Reading the Hidden Messages of the Confession: A Nonverbal Analysis

Introduction

This 37 second video has become viral recently. A nonverbal analysis was conducted to enable you to understand the behaviour of this person. During analysis of nonverbal communication, three critical elements need to be considered; the baselining, the congruency, the context that play important roles to identify red flags.

Analysis

From 0.013.3 – 0.03.10 when he introduced himself, the baselining of the person is observed. The baseline observation, including the eye blinking rate, the head movement and the neutral facial expression.

Baselining of the head tilt

At 0.0337, he started to tilt his head, trying to show to the viewer that he is genuine. In addition, he was trying to get trust from the audiences on the statement that he would be saying.

From 0.03.70 to 0.5.63, he mentioned, “dengan in saya membuat pengakuan bersumpah…” This technique is a red flag in deception identification – Bolstering statement. The speaker wants to sound more convincing and earnest, so he or she will often add emphatic phrases in his or her speech to reinforce credibility. In this content, he “swore”. An honest person does not need to remind and reiterate with a “swear” statement, because his “swear” on the matter is irrelevant.  This is the first red flag for further investigation of the statement.

At 0.06.33, before he confessed with any statement, he displayed a contempt smile that indicated hatred or disdain. When this microexpression is observed, we need to investigate further the truthfulness of the statement that was delivered.

At 00:10:23, when he mentioned the word “dalam video yang telah viral semalam”. He was glancing up right. These nonverbal cues indicated that he was constructing images we have never seen before. This is another red flag that needed further investigation.

At 00.14.07 to 00.14.47 when he mentioned “video itu telah diambil tanpa kebenaran saya”, he shook his head. This is a classic gesture that has a slight head shake before a head nod. The timing of facial expression about other bodily or vocal expression can be telling. True emotion indicators are usually expressed simultaneously; feigned indicators often occur in quick succession.

At the same time, his eye blink rate increased between 0.16.30 to 0.18.63. Liars often involuntarily blink more than they usually do when they are not telling the truth.

At 00.20.80, when he mentioned the term “Bilik Azmin”, there is an anger microexpression that could be seen in his facial expression. After the anger expression, he had requested Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate Azmin. His anger facial expression could be directly linked to the statement given either as dissatisfaction or a revenge strategy.

This person was cautious in terms of his nonverbal communication. He was trying to freeze his upper body so that his cues of deception could be minimised. To sum up, his statement in this video had a lot of red flags that needed further investigation on his intent of the action.

The most interesting part – at the end of the video 0.037, he gave a smile. What did the smile mean? Why did he give a smile? Could this be an application of Artificial Intelligence and another AI Deepfake video? Stay tuned with us for more information.

By,

Datuk Dr. Leow Chee Seng

Datuk Dr. Leow is a body language expert and consultant. Check out some of his previous work:

Hong Kong

• https://www.scmp.com/video/hong-kong/2058248/what-body-language-reveals-about-our-politicians
• http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2073814/how-can-xi-jinping-project-strength-first-handshake
• http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2078844/raised-eyebrows-tight-facial-muscles-and-uneven-smile-how
• http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/diplomacy/article/2150384/donald-trump-and-kim-jong-uns-body-language-was-complex-display

China

• http://www.soundofhope.org/gb/2017/03/31/n820170.html

United States of America

• http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/xi-trump-summit-what-to-watch-for-when-mr-brash-meets-mr-tough
• https://nypost.com/2017/02/27/the-chinese-are-already-worried-about-xis-handshake-with-trump/

Philippines

• https://politics.com.ph/tag/dr-leow-chee-seng/

Malaysia

• https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/10/07/expert-fight-against-corruption-starts-at-home/
• https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2017/02/25/how-can-china-project-strength-in-first-handshake-with-trump/

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