Sensei

25 January

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Body Language Arrives Northern Ireland

Posted by Allen Baird, Partner in body language

It’s true, we’re not the most physically expressive bunch of people on the planet. But there was an interesting case study in body language last year thanks to two of our dourest political operatives. And to make it all the more juicy, it was caught on camera for all to see. I’m talking about the ‘revealing’ body language of Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson during a recent joint interview.

The BBCNI team wheeled in a body language ‘expert’ called Judi James to provide an analysis. This made me smile for a few reasons.

First of all, I classify someone as an expert if they’ve conducted ground-breaking research or constructed a boundary-crossing application. Appearing as a guru on on programmes like Big Brother and The Xtra Factor does not count. Desmond Morris, Albert Mehrabian, Paul Ekman – that’s the level of person who I’d classify as an expert.

(The astute among you will see this as sour grapes at my not being asked to do it. After all, I’ve delivered different courses at Queen’s University on body language over the years. By rights I should be the local expert. So there.)

Second, the analysis itself was rather banal, IMHO. For instance, Judi noted the “deadpan delivery” of McGuinness as a sign of determination. Deadpan delivery? That’s what we do, Julie dear, that’s our national thing! You might as well observe that Americans are loud and the Japanese inscrutable. Cultural context, anyone?

Read here if you want to see how unconfortable I am with the extreme direction some body language interpretation is taking. Or talk to a guy. Try McGuinness or Robinson, if you think you’re deadpan enough…