You take your eyes off the political scene and go on vacation and what happens? John McCain's hand becomes news — a gift to those who study non-verbal communications, and a lesson in the limits of body language 'reading'.
What was the fuss about? McCain was asked an embarrassing question about why many health insurance policies cover Viagra and not contraceptives. He hesitated for 8 seconds before giving a fumbling answer. While he was hesitating, his hand shot up to his mouth and covered it.
What did the hand signify? Not, as the commentary has suggested, that he was trying to keep himself from lying. Children do that, not adults, and especially not adults as comfortable with evasion as seasoned politicians. And that's the wrong way to think about hand gestures. They usually don't convey specific meanings like that; rather, they spring from emotion.
What happened in that moment was that John McCain had a strong emotional reaction to the question. We put our hands to our faces when we are thinking, and to cover our mouths when we're shocked or appalled. John was shocked or appalled by the question, and then he started thinking. The whole process took 8 seconds, which suggests he was quite flummoxed.
Why was he appalled? That's where it gets interesting, and body language along can't tell us. We need to know something about the man. Was he appalled because he's a prude? Unlikely; he's a former Marine. Was he shocked because he was afraid his use of Viagra was going to become news? Possible, but that's sheer speculation. Was he appalled because it was a 'gotcha' question and there was no good answer immediately in sight? Most likely.
All body language can tell us is that McCain had an emotional reaction strong enough to last 8 seconds. That's significant, because 6 seconds is the average length of time people in conversation or discussion will let a silence lapse (try it yourself). That means that his emotions were stronger than average. Or perhaps that he was just tired and slow on the draw. It's a great lesson in the insights and limitations of reading body language.
Hi Nick
Helping people be better public speakers is a good thing. I don’t mean to be a pain.
What proof do you offer that your interpretation of John’s behavior is correct?
You could be correct. Maybe not. People have strong emotional reactions all the time and they don’t cover their mouths. Isn’t that so? You view begs the question: when do we cover our mouths and when don’t we? I’ll leave that up to you to think about.
I’ve not seen the news clip. So I won’t give my 2 cents on what it means. I can make some intelligent statements about nonverbal behaviors.
I teach Nonverbal Leadership. I focus on teaching people to send the right messages and less on reading what other people do. Still, you can’t do one without the other.
People tend to cover their mouths to keep themselves from speaking. Most of the time it’s very subtle, like pressing your fingers to the lips while someone else is speaking.
Asian woman cover their mouths frequently, sometimes with both hands to cover laughter, usually when the subject of the laughter (if he or she was present), would lose face. Essentially, they are laughing too hard in public about someone shortcoming or foible.
Back to John. Him being a seasoned politician is almost irrelevant. 50% of all human behavior is genetic. This was a spontaneous reaction, not calculated. Under the circumstances, he most likely was of two minds. Speak and shut up.
I’m not sure where the lying part comes in. You are right if this is the central point. His behavior is not a definitive sign of lying.
BTW, children don’t cover their mouths to stop themselves from lying. They cover their mouths to stop themselves from telling the truth.
This is most likely where John found himself. Whatever popped into his mind was not a good thing to say, and he caught himself in time. However, he then was stuck trying to get that thought out of his mind and come up with a different answer that was politically acceptable.
Knowing McCain, his initial reaction was irreverent or salty or a tasteless joke. We will never know, however.
Sure there are limits to reading nonverbal signals. What’s also true is that most of our behaviors occur outside our awareness, and others are unconsciously processing them whether we like it or not.
Our verbal interpretations of nonverbal behavior are probably less reliable than our unconscious reactions. You know the study: when there’s a conflict between words and nonverbal signals, others rely on the nonverbal 93% of the time. The hard part is getting our unconscious genus to help out our weak cognitive processor, so that our meaning matches our gut reactions.
Thanks for letting me comment.
Warm regards,
Michael
i really like your post… thanks
It is very important to read body language to understand people, this helps us to be more sociable.