THREE WAYS YOUR CLIENT IS PUTTING HIMSELF BEHIND BARS
Nonverbal Communication is a skill that all human beings possess and can interpret consciously or subconsciously. The following body language cues can enhance trust or it may deteriorate credibility. When we are nervous we display certain cues that may be misinterpreted and can cause a negative impression from the viewer. When we learn about nonverbal communication we can increase awareness to be more purposeful with our body gestures.
These three tips may make a difference in how perceived and in the case of prosecution: incarceration or freedom:
HANDS
“When conducting jury surveys, one thing that stands out is how much jurors dislike it when attorneys hide behind the lectern. Jurors want to see the attorney’s hands so they can gauge the presentation more accurately. Jurors also don’t like it when witnesses hide their hands; they perceive this negatively, commenting that the witness must be holding back, or perhaps even lying. While these behaviors have nothing to do with deception per se, the perception of the jurors is significant, reminding us that concealment of the hands should be avoided.” In general, hands can be considered our trust indicators. It is the first thing we notice when someone is approaching us.
vocal power
How can we be confident using the power of our voice?
When we are nervous our vocal cords tend to tense. To exude the confidence we need to be able to STATE instead of ASK. This is also not related to deception necessarily. Nervous individuals may do this during an introduction when pronouncing their own name. The easiest way to be powerful with our voice is being conscious of stating vs. asking; is our voice tone going up at the end of a sentence or is it going down in an authoritative manner?
Bottom line, if a defendant is sure of his confession and statements, this will go through in their voice tone. Since Body Language in innate and genetically coded within us, jurors and judges will be able to subconsciously pick on these cues.
DUPING DELIGHT
“Duping delight is an especially useful emotion when detected by the lie catcher because it is not often felt by an innocent person under suspicion.”
Nonverbal communication generally coded in us, studies have found that even congenitally blind individuals display the same body language cues as seeing individuals. What this means for us, is everyone trusts their intuition when interpreting nonverbal communication in an unconscious way. Juror and judges will pick up on these behaviors as well!
When a liar, or a person with an antisocial personality disorder such as psychopathy or sociopathy, feel like they are getting away with something or that they have control over a situation, they will display Duping Delight. The pleasure of this feeling will leak contempt and it looks something like this:
Want even more? I love TED Talks! Pamela Meyer: How to Spot a Liar... at around minute 11:50 she starts to mention Duping Delight and gives awesome real life examples, right OJ?
