Faces in the News

Commenter Kira found this video of the President pulling/licking his lips while talking about the CIA. “I almost never see him do this when speaking so it isn’t an everyday basic thing for him,” she writes.

Is President Obama just parched? Or are his mannerisms trying to convey something?

Commenter Alex found a video in this article where he’s spotted some of the microexpressions we’ve been talking about:

And this is Alex’s analysis:

VP Biden shows all the classic moves
-Unilateral contempt expression when Cheney is mentioned,
-Head shaking “no” to a question ”are we more secure today?”
-Withdrawing back after a statement, and
-finally when describing the alleged conversation with Pres. Bush (which Karl Rove now claims never happened) eyes drift to “auditory construction” area – speakers right, not a “recollection” left, implying that VP is “constructing” this conversation in his head, not recalling it.

Do you agree with him? Share your own interpretations!

He seems to always do this, so does that make it a micro-expression or just a regular Simon scratch?

The New York Times has Lie to Me’s science advisor Paul Ekman review a 2007 interview where Alex Rodriguez denies using performance enhancers.

Based on the points in the article, do YOU think he was lying?

The Booker Rising media watchdog site took what they learned from our show and applied it to a Condoleezza Rice interview.

Do you agree with their analysis?

But the best part is Tim Roth’s own facial expression after he reveals the similarity:

Do you think Jess is really showing disgust or just stupidity?

Politico analyzes the “Obama Touch,” which they describe as:

…the squeeze on the biceps, the pat on the shoulder or the tap on the back that signals the displeasure of the commander in chief.

Read more in their article.

The show uses this example of President Nixon making the classic gesture of not believing what you have just said:

This one from John McCain.

And another Hillary video (set-up at about 2:17):

An example of the voice saying yes, while the head shakes no.

Hillary, after casting her vote, says she is looking forward to working with Obama.