SASKATOON -- While Canadians look to provincial and federal leaders for answers during this pandemic, body language experts are looking at what politicians don’t say.
“The message is not only what people are saying, but what’s around what they’re saying,” body language expert Mark Bowden told CTV News.
"How much do we trust them? How much do we believe they believe what they’re saying? In a world where no one quite knows what’s going on.”
Body language expert Blanca Cobb says facial movements, indicating genuine feelings, can happen in less than one second.
“It’s not going to be dramatic. It’ll be very subtle,” she said.
The two experts viewed footage of Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to see if they could extract hidden details about how he is genuinely feeling about the health crisis.
Bowden has written several books and trains people, including politicians, how to use nonverbal communication to influence others.
Cobb, based in North Carolina, has a background in psychology and has written books on nonverbal communication and is a keynote speaker on the topic.
Bowden and Cobb analyzed two videos. The first one was Moe’s live-broadcasted address, announcing plans to reopen the economy. Moe was the first leader in Canada to announce such plans.
In the second video, Moe talks about an increase in new COVID-19 cases during a press conference.
A little stiff, but optimistic
While the two videos are different in nature, solely looking at body language, here’s what the experts say they discovered.
The first thing Bowden and Cobb noticed about the premier’s live address were his hands.
“I think his fingers moved like three times. It’s as though his hands were super-glued to the table,” Cobb said, laughing.
“I don’t know anything about this gentleman, but he appeared nervous and tense.”
While Bowden agreed, he praised the Saskatchewan leader for his ability to read a teleprompter for such a lengthy speech.
“He’s looking directly at that camera, not only to contact the audience but to read auto-cue — and doing actually a pretty good job,” he said.
Bowden noticed times in the address when the premier slightly licked his upper lip, which Bowden believes is a sign of genuine optimism.
“An upper lip lick, he does that a couple times, when he talks about first responders and flattening the curve. Flattening the curve, he does that twice,” Bowden said, referring to his notes.
“That’s a very optimistic indicator.”
The tale of the tie adjustment
The body language experts then analyzed the second video of Moe’s press conference when he announced negative news.
How does Moe’s body language differ when delivering a positive announcement versus negative news?
“He’s a lot more, let’s say anxious, about delivering this,” Bowden told CTV News.
The expert noticed Moe shift in his chair and adjust his tie and chair before this daily press conference, which Bowden calls an “adaptor.”
“This is where you adapt to your environment because you’re feeling uncomfortable. You want to be able to do something. We see him shift in his chair, adapt his tie — there’s framework to this. We can see someone who maybe feels they’re a little less prepared,” Bowden explained.
Cobb, on the other hand, noticed Moe more conversational and less stiff.
“You could see he was reading, his head looking down, there were other people in the room and he just seemed more relaxed,” she said.
According to Cobb, to notice key body language indicators from politicians, it’s important to know the subject’s “baseline.”
“If viewers are interested, watch the different pressers. Is he normally stiff with hands glued to the table? Or is he relaxed?” Cobb said.
But Bowden expects this pandemic to bring out strange body language in everyone.
“You have to have a certain level of forgiveness in people’s behaviours because these are extreme times and people may show extreme behaviours."
