Tells

I could never be a good poker player, since my natural response to a good hand is to start talking about investment strategies. Gives me away every time.

In poker, it’s called a “tell,” and the idea applies to everyday life. We all have tells at home and in the workplace that give away our emotional state to anyone paying attention. Some people make it easy. My wife, for example, walks faster and breathes differently when she’s pissed about something. Then there’s the thing she does with the knives.

Some believe you can tell when someone is lying by their body language, although this tends to be highly subjective and probably depends on how well you’ve studied the individual in question. (I blogged about this in some detail here.)

At home, my three kids are getting pretty good at lying. My older daughter is also learning to tell me whatever she thinks I want to hear, and then doing whatever she was going to do anyway. The only way I can figure out who’s lying is by punishing them. My son bursts into tears when he’s not guilty and gets punished anyway, so I can use that to rule out his guilt or complicity. My older daughter takes her punishments stoically when she’s guilty — it’s like she’s already figured out that you don’t do the crime if you can’t serve the time. The youngest is tricky, since she freaks out over punishment when she’s guilty. Sometimes I wish she’d be innocent just so I don’t have to deal with her pain-in-the-ass tantrums.

This article is kind of a once-over on tells as they apply to politicians who’re lying:

A politician can never fib flawlessly because their body language will always give them away, psychologists say.

No amount of coaching or media training can co-ordinate the hand gestures and facial expressions to fully cover up what a person knows not to be true.

The bite of the lip, a movement of the eyebrow or simply where they walk on the ceremonial carpet can betray what a politician really thinks and feels.

Researchers explained how to read the signs at a science meeting in Norwich. “Nobody can escape the eye of the psychologist,” Dr Peter Collett, formerly of Oxford University, told the British Association’s Science Festival.

The actual examples aren’t particularly illuminating:

Tony Blair unconsciously fiddles with his little finger whenever an opponent makes him anxious. He also touches his stomach when he feels under threat — a gesture that harks back to childhood, the psychology panel at the BA asserted.

George Bush, on the other hand, bites the inside of his cheek at anxious moments.

I think mental-health professionals could have a field day with Bush on any number of levels. (This article in The Times of London takes some pretty good hacks.) Here’s an example of a presidential tell that has nothing to do with lying:

George Bush walks like a body builder, hanging his palms to the rear as though laden down by huge muscle, to imply that he’s larger than he actually is, says Dr. Collett.

I agree about the way he walks, but it has nothing to do with his hands. It has more to do with the way he pulls his shoulders back and pushes his chest out, which is certainly a posture unique to lifters. (I can remember Sean Connery, a former bodybuilder, walking that way the first time he appeared onscreen as James Bond.) But the way he stands, with his spine kind of tilted to one side, arms out from his sides, palms facing back, reminds me more of an Old West gunslinger than a bodybuilder. He just always looks like he’s ready for a fight.

Unfortunately for the world, he probably is.

Tags: Tags: Mental Health