33 Comments

1. hmmmm April 14th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

   I agree with “unilateral contempt”.

   The head shaking to me seems to be on every word meaning he believes and stands by what he is saying even if it isn’t true as of right now.

   I think he firmly believed what he was saying and sat tall and more confident as opposed to drawing back. The pitch on the word at home is comparable when you say ice cream to children. Excitement, listen this is important home is important

   I do agree he was constructing a conversation not in fact recalling… “I enjoyed being with him” suggests that was a lie shaking his head contrary to his words.

   however his hand movements and eyes widening along at the end along with the firm pointing on every word of his statement “people are beginning to follow this administration again suggests that he is sincere and wants you to get excited as well.

   Just my opinion

2. Dayna April 15th, 2009 at 4:16 am

   Absolutly!!! Good find…
   I noticed this weekend at the Masters tournament the post interview with Tiger Woods the interviewer asked if his knee played a factor in the results he said no… while looking away & licking his lips.

3. Stacy April 15th, 2009 at 8:17 am

   Wow, I definately saw the contempt when Cheney was mentioned…looked like an episdoe of “Lie to Me”!

4. Brian April 15th, 2009 at 12:40 pm

   Yes, I did notice the contempt easily but the auditory construction slipped past me the first time. Caught it the second time though.

5. Brian April 15th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

   hey one other thing I noticed: when Vice President Biden was talking about his conversation with former President Bush in the Oval office, he used a “Comforting Guesture” with his hands. Could mean he was trying to reassure himself about what he was saying.

6. Veronique April 15th, 2009 at 8:59 pm

   “contempt” is there shown when speaking about Cheney. But his moving his head sideways may continue the contempt expression.
   The fact of looking right or left to recall or construct is not scientific.

7. Anne April 15th, 2009 at 9:23 pm

   Did you catch the false start?

8. Anne April 15th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

   He says that “this” administration… “the last” administration has left us weaker….. just me or is something there?

9. Yousuf April 16th, 2009 at 7:02 am

   - Definitely contempt when Dick Cheney is mentioned.
   - The headshaking I disagree with. HIs whole mannerism is going with the words, and his body moves forward to emphasise his answer when asked if America is safer now. Headshaking on it’s own doesn’t mean anything. Normally it even be used for emphasis (depends).
   - I don’t get what Alex is trying to alude to when he mentions “withdrawing back”
   - As for the Bush part, I would not put much stock on where he was looking. That form of analysis, taken from NLP is not reliable. I didn’t see sign of lying about the conversation. HOWEVER, I did notice that he was trying to hide his true opinion of Bush when he was saying “great guy”. He actually thinks low of him (contempt). He does not think he’s a great guy AT ALL. But I guess he said something nice about him cuz that’s what you do – social decorum. (Again I wouldn’t put too much stock on headshaking, Then again, maybe that’s just me.)

10. Elisabeth April 16th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    The shaking the head no when saying “yes” is something I have seen others do many times, including myself, on occasions where the yes is SO emphatic and very heartfelt. I believe we are saying “yes” two different ways at the same time: saying yes in a straightforward way, and shaking our head no meaning that no one or nothing else comes close to how true it (whatever the “it” is) is. Example, witnessing a truly remarkable act such as Captain Phillips giving himself up as a hostage to save his men. I haven’t heard of something so very brave as that in a long time. It’s so remarkable you can hardly believe it. Was Captain Phillips brave? I say yes and shake my head thinking, it’s unbelievable how brave he was. That’s how I interpreted Biden’s “yes” in answer to the question “Are we safer today?” The answer is a resounding, no-brainer “YES”!!

11. Raegan April 16th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    I don’t think the look right was a construction. I think he was just looking at the reporter on the right hand side.

    The contempt is spot on. Though, I did notice that when he kept repeating “we are more safe, we are more secure” he was looking down. Guilt perhaps? Maybe he doesn’t believe his own words?

12. Yousuf April 18th, 2009 at 4:15 am

    What do you guys think of this? This is the blog of a detection wizard. Whether you believe her or not is not important. The blog has some very interesting stuff about current affairs. Here are some examples. Check it out:

    http://eyesforlies.blogspot.com/2009/04/dateline-tim-iannone.html

    http://eyesforlies.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-thoughts-tim-iannone.html

    http://eyesforlies.blogspot.com/2009/04/is-melissa-huckaby-smiling.html

13. Joshua April 18th, 2009 at 9:08 am

    The headshaking is pervasive enough that I’m not sure it can be relied upon completely, even though it isn’t on every single thing he says. He does some odd head nods and thrusts for emphasis that make me question those statements slightly, as well.

    And I saw something that wasn’t mentioned, actually. Blink rate. While he’s saying “stretched more thinly than we ever have been in the past” and “uh, uh, two wars, uh, uh, underway,” his blink rate appears to increase. Other places beside those two lines, as well.

    “Virtually no respect,” he does a half-smile with a firm shake of his head on “entire parts of the world.” I’d interpret that as disbelief. Not necessarily disbelief in his words, but could be disbelief in the mere *fact* that entire parts of the world don’t respect the US.

    When he leans back/straightens up, I’m interpreting that as actually believing that part, especially since he’s now got the whole “talking with the hands” thing going on.

    On the George Bush story, I do see the hand wringing, and a headshake on “enjoyed being with him.”

    As far as the eye movement goes, that’s hard to tell if he’s actually looking up or just looking at the interviewer on that side. And even if he were, you need to calibrate before you can really make a judgment about what that means.

    One possibly confusing part of this … if the gesturing freely indicates truth, yet he was gesturing freely during his lie about the conversation with Bush, does that mean we should ignore the gesturing as having any bearing on truth or lie? Or does that mean he was making an effort to disguise the lie by including the gesturing?

14. Yousuf April 19th, 2009 at 4:34 am

    To highlight the fact that the headshaking does not necesserily mean “no”, here’s a link to a video of a performance on the British show Britain’s Got Talent. Towards the end, when the judges are making their dicision, notice their head movement and what they are saying.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luRmM1J1sfg

15. Brandon April 19th, 2009 at 9:32 pm

    As conservative as i am, i’m going to have to say i believe he is telling the truth yes. He uses illustraters throughout and the head shakes don’t seem to be used in the same way as would be if he was lying. his draw back is used to make an illustration and i dont really see his eyes go to the auditory construction area very much.

16. GuyDude April 20th, 2009 at 12:10 am

    Looking right or Left to recall or construct comes from NLP. Not everyone is oriented the same way, so you have to establish a baseline by asking some test questions first (ask them to recall something visually vs to make up something visually, and likewise auditory). We might be assuming Biden is constructing something auditory when in fact his constructed/recall could be reversed.

    Shaking head no also comes from NLP and it’s a sign of incongruence. The unconscious is saying no with body language, while the conscious mind is saying yes verbally. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a lie, but it means that the person has some unconscious doubt about what they’re saying.

17. carrie April 20th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

    he actually shakes his head yes while saying america is safer; he shakes his head no, when using negative words (such as never/no) or inclusive phrases/words (entire world)-although the head shake in this instance is more circular in shape-like he is including everyone-his hand gestures also indicate he is telling the truth

18. Kira April 21st, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    I found something of Obama about CIA Employees.
    In the beginning and throughout the whole video he either pulls his lips in or licks his bottom lip – I almost never see him do this when speaking so it isn’t an everyday basic thing for him.
    http://www.chicagotribune.com/video/?topVideoCatNo=100543&clipId=3672133

    Tell me what you guys think.
    And with the video above, I saw the eye shift and definately agree with it. Only question I have is, is he left or right handed? They go opposite. Anyways, I didn’t really see that whole head shaking this, just kinda saw his head bobbing lol.

19. d h April 23rd, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    “To highlight the fact that the headshaking does not necesserily mean “no”, here’s a link to a video of a performance on the British show Britain’s Got Talent. Towards the end, when the judges are making their dicision, notice their head movement and what they are saying.”

    THANK YOU! I was just browsing the internet for “head shake while saying yes” because I JUST saw that video and was absolutely amazed the people actually fell for it. Looking at the judges faces, they appear so contrived!

    I tried explaining to someone how they shook their heads when giving their judgments, (and Simon’s left eye twitched at the same time).

20. d h April 23rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    Ah, actually, Yousuf, I didn’t read your post carefully enough. It seems that shaking the head wouldn’t necessarily mean a lie, but it does point to incongruity. From my untrained eye, the judges seemed horribly incongruous in that entire segment.

21. Bridget April 23rd, 2009 at 4:31 pm

    I came across the following video from a press conference with President Bush, and it seemed full of some of the things we are talking about.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ChWyZZAaA

    I am really bad at determining what each of these gestures mean, and I was interested in seeing what the rest of you thought about it.

    To me, it seemed like he really meant his first and instinctive answer of “Yes.” Then he realizes his mistake of directly answering the question, and he shakes his head quickly. I know when I mess up I shake my head in a very similar fashion. He then avoids the question and even repeats some of it. At 0:30, he makes a microexpression, but I’m not sure how to interpret it. At 0:34 he has a really great shoulder shrug. At 0:37 he makes another microexpression and his voice gets really harsh. It also looks like he is doing some great stuff with his eyes, but the quality of the video isn’t very great, and I can’t really make it out.

    Anyway, let me know how you interpret this video.

22. Don May 5th, 2009 at 10:59 am

    0:06 – 0:09 – I first noticed contempt on his right side, than contempt plus disguse on his left side.
    0:45 – 0:47 – a disbelief expression, I conclude that he is not fully convinced what he is saying.

23. Yousuf May 6th, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    d h, I think another way of looking at it is this. Notice someone, or yourself, when you say, “Without a doubt,” or “No question about it.” The two sentences equate to saying “Absolutely”. In the first case, you would shake your head to say “No”. This goes well with those negative sentences. The surprising thing is that when you say “Absolutely”, your head also shakes as if saying “no”. This is unconscious. So, in fact, if you look at the whole package of body language of Joe Biden and Britain’s Got Talent judges, you will find that they are congruent (even if it “looks” as it’s not). In lot of times, there’s a gap between appearances and reality.

24. Yousuf May 6th, 2009 at 9:47 pm

    Don and Bridget, I think it’s clear that he does not understand that question here. The question was whether he agrees or disagrees with the RNC. That contempt could be because he feels that he is struggling with something that he should not be struggling with. A president should not be clutching at straws to understand the question, let alone know how to answer it. That’s just my thoughts on what’s going on here.

25. Courtney Lantz May 6th, 2009 at 10:06 pm

    I saw it! Haha…I’m so excited! I missed a few of the things, but I caught the draw back, I caught the contempt. I’m way excited cause I can’t multi task to save my life! Haha. So the fact I caught anything was amazing…of course, I couldn’t tell you what he was say.

26. Charles May 7th, 2009 at 6:38 am

    No one else has mentioned this, so perhaps its my imagination, but it seems to me that right after he says we’ve been left in a weaker posture than any time since WWII and then smiles, that the smile for just a moment has either anger or contempt in it. Although while it seemed very noticeable the first couple of times I watched this, now I’m having trouble still seeing it.

27. Paul May 26th, 2009 at 11:03 am

    wow.

    THAT was some contempt. That wasn’t even subtle! I did notice the auditory construction thingy the second time around. The head shaking… He’s blinking an awful lot in this. Like, way more than a normal person would even in the dustiest of rooms. Does that mean anything, I wonder?

28. Boss May 26th, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    love it right on the dot

29. grame king May 30th, 2009 at 4:38 am

    Yes good video he is clearly lying, he was consistantly showing signs of creation of the story, gestural retriet aswell, and also notice the constant blinking aswell well over 20 blinks per minute. Good video well done!

30. grame king May 30th, 2009 at 4:42 am

    I watched it again, i noticed the head shake when he said “he was a great guy i enjoyed being with him….Erm perhaps not sir!

31. Kim June 3rd, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    I disagree with your comment about head nodding to the question about being safer. Because he was nodding “yes” and saying “yes” that is consistent – truth. It’s when the body language does NOT match the verbal message that is a lie. Such as at the end when he was saying that “he liked being around Bush” and thought he was a great guy. His head was shaking “NO” while he was speaking positively about Bush. That’s contradiction – the verbal message was a LIE. How funny!

32. Mark June 16th, 2009 at 5:43 pm

    I saw some eye flutters when he was describing his conversation with the president which means he was remembering something. Also, looking to the right doesn’t always mean that he is making it up. I look to the right when remembering and when I make it up I look up. It varies.

33. Axe July 20th, 2009 at 9:40 pm

    grame king May 30th, 2009 at 4:42 am

    “I watched it again, i noticed the head shake when he said “he was a great guy i enjoyed being with him….Erm perhaps not sir!”

    I laughed so hard when I saw that.
    Also early is his reply he scrambles for thought, ie looks downs and has a lot of um;s and uh’s. Perhaps not sure if what he say’s is correct?