You’ve all heard about the Kanye West/Taylor Swift controversy at the VMAs. The conspiracy theorists think the whole thing was staged as a PR stunt for MTV. Does Taylor look authentically surprised? Does Kanye appear to be acting?
And then the Kanye apology tour kicked in. Here’s his sitdown on Leno the next day. Does he seem sorry? Is he pretending?
I don’t buy Kayne’s apology.
Here’s what I noted:
Blinking Rate: He was blinking an awful lot, much more than the average person blinks per minute.
Hand-Over-Mouth Gesture: He covered his mouth quite often, sometimes at very notable points; he covered it when he explained that he’s been hurt a lot in his life and he also covered it when he explained how ashamed he is. This was probably what tipped my opinion from “he’s uncomfortable with this” to “he’s lying”.
Neck Scratching/Rubbing: He scratched the backside of his neck a lot. He also scratched his head quite a few times. Doesn’t this usually indicate fear?
Hand Gesture Representations: When he described stepping on somebody’s emotions, he made a hand gesture with his fingers to represent the importance of Taylor Swift’s emotions to him. Compared to the previous hand gestures he was making, this was very small; his fingers were only about an inch or two apart.
Microsignal?: When Kayne describes when he became aware he did the wrong thing (when Taylor Swift didn’t continue on), I could have sworn I saw the flash of what looked like a sneer on his face. A little uncertain about this one, maybe somebody else has an opinion about this?
Speech: There was an awkward transition in the velocity of his voice right at the end… He sounds a little bit like he’s about to break out in tears when he says “it’s hard”, and then he says in a very casual sounding voice “so…” This seemed like a very incongruent way to end an apology to me.
Please, somebody comment and add to this 
Best,
– Eric
Kanye is a PUNK! I know what his Mother would have done, smacked him right upside his goofy shaved head. He’s gotten so full of himself he’s forgotten where he came from. The words he said whether it was some dumb MTV stunt or not, our kids watch this stuff and look up to these goofy people who aren’t people at all only because they forgot they weren’t always in the spotlight.
herleiness
September 16th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
watch kanye do the touching of the nose.
herleiness
September 16th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I thought the the whole thing was staged. Did you guys see Beyonce’s surprise look?
Dameonight
September 16th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
He’s scratching beneath his nose an awful lot, But at about 2:14 he brings his hand up to his forhead, covering his eyes, which is a classic gesture of shame. He’s avoiding eye contact a lot. It seems he’s lying about something, but a lot of the emotion is real.
My thoughts would be that he does feel sorry to some extent, but not necessarily because he hurt her feelings. He may be sorry simply because of the effect it might have on his career, or how people view him.
Beyonce’s jaw dropped quickly, eyebrows raise, eyes open wide (surprise) and moves into a half smile (contempt) as her brows drew together and upwards (confusion). Next comes a forced smile. Her brows are still raised and drawn together, not something that happens with a genuine smile. This was done for appearance, most likely. She begins to dart her head back and forth, eyes wide as if scanning for danger (fear). Her shoulders lift slightly and she lowers her head, as if she’d like to be a turtle hiding in its shell (extreme discomfort). If this was staged, Beyonce had NOTHING to do with it.
Kanye was difficult to read on stage since he was wearing sunglasses. He did point quite a bit at Beyonce. He bent his knees the whole as if ready to stand on one, or perhaps shrink in her presence. He respects and admires her a great deal. Given his track record of uncontrolled, inappropriate outbursts, I’m lead to believe that this was yet another one. If he did plan this stunt, nobody but him knew it, but I find it difficult to believe. His trademark micro-expressions are contempt and anger. The only time I’ve seen him give real smiles are when he projects his negative emotions onto others (ex interviews following his “Bush doesn’t care” outburst).
When Kanye came onto the stage to interview with Jay Leno, his upper lip pulled back and brows dropped (hate) as he looked onto a cheering audience. Throughout the interview, he only occasionally looked up. Most of the time he’s eyes were down and away. He covered his head when asked about how his mother would feel. These are all signs of deep shame. As he describes his actions, he exhibits several micro-expressions. Half-smiles and his upper lip draws back, all at times he is talking about himself. When he says the word “emotions”, his hand does close, but he shows no contempt. I believe this gesture has more to do with what he does with his own emotions (repression leading to terrible outbursts), than what he thinks of anybody else’s feelings. He tries to cover his face to block a show of genuine grief while contemplating what his mother would have thought. This blocking shows he is not comfortable with the present company observing his pain. He then touches his nose while blocking his mouth at very specific times. He does this when he admits to dealing with hurt, not taking time off from work to recover psychologically, when he says he can’t justify what he did, when he says he needs to analyze himself and when he says that he wants to live. He’s deeply ashamed of what he’s done, no doubt, but I question the reasons behind why he’s ashamed. He wants to redeem himself, but he has no idea how to do it.
I believe he would have repressed his shame easily had not nearly everybody, but more importantly the people that he admires, come down on him. He has been slapped into reality and if he doesn’t learn a way to stop repressing his feelings (constructively!), we can expect worse to come.
Jennifer
September 18th, 2009 at 1:43 am
He showed shame when Jay asked what his mother would say. I believe he showed contempt when Jay asked if he’d like to meet with Taylor and apologize.
I should clarify what I said about Kanye’s respect for Beyonce. He has fooled himself into believing that he respects her. He is not capable of respect for anybody, however, since he has no real respect for himself.
Like you guys, I noticed him touching his neck a lot, especially in the beginning.
I’m not educated in this stuff, but I think it means he is uncomfortable.
He could be uncomfortable if the whole thing was true though, so that doesn’t tell us much.
What I noticed a lot though, was how much he touched or scratched his upper lip, which I’ve heard means you’re trying to stop yourself from saying what you’re saying, which could be because they’re lies.
And also the hiding his eyes, which is sign of shame. That could be shame for humiliating Taylor or because of lying, so that doesn’t tell us much…
The touching his mouth has me pretty convinced that he is lying though.
He seems genuine to me. Looking for a lie involves looking for inconsistencies in what he says, what he shows, what he would be expected to say (within his character) and what he would be expected to show (within his character).
In the Leno video, he shows signs of negative emotions, and I don’t see anything else leaking out. He could have prepared by taking time to focus on something else that makes him feel ashamed so that his act were more convincing.
I don’t know what Kanye’s relationship is with his mother, and that question may or may not have caught him off guard, so his long pause afterward is difficult to decipher. Most in the business know not to cause dead air time, so I would expect Kanye to have intentionally waited extra long to convince us he’s genuine. That doesn’t mean he’s not being honest, though, just that he wants us to think he is honest (which is sometimes all that matters).
I don’t think I have enough to go on with these two videos. Beyonce’s expressions seemed off, but I have absolutely nothing to go on there, with the cameras switching so much. My hunch is that it was for publicity, but that doesn’t mean Kanye is happy about that or that Beyonce was involved. Kanye’s true feelings would need an entirely different investigation. I want more footage to judge if Beyonce had prior knowledge, and the same for Taylor Swift.
If we did want to accuse Taylor Swift of having prior knowledge, (unless she had a great director), I would have expected a bit of a performance with fake surprise or anger. What I saw was lacking this performance.
This video of Ms. Swift was shot after the award show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khLAdnTsEbQ She doesn’t seem to be playing to the typical fake-conflict scenario.
@herleiness If something was staged you probably wouldn’t have gotten a surprised look like the one Beyonce gave. I believe very strongly that her surprise was genuine. In my opinion conspiracy theorists don’t have anything better to do than to dissect the most ridiculous things. Seriously if you ever meet kayne or see him in person i’m sure you’ll be able to tell that his asshole personality is real and not something just for t.v. or for a PR stunt as these “conspiracy theorists” would have it. btw,did you see the black guy behind Beyonce to the left I believe. He was like “wow” & his facial expression was priceless. lol
As for Kanye’s apology 99.9% likely that his “manger/PR person” if he even has one.lol
Convinced him that apologizing on national TV was the best way to win back the people who after seeing his stunt at the VMA’s lost respect for him. Not that he cares what people think because he probably really doesnt….to me it’s more of a matter of how many copies of his next CD will sell because of this.
He’s lying
I would really like to hear the professionals weigh in on these issues. We can speculate, but we haven’t spent years of our lives devoted to the science. Is that too much to ask about Paul Ekman’s perspective on each of these examples?
Most of this seems genuine enough. He is only scratching his neck and head during times when Jay asks him questions, implying to me he is maybe scared what he may ask, or maybe he is scared of the answer. The possible sneer EricR referred to looks like a forced smile followed by a sort of shamed look, then possible anger for a split second. Maybe this was just that he was ashamed and angry it happened. When he covers his mouth is when asked what his mother would say. This implies he was holding something back, but maybe not the truth. Maybe he just didnt want to blurt, or become overly emotional. Later he does cover his eyes, this once again projects shame, but this time maybe on a deeper level because he is thinking about what his mother might think.
The neck scratching and rubing you refered to at the top are manipulators they increase with being nervous, it dosent have to be fear, but it could be
To reply to your question Eric, more or less what you thought you saw in the microexpression. To me it seemed as though it was contempt. I bought Paul Ekmans Microexpression trainging tool, and have been using it for a little while, and can already see a dramtic change in peoples feelings, and what i’m able to see. I watched the video over again maybe 3 times. I will admit, it did seem as though it was a snarl. But the video needed to buffer, lucky for me it stopped at the right point. And it was unilateral. Only one side of the face had this expression. There were no nostril flares, or tighting of the nose, or lowering of the eyebrows, from what i could see to clarify it as a snarl. Hope this helped.
-Kyle
Kanye West is a selfish, egotistical idiot. I think he needs help. What he did to Taylor Swift is outrageous, and for her part, she should just consider the source. The reactions of the crowd both to his actions and to her after he left the stage speak for themselves. He tried to steal a moment from her, but in so doing, he made it a greater one because of his gracelessness.
every time that he mentioned taylor hey was looking down. he only smiled once for less than a second at around 1.49 then he went straight into looking at the ground and frowning. and when he said he was wanting to hepl taylor he said very unconfidently.
He was stuttering and moving his hands a lot. I think he was lying.
TJ Thomas
September 28th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
1: not a PR stunt. Taylor was completely surprised. she had nothing to say. if this was a lie, she would have had very calculated speeches prepared, and her face when she won was completely shocked.
2: Kanye lied about being sorry. He didn’t show any true emotional reads of sorrow. He looked down the whole time, and spent more time thinking about what to say then he did actually saying things.
Katelyn
September 28th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
I don’t know if it’s just me or not. But during his apology it seems slightly repetative. And when sitting down with Leno his feet were faced away from Leno instead of towards. But those are just my own speculations.
I interpret Taylor Swifts reactions as shock that turns to embarrassment that turns to anger.
I read Kanye West’s actions at the awards show as impulsive and selfish. He obviously has a need to be the center of attention. He’s a shamless self-promoter who’s fixated on the real and/or perceived injustices he has seen in life. He has a picked on complex.
Okay at 1:22, right after he says “it was Wrong”.. looks like… contempt?, disgust? Now, I wonder who or what this emotion was directed towards.., was it someone/something else, or is it possible to flash these microexpressions when feeling a certain way about yourself? Couldn’t every potential expression be directed at one’s self? comments …
Disgust to me, towards himself is my guess.
I get a feeling that he doesnt really care so much about Taylor and that he’s more concered about his own image.
Def. not faked.
i=hi im omar and im 14 he is lyng big time he is having trouble processing his thoughts his voice bearks and he keeps touching his ear hes lying
x2ltyO I want to say - thank you for this!
Kanye is a very impulsive guy. He may not be truly sorry towards swift, but he definately regretted it. (Hence, the shame expression)
Yes he touched his neck a lot and yes he showed some contempt but what some people here are not considering is the fact that simply showing these things does not tell you what he was thinking. If for example he really did feel sorry and he showed contempt he ma have been looking down on himself in that moment for doing what he did. If he did not truly feel sorry he may have felt contempt for Taylor winning the award over Beyonce. The shame that appeared after Leno asked about his mother was also accompanied by short quick breaths every once in a while, covering his face and touching his nose along with a verbal dodge of the question itself; hence he was hiding something (his feelings probably of pain and shame to think about his mother and what she would have thought.) But that doesn’t mean he was lying.
What some people here aren’t doing is taking EVERYTHING into account, you are assuming you know what he is thinking simply by your bias of what you feel not what you see. I am not saying whether or not he is lying but I am saying that we need to think more about what could be going on inside that illusive mind of his.
I feel like it is time for an expert to step in here and end the fight by pointing things out for us, so please Dr. Ekman draw us a roadmap.
-Thanks
Lots of manipulators, the touching, the impatience of the feet moving, I do agree with the snarl the rapidly blinking along with the inconsistency of his voice, He is lying.
near the end of the “apology” i noticed he was shaking his head no while talking about taking time off to reform his behavior.
Reese Olewnik
October 6th, 2009 at 11:08 am
I do not believe the Taylor Swift/Kanye West episode was staged and do not believe Mr. West’s apology is sincere. Sorry
He didn’t seem very sincere. He scratched his lip multiple times indicating he was hiding something. When Jay mentioned his mom he did show signs of guilt but not toward his actions toward Taylor. When he first started he already showed signs of inpatients, he also touched the back of his neck I think 3 times when he talked about how “sorry” he was. So no I don’t think he was telling the truth.
Robert
October 7th, 2009 at 8:43 am
I believe that all involved in the incident at the VMA’s and his apology were sincere. Beyonce was shocked, Kayne was angry and contemptuous on stage. Taylor was suprised and right as the camera fades out, I’m sure I saw disgust.
His apology was genuine. Eye adverted, hand to forehead, touching hands to mouth and the long pause when asked about his mother.
Not staged..Taylor literally dropped her jaw…she surprised and a bit shocked.
First of all, where does someone like Jay Leno get off asking someone who’s mother has recently passed away “what she would have thought about this”? I think Jay owes Kanye an apology. He’s trying to lay the guilt on trip him by saying something like that. I think that’s pretty damn cruel. I think Kanye is sincere about his apology.
From Kanye’s response, he seemed to be telling at least a little bit of the truth, until he actually started talking about what he did to taylor…then he seemed to be touching his face a lot more often(i realize these aren’t definite signs that he doesn’t actually feel sorry, just imputting)
Amarra R.
October 13th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Fake. Completely a publicity stunt. Kanye has a CD coming up. Though it was a big PR move, KAnye is still an idiot to try something like that. Totally unprofessional.
Ok, i sincerely think, that Taylor is surprised (and somewhat hurt) because the way she is pressed her tongue against her teeth is usually when someone is emotionally hurt..
I am not sure if Kanye is honestly apologetic. He has his gaze down is a positive sign but he does show sign of anger in between. His left upper lip raises for a split second, a sign of anger or disgust. His left jaw muscles clench in between. Either he is angry at Taylor or himself, hard to tell!
Although I feel that Kanye can deff. be a jacka** at times, I do feel that his apology was sincere.
That apology was the fakest thing ive ever seen.
1st off, his hands were clenched for a little
2nd he never look Jay in the eyes. NOT ONCE. And he also never looked directly into the camera
3rd he took a little while to construct his sentences
i could keep going on and on but im sure you getthe gist.
Kayne fails.
Taylor wins.
The momma question really hurt him, he really felt bad at that moment. But a lot he said about his career and his goals of taking time to off to refocus were not true.
Taylor seems completely genuine to me. She’s completely at a loss when he pulls the whole “awards show” script/routine out from under her, into uncharted and unkind territory. It was so fast too, I think the time it took to process what was happening and then react while still feeling the pressure of being on a stage in front of everyone overwhelmed her.
As for the apology, I thought I saw a little contempt but I wonder if it has more to do with Leno talking to him like he was 10 than lying about regretting his actions…
Jeremy Steffan
October 19th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
The whole thing was real, it was not staged, she showed real surprise. Kanye meant what he said when he said it. And from the interview with Leno I will bet my life that he was 100% ashamed. You can hear him fighting back tears in his voice, hes looking down and away which means shame, and just because he show’d manipulators of touching his face with his finger doesn’t mean he was hiding anything. That could be just from nervousness or any multiple of things. one manipulator doesn’t indicate anything. Some people should really try and read Ekman’s books, and if you did already, maybe re-read it.
when i watched this live i noticed all the signs that were previously stated by everyone…the hand gestures, blinking, etc….the dead give away was in two things…his appearance, when he first walked out…his words maybe unrehearsed and my seem untruthful, but i find that the reason why he is stumbling with his words is that it isn’t scripted. its live and he is trying to not look like a fool in front of his producer jay-z on live t.v….it looked like his confidence was subsided by nervousness. simply just being intimidated by jay-z would be enough to make him nervous. i think he is trying to focus. there were some lies in this conversation. *the answer about dealing with hurt and the other about feeling ashamed…he just feels guilty. the fact that he did this live on the jay leno show shows that guilt….the other “tell” was the performance. i see jay-z during his part of the performance he is staring at kanye which seems to me like intimidation. and the fact that kanye is not very enthusiastic about performing with them is shame. rihanna doesn’t even look at him once in this performance. showing shame.
in all i believe that jay-z and rihanna both had something to do with this and it was kanye’s guilt that seemed to forced him to do this. his gestures seemed ashamed but his words were confused. as would anyone if they were forced to appear on live tv to apologize for something he didn’t find to be all that big of a deal.
i love this stuff : ) weather i’m agreed with or not! wee!
sorry i forgot to give the first reason when he first walked out there was a false smile. really looking disgusted..ether with himself or not. at least that’s what i saw. i may be wrong. the only way for me to tell for sure is to talk to him in person….which i most likely will never get the chance to do…and if i did i probably wouldn’t ask him about this.
I think Kanye really is sorry. When he was giving his apology he showed quick sadness, and when Leno brought up his mother he showed guilt.
Kristina
October 27th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Sounds like complete bs to me.
kanye is lying, u see that is is using his hands too much touching his mouth these are signs of lying
Kathlyne
November 9th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I don’t think we can really establish who is lying and when because we don’t have a baseline. We can accurately guess that Beyonce’ was surprised and he does show shame, as well as the touching of the nose unconciously that we don’t need a baseline to analyze. But keeping his eyes down in the Leno interview could just be how he talks-he may not make a lot of eye contact with people.
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