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As a psychologist, I found this NY Times analysis of
facial _expression_ interesting. Probably not right for classroom
discussion, but interesting for amongst ourselves.
Patricia Keith-Spiegel FOR the 32 officially designated Republican spinners, Thursday night could be summed up in President Bush's mantra for the debate: hard work. Mr. Bush said "hard work" 11 times, generally to describe the challenges facing him in the fight against terrorism, although at moments it looked as if the most onerous part of his job was the debate. After watching him sputter, slump, frown and pound the podium, some experts in body language said they had never seen him so disgusted and forlorn. "I don't want to say somebody is the winner or somebody is the loser tonight," said George P. Bush, the president's nephew, and he went on to set a fairly low bar for his uncle. "I think his main objective, apart from not falling on the ground on the stage, which he didn't do tonight, was to say, look, here are my positions, and talk directly to the voters." MEANWHILE, far from Spin Alley, some independent observers were questioning Mr. Bush's living-room appeal. They said he looked quite different from the debater they saw in 2000, as if he wasn't used to having his assertions questioned. "He looked downright perturbed to be challenged," said Daniel Hill, president of Sensory Logic, a marketing firm that uses a system developed at the University of California at San Francisco to interpret the movements of 43 facial muscles. Dr. Hill, who has been studying the presidential candidates over the past year, said he was surprised to see several new expressions on Mr. Bush's face Thursday. "He had this upside-down smile that has anger and a kind of world-weariness to it," he said. "Dick Cheney does it often, but I'd never seen it on George Bush's face before. Another new one was a droopy _expression_, as if he was chewing his lip the corner of his left mouth dropped in a sign of disgust and sadness. When Kerry criticized his errors in Iraq, he had a new bitter _expression_, where both corners of the mouth go down and out as if you just ate something bad." When the moderator, Jim Lehrer, asked Mr. Bush about miscalculation in Iraq, Mr. Bush made what Dr. Hill calls a brow-knitter _expression_. "His eyebrows came together," Dr. Hill said. "I'd never seen so many frown-wrinkles on his forehead. Usually he's pretty upbeat and sunny and cocky, and he can win people over with his personality. But he really looked beset." Mr. Bush is normally much better than Mr. Kerry at flashing genuine smiles, Dr. Hill said, but on Thursday both of them mostly stuck with social smiles - sometimes, in Mr. Bush's case, at incongruous moments when discussing serious topics like Iraq and the Patriot Act. "Kerry started out looking nervous," Dr. Hill said. "His eyebrows were fluttering badly during the first few minutes. But after that he avoided his biggest problems: showing fear and indecision. I don't know if Kerry can ever get to charming, but he was steady." Mr. Bush's smirk caught the attention of Bob Wiesner, a managing director of Rogen International, which trains executives in the art of communicating. Mr. Wiesner said that while both debaters projected leadership qualities, Mr. Bush at times looked incredulous that Mr. Kerry was a serious contender. "Bush's tone of voice alternated between that of a parent trying to teach a lesson to a 9-year-old, and a teenager pleading his case with the high school principal," Mr. Wiesner said. Nicholas Boothman, the author of "How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less," said Mr. Kerry seemed more presidential thanks to his poise and upright posture, whereas Mr. Bush slouched and seemed irritated and confused, frowning and darting his eyes. Mr. Bush's penchant for repeating himself Thursday night may have irritated some critics, but Mr. Boothman praised it as a classic strategy to get a message across. "It's called the broken-record technique, and it works," he said. If nothing else, viewers of Thursday's debate will not forget all of Mr. Bush's hard work. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/trail/index.html --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
