself is saying.

While I don't have Tivo or a video of the interview, I did catch a few strange incongruences in her demeanor. For example, when she talked about Barak Obama, she was saying that he was a terrific person while vigorously shaking her nead, negating that statement. Also when she talked about being deeply concerned about how a run for the presidency would affect her family, she was vigorously shaking her head, side to side, in the gesture of negation. She also shook her head from side to side when saying she had not decided whether she had decided to run.

When she talked about Iraq and the failures of the Bush administration, however, she vigorously nodded her head as though agreeing with herself. She also vigorously affirmed her own talking while lamenting her trusting of President Bush on Iraq.

I would like to get the video because there were some points that were really jarring, and I did not take notes.

Whether her body language reveals her "real" feelings about what she is saying, other people will interpret her to be doing so.

Hillary needs a body language coach and fast.

[k_jerome]

1. scrape, scrape, scrape. maybe she's an alien. nt.

[rainy]

2. That's very interesting!

[Cocoa]

3. this post deserves to be ridiculed

isn't this the kind of inane stuff we mock the mainstream media for?

[Gman]

7. Faux News stuff

[acmavm]

8. It sure is. And I'm no fan of Hillary Clinton.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. No

Appearance and language count. That is why people like Hillary and every other major pol, including Al Gore, go to speech trainers and make over artists.

Hillary does nod a lot. I think it comes from her days has First Lady, when it was her job to stand behind her husband and nod. Look at old videos of Bill giving a speech.

If I were Hillary and I was doing something that was distracting or sending the wrong message, I would hope that someone would have the guts to tell me about it.

[meegbear]

4. So when you nod in agreement, you disagree ...

or is it that if you nod multiple times, you're agreeing, but if you nod once, you disagree.

So is it true that when you say "no", you really mean "yes"?

[maine_raptor]

5. Don't ya just love Pseudoscience?

Some times it can be soooooooooo cute! :loveya:

:sarcasm:

[KittyWampus]

22. Body Language is not a psuedoscience. I've no idea how Hillary comports herself

in interviews etc. But how one moves and holds ones body reveals ones underlying thoughts and attitudes.

And often the cues are very subtle. So subtle that they remain on the observer's subconsious level.

Often body language can only be noticed consciously by playing back a film of someone om a really slow speed.

[HamdenRice]

27. I'll take MIT's opinion over yours

Did you read the cited MIT scientific paper?

http://vismod.media.mit.edu/tech-reports/TR-544.pdf

[JNelson6563]

29. That is a very interesting read!

And it makes good sense too. As is mentioned down-thread, Rice is a real head shaker too. She also does this wobble thing with her head that isn't really a nod or a shake.

I hope other posters read this MIT report on the topic. Thanks for posting that.

Julie

[Mass]

6. I also guess she has horns, a fork, and fire around her!

:sarcasm:

I am no Hillary fan, but I saw the interview and found that she came out well, whether I agree with what she said or not.

[monmouth]

9. I'm new here and don't care to make enemies, but.....that was the dumbest thing I've read yet...

[maine_raptor]

12. Welcome to DU

Stick around. Ya, sometimes there is some "dumb" stuff, but if you want real-honest-to-goodness dumb, just read any post that has quotes from freeperland. They are FAR better at it than we are.

[NoPasaran]

21. I've been here a long time and have many enemies

Believe me, that wasn't even in the top hundred!

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[JohnnyLib2]

10. Holy crap, (said in loving memory) --there's one post for Limbaugh

to quote.

[latebloomer]

11. Why are people discounting this?

I've seen similar posts about Condoleeza Rice and everyone agreed it meant she was a liar.

[Zensea]

14. Because people only agree with bullshit that serves their purpose n/t

[treestar]

17. I know. It was exactly so, though it could be different people, but Condi

was deemed a liar for a very similar thing.

These types of responses to an OP are saying "you have brought up something society decrees is not worthy of discussion (read: something I personally do not want discussed even on a public message board, because somehow, that will alter the world in some way I don't want it altered and I am the center of the universe) - and I'll personally attack you right off the bat as an attempt at intimidating you so you'll think twice before you post again, about whether what issue you would like to raise is one I would approve of."

Indirect form of trying to control what is on the board, therefore snarkier and snider than the OPs saying "Please stop posting threads on (subject I do not want discussed at all or as much as it is being discussed)."

Maybe Hillary is lying when she says Obama is a great guy. Right now she could be considered in direct competition with him. Maybe she secretly thinks she is a better candidate than he is - and there's no good way to say it.

Maybe the body language stuff is meaningless, but then we are obsessed in this society with whether people are lying or not. Possibly it is all hokum and doesn't mean anything as pertains to Condi or Hillary.

And does it really matter? So what if she doesn't think he's a good candidate but thinks publicly it is not going to go over well to say so? Is this a demand that she be a better actress, or a criticism that she runs at all when she doesn't truly feel that other candidates are better than she is just by virtue of being persons other than herself?

[HamdenRice]

24. Bingo! and many seem not to have read the last line of the OP

Body language analysis is not pseudo science. Both police department investigators and CIA interrogators have highly developed protocols based on facial movements, eye movements and head gestures to determine whether someone is lying. If they don't believe the science, that's their problem.

But even more interesting is their glossing over the last line. Whether Hillary was being dishonest or not, she is opening herself up to being eviscerated by a highly hostile corporate mainstream media.

These people seem not to remember how the media handled the "Al Gore sigh" or the "Dean scream".

Whether you like Hillary or not, she needs a body coach to tell her how to stop shaking her head from side to side which is considered to be a sign of negation of what the speaker is saying.

[NoPasaran]

23. In Condi's case

We also had the lies coming out of her mouth to brand her as a lier.

[opihimoimoi]

13. She is doing just fine....and is a very strong contender....she don need no stinking coach

[William769]

28. It is a response like yours that that probably prompted the op.

What you say is true, and it's got a lot of people fuming. :rofl:

You go girl!

[opihimoimoi]

40. Whatever reason for the thread...it don't matter...she is a strong

contender...whether she prevails in the primaries is another story...she will lose only if she somehow blows it....too smart for a Macaca Moment...all she has to do is continue her message...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

33. I'm sorry. The only reason why she is a "strong contender" is because MSM is telling us so. eom

[opihimoimoi]

39. Its not only MSM telling us, its all those poll numbers and her popularity

due to her history/persona/and charactor

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

46. The latest NBC poll shows that Edwards is the candidate at this point to beat.

They have him ahead of McCain, whereas Hillary is behind McCain.

[opihimoimoi]

49. CNN and other polls show Hillary leading the pack...Obama 2nd

and Edwards 3rd....

google it

[MonkeyFunk]

16. There's only one way to be sure

we need to analyze her handwriting. And does anybody have a plaster-cast of her head? Phrenology will tell us the answer.

[davekriss]

18. Condilezza Rice is also a vigorous head shaker...

...but she shakes her head "no" so often when she speaks that I had to discount this theory or believe everything she says is a lie. (Then again, everything she says is a lie!)

Another lying tell: Rolling the eyes down and to the left (a right-left brain thing) right before speaking.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

20. no kidding. I think we had a thread her on that last year.

and except when she talks about her hubby the boy king, I discount every word that escapes from her mouth.

[nealmhughes]

19. Body language is psuedoscience, all the in crowd knows that one needs a crystal aura reader to truly

discern veracity. I happen to have one for sale for only $19.95...

[HamdenRice]

25. IMPORTANT EDIT!

I realize many of you were probably confused by something in the OP, which was just a typing error. It states that the nod is both affirmation and negation. It is too late to edit the OP, so here is the correction.

The sense intended is that the head nod (up and down, like when we are saying yes) is the gesture of affirmation.

The head shake (from side to side, like when we are saying no) is the gesture of negation and disagreement.

Hillary's problem is that she shakes her head from side to side, which can be interpreted as meaning she disagrees with what she is saying.

Sorry for the lack of clarity in the OP.

[devilgrrl]

26. Hillary is SATAN - She must be STOPPED!

:sarcasm:

[marions ghost]

30. Ha Ha what BS

dontcha wish that telling whether politicians are lying was as easy as THIS?!?

:rofl:

[valerief]

31. If you had watched Hillary's body language in prior teevee interviews,

you'd note that her body language on the Today Show (which I saw) was nothing different from her normal body language. I think that's how she learned how to speak and move her body at the same time. Maybe she learned while mimicking a parent.

[HamdenRice]

34. The point is her body language was strange

As several have mentioned, she is a vigorous head nodder and shaker. I had not noticed before just how vigorously she does this.

I found it jarring that often when she speaks, she vigorously shakes her head from side to side, as though she were saying "no" even though she is making affirmative statements. It was actually kind of funny which things she was shaking her head to rather than nodding to.

Even if this does not indicate she is lying, she needs a body coach to teach her to stop doing that particular tick. If she doesn't the MSM will eventually catch on and eviscerate her, as they did Al Gore and even the robotic Republican, Elizabeth Dole.

[valerief]

36. I don't think it was strange for her, and if that's all the MSM can

pin on her, then that's a good thing for her.

[etherealtruth]

48. Sadly, I think this is the result of too much coaching ...

Her movements are too "orchestrated," so she looks unnatural.

Hillary never seems to speak extemporaneously anymore. Though she doesn't have the same level of skills her husband has, she is not bad.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

32. The video should be up at msnbc.com/today by 11AM. eom

[HamdenRice]

35. Thanks much! eom

[NoSheep]

37. I find this interesting because I've never liked her and it's hard to nail down

the reason. Maybe this habit of hers indicates to me in a subtle way, something that makes me feel she isn't really genuine.

[valerief]

38. She's a politician. Politicians are unable to be genuine. They're

masters are the leaders of industry. However, the good politicians can serve their masters but not at the inhumane expense of the nation's labor force. I think she's probably a good politician.

All politicians lie. The fact that her lying can be perceived is a credit to her unease with lying.

[NoSheep]

45. That's an interesting way to look at it!

:think:

[Stephanie]

41. HIllary's fundamental problem is her blatant insincerity.

Even her supporters make excuses for it. "Oh, she's really against the war, but she had to vote for it so she could run for president."

Condi does the same thing, shakes her head back and forth whenever she's lying. Neither one of them should be allowed to play poker.

[HamdenRice]

42. You nailed it, unfortunately

I'll admit my bias that I'm not a Hillary fan, and that whenever she is talking, I'm parsing her words wondering which ones she means and which ones she does not believe but has calculated to say for some reason.

Then watching her interview this morning saying things that are utterly obviously untrue (like she has not decided whether to run) and vigorously shaking her head, "no" -- well it was an epiphany. The pattern in her head nodding and shaking was remarkable. Every time she said something that I assumed was a calculated lie, she was shaking her head left to right. Everytime she said something that I assumed she actually believed, she was nodding her head up and down. To her credit, she was nodding "yes" vigorously while talking about the war and her distrust of Bush.

As one poster up thread said, most politicians lie. But because of her reputation, she really needs a body language coach.

[Stephanie]

43. Why? To make her a BETTER liar? She needs an ethics coach.

She needs a coach to teach her that the future of the planet, of her children and potentil grandchildren, is more important than her ambition and her career. The woman has sold her soul and the last thing she needs is lessons on how to do a better job of lying about it.

[HamdenRice]

44. Ouch! LOL! nt

[WI_DEM]

47. my goodness, with some people, nothing Hillary does is good

[ronnykmarshall]

50. Did her head sping around in a circle??

I think she's posessed by, oh I don't know, maybe it could be

SATAN?????