Politicians realize that non-verbals are important,

and so when they choose an outfit,

when they choose how they're going to come out,

whether or not they're gonna be smiling or shaking hands,

one thing I can assure you,

this has been rehearsed many times.

It is theater. It's absolute theater.

And one of the things that we will be looking for

is how well these actors do their job.

[upbeat music]

My name's Joe Navarro and for 25 years

I was a spy catcher with the FBI,

and I am a non-verbal communications expert.

As we approach the height of the political season,

the question I'm asked is, you know,

what do you look for in the body language

of the people that will be in the debate?

I look at everything that's involved

because we have to look at all the non-verbals.

[gentle music]

We always notice when the candidates come on stage,

they're always waving at somebody in the audience

or pointing a finger and so forth.

Sometimes these are actually bogus gestures

because they know the cameras in the audience

will take pictures anytime there's a large gesture.

And so they may actually do these things

with no one in mind.

You'll notice that rarely are debaters allowed

to stand or sit close to each other.

Usually, there's at least seven to 10 feet of space.

And the reason for that is

debaters actually don't want you to see

that there's a height difference.

And so by separating the two individuals

we don't notice that difference.

You'll see an unusual amount

of the color blue in the background,

somewhere between the color of the ocean and the sky,

which is soothing to the human brain.

The wearing of a navy blue suit,

white shirts, often a red or burgundy tie.

Subconsciously, we see the significance of that

because it is what we see in the American flag,

red, white, and blue.

What's really become ubiquitous

is the lapel pin of the American flag.

This is something that 30 years ago, even 20 years ago,

we hardly saw, but now it's almost part of our attire.

You know, if you think about it, is someone less patriotic

because on this day they're not wearing the American flag,

of course not.

This is reaching out to you at a subconscious level.

It's part of the theater, part of the orchestration

which we now demand.

[gentle music]

We're looking for their behaviors to see

are these consistent with what we have seen in the past.

We certainly shouldn't be using body language

to try to determine if they're speaking the truth.

These are orchestrated events

and that's not what we use body language for.

We use body language to supplement

and confirm what we are seeing.

Are the words being supported by the gestures

or are their gestures taking away from their words?

What I look for is, as the moderator asks a question

do I see lip biting?

Do I see any kind of ventilating behaviors

such as pulling on the collar?

Do I see any kind of facial distress?

Do I see furrowing of the forehead?

They can, in fact, take care of it

if he'd just stay out of the way.

[Donald] Oh, really? Oh, really?

Here's another thing-

Anything that might indicate to me

that the individual doesn't like the question

he or she is being asked.

Will you shut up, man? Listen, who is-

The other thing I look for

is any kind of hesitation, throat clearing.

Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists?

Sure, I'm willing

to do that. Are you prepared,

specifically to do it?

[Joe] Perhaps the raising of a shoulder,

the lowering of a shoulder.

Stand back and stand by.

Anything that conveys lack of confidence.

I wanna see the hands.

I wanna see those thumbs that come up,

because when we're confident, the thumbs pop up.

When we lack confidence, they come down.

I wanna see if there's any kind of steepling.

Steepling is a high indicator of confidence.

Or do we see the interlacing of the fingers,

which is I'm struggling with something

or I'm having difficulty.

One of the ones that you may not even think about,

nothing will ever be said,

but you'll see behaviors like the light touching

of the eye with the fingertip.

This is both a blocking behavior and a comforting behavior.

One of the facial nerves that attends to the eyelid,

the minute we put pressure on that nerve

it begins to send messages to the brain to calm down.

What, in essence, they're saying

is I screwed up or I really don't like that.

One of the things that happens in political debates

are the things that we never plan for.

For instance, in 2016, now-President Trump

walking behind Hillary Clinton during the debates.

It almost looked like he was stalking her.

I mean, I can just imagine me

trying to talk to the camera right now

with somebody loitering behind me.

That actually actuates a limbic response.

So we may see behaviors that arise

as a result of the action of another candidate.

And we certainly saw that in 2016,

when some candidates refused to shake the hands of others

or when humor was used when it really wasn't well-intended.

And that's when we see authenticity.

That's when we really see what is in the heart

and the mind and the sentiment of this individual

and how they react to it.

Gestures and communication are all intertwined.

They're not two separate things.

We know that because we've done research,

and when we restrict people's hands

they in fact have less recall.

They're in fact less energetic

and they communicate much less.

We used to say, you know,

when somebody in authority gestures,

they need to gesture wide

and they need to gesture smoothly.

And of course in the Zoom world

those gestures need to be up here

where people can see see them.

Humans are so sensitive to non-verbals

that if I were to point my finger at the audience

and say, You,

we actually have a visceral reaction to that,

which is usually very negative.

Now think about how many times

a school teacher has called on us and gone like that.

We know that if we turn that gesture

into an open-palm vertical gesture, we like that.

We prefer that.

Probably the most popular one

is this thumb gesture that you often see.

The candidate is making a point

and the thumb is just barely sticking out

from beyond the index finger.

Anytime we grasp something,

we're saying, I'm talking to you

about something that's important to me.

I'm sort of grasping it,

which is to be differentiated,

for instance, for when we talk

and we say with precision, so this is a precision grip.

I want you to think about this.

So some of the other gestures we'll see

is the open palm gesture.

Shows that we're open, that we are receptive.

The palms are up, the fingers are wide.

This is a very appealing.

Some of the other gestures we may see

is if the person is doing this.

So normally a baton gesture

is a cadence behavior that denotes

I am asking you to come visit me

but when we do it this way,

what we're in fact saying, if we slow it down,

is, I'm really not so much behind that,

because it's literally pushing away

rather than being receptive.

The other behavior we may see

is the touching of the heart and the chest

which we often see portrayed as so-called honesty displays.

They are in fact neutral

because I've seen both individuals

that are guilty of crimes and the innocent use this gesture.

So it gives the appearance of being honest

but it doesn't mean that they're being honest.

So one of the questions I'm asked

is do politicians rehearse their hand gestures.

Some do, some don't.

Some absolutely refuse to receive any kind of training.

Others are well-coached.

The question is, you know,

how much of it is authentically theirs

and how much of it is borrowed.

Usually if they've been in office a long time,

or if they've been in politics for a long time,

they will be reluctant to change any of their non-verbals.

[gentle music]

Let's look at President Trump's gestures.

His most favored one is to talk

with the index finger to the thumb.

And one glorious nation under God.

Sometimes he does the elbow flop as he's emphasizing.

I don't see any protests.

Oftentimes his eyelids will come down to block

when he's hearing something he doesn't like.

You can see when he pinches the corner of his mouth

when he's being sarcastic

or exercising disdain or contempt,

he does the lip purse when he disagrees

or doesn't like a question being asked.

And then of course he does the lip pull

when he definitely doesn't like the question being asked.

And if you notice, anytime he's sitting in the White House

surrounded by people, he always hugs himself.

And yet when you compare him

to when he's on his show The Apprentice,

he always has a territorial display.

And you see this contrast and you have to ask yourself,

why do we see this behavior on a TV show

and why we're not seeing this in a presidential cabinet.

Let's look at Joe Biden's gestures.

He does a lot of lip touching.

We call it a pensive behavior.

You often see it as people are pondering.

When he's making a point, he tends to furrow his glabella.

He squints his eyes.

Voice often is lowered for emphasis.

You should go out and vote.

And, as with many people,

when something bothers him, the lips disappear.

And this is something that I'm often asked about.

Does this have anything to do with deception?

And it has absolutely nothing to do with deception.

These are the behaviors that we adopt

and that we use that help us to communicate

what we're thinking about at that moment.

Rarely do people remember what is said

but we tend to remember the images.

To this day, we still teach about Governor Dukakis

on a military tank wearing this tanker's helmet

and how odd he looked.

And, you know, we scoff sometimes at the non-verbals,

and yet here was one that we can clearly show

that just from appearing on that tank,

it really diminished his posture.

[gentle music]

You know, some people see these behaviors as a shorthand.

I wouldn't call it that.

Behaviors, gestures, are part of communication.

We have primarily communicated non-verbally.

We find ourselves using these gestures all the time,

and there's a reason for it.

People usually respond to them.

People that know us well respond to them.

And so we don't separate them as ancillary to communication.

They are, in fact, part of communication.

[gentle music]