Understanding body language and reading people well is a crucial skill for many professionals whose jobs require interviews, interrogations, and information collection and reaction elicitation of others.
This workshop leverages state-of-the-art behavioral science about behavioral indicators that have been validly and reliably demonstrated as signs a critical mental states.
Topics covered include knowledge and skill development to identify various behavioral indicators of specific emotions, cognitions associated with words or verbal phrases, cognitive processes, and overall arousal. Participants learn to apply this knowledge base and skills in interviews and interrogations, and improve their abilities to gain insights about the mindsets of the interviewees by focusing on the world of nonverbal behavior evaluated in context against verbal output.
Participants are also guided through a hypothesis-testing approach at thinking critically about how such evaluations are made, as well as learning the scientific bases of the behavioral indicators covered.
Learning Objectives
Participants in this course will:
- Identify meaningful behavioral indicators associated with specific emotions, cognitions, and cognitive processes (and distinguish them from less meaningful behavior) in order to:
- Gain insights about the personalities, mindsets, motivations, and intentions of interviewees
- Identify meaningful content areas of the interview to the interviewee
- Assess veracity from deception
- Identify suspicious behavior and hostile intent
- Apply practice applying their newfound knowledge and skills in a template that helps them understand what they identified
- Practice the newfound knowledge, skills, and template application in order to facilitate interviewing efficacy
Scientific Background
The analysis of nonverbal behavior has its roots in decades of published scientific studies documenting the ability of the face to display universality of facial expressions of emotion and signs of cognition (Ekman, 1979, 1993; Ekman & Friesen, 1969; Hwang & Matsumoto, 2016); the meanings, classifications, and functions of different types of gestures (Cartmill & Goldin-Meadow, 2016; Goldin-Meadow & Beilock, 2010; Goldin-Meadow et al., 2001), voice and vocal characteristics (Frank et al., 2013; Sauter & Eimer, 2010; Sauter et al., 2010; Scott & McGettigan, 2016; Simon-Thomas et al., 2009), and whole body movements (Matsumoto & Kudoh, 1987; Mehrabian, 1968a, 1968b, 1969). This body of evidence is also complemented by studies demonstrating the ability of clusters of nonverbal behaviors to differentiate veracity and deception (Hartwig & Bond, 2014; Matsumoto & Hwang, 2018a, 2018b, 2020), that individuals can be trained to reliably identify these behavioral indicators (Hurley et al., 2014; Matsumoto & Hwang, 2011), and that individuals trained in these validated behavioral indicators do better at detecting deception (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2011; Matsumoto et al., 2014).
Typical Length
Two (2) days. Also available in half and one day trainings.
Topics Covered
Introduction to Behavioral Indicators of Veracity and Deception
This section uses video examples to uncover how individuals use body language and behavioral indicators as sings of mental states, and describes scientific research on those indicators, which serve as a guide for how to approach knowledge building and skill acquisition of behavioral indicators used throughout the remainder of the course.
Reading Facial Expressions of Emotions
This section covers the universality of facial expressions of emotion, emotion families, the neuroanatomical roots of emotional expression, and the triggers and functions of emotions. In particular, this section will leverage Humintell’s proprietary course to train individuals to reliably see microemotional reactions in real time – Humintell Microexpression Training course (MiXR).
Identifying Signs of Cognition and Physiological Arousal
This section covers many other meaningful behavioral indicators of various mental states, including gestures, signs of cognition and cognitive load, and signs of physiological arousal in manipulators, body postures, and whole-body movements. This section also covers voice and verbal style.
Interview Considerations
This section transitions participants into how to leverage their newfound knowledge and skills in interviews and interrogations, and covers the following topics: the psychology of truth telling and lying, encoding of memories, behavioral indicators of veracity and deception, emotional reactions to lying, why lies are believed and truths misbelieved, barriers to active observation and listening, baselining individuals, understanding causes of different emotions, and interview considerations.
Ample audio-video examples will be used throughout the course to exemplify the behavioral indicator discussed. Depending on course length, analysis of actual case video will be used to practice and reinforce observational skills obtained during the class, and to facilitate discussion of what to do with the additional insights gained in navigating interviews and interrogations.
References
Cartmill, E. A., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2016). Gesture. In D. Matsumoto, H. C. Hwang, & M. G. Frank (Eds.), APA handbook of nonverbal communication (pp. 307-333). American Psychological Association.
Ekman, P. (1979). About brows: Emotional and conversational signals. In M. von Cranach, K. Foppa, W. Lepenies, & D. Ploog (Eds.), Human ethology. Cambridge University Press.
Ekman, P. (1993). Facial expression and emotion. American Psychologist, 48(4), 384-392.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica, 1, 49-98. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1969.1.1.49
Frank, M. G., Maroulis, A., & Griffin, D. J. (2013). The voice. In D. Matsumoto, M. G. Frank, & H. S. Hwang (Eds.), Nonverbal communication: Science and applications (pp. 53-74). Sage Publications.
Goldin-Meadow, S., & Beilock, S. L. (2010). Action’s infuence on thought: The case of gesture. Psychological Science, 5(6), 664-674. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610388764
Goldin-Meadow, S., Nusbaum, H., Kelly, S. D., & Wagner, S. (2001). Explaining math: Gesturing lightens the load. Psychological Science, 12(6), 516-522.
Hartwig, M., & Bond, C. F. (2014). Lie detection from multiple cues: A meta-analysis. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28(5), 661-676. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3052
Hurley, C. M., Anker, A. E., Frank, M. G., Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2014). Background factors predicting accuracy and improvement in micro expression recognition [journal article]. Motivation and Emotion, 38(5), 700-714. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9410-9
Hwang, H. C., & Matsumoto, D. (2016). Facial expressions. In D. Matsumoto, H. C. Hwang, & M. G. Frank (Eds.), APA Handbook of Nonverbal Communication (pp. 257-287). American Psychological Association.
Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2011). Evidence for training the ability to read microexpressions of emotion. Motivation and Emotion, 35(2), 181-191.
Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2018a). Clusters of nonverbal behaviors differ according to type of question and veracity in investigative interviews in a mock crime context. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 33(4), 302-315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-017-9250-0
Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2020). Clusters of nonverbal behavior differentiate truths and lies about future malicious intent in checkpoint screening interviews. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law.
Mehrabian, A. (1968a). Inference of attitudes from the posture, orientation, and distance of a communicator. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 32(3), 296-308.
Mehrabian, A. (1968b). Relationship of attitude to seated posture, orientation, and distance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(1), 26-30.
Mehrabian, A. (1969). Significance of posture and position in the communication of attitude and status relationships. Psychological Bulletin, 71(5), 359-372.
Sauter, D. A., & Eimer, M. (2010). Rapid detection of emotion from human vocalizations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(3), 474-481.
Sauter, D. A., Eisner, F., Ekman, P., & Scott, S. K. (2010). Cross-cultural recognition of basic emotions through nonverbal emotional vocalizations. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 107(6), 2408-2412. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0908239106
Scott, S., & McGettigan, C. (2016). The voice: From identity to interactions. In D. Matsumoto, H. C. Hwang, & M. G. Frank (Eds.), APA handbook of nonverbal communication (pp. 289-306). American Psychological Association.
Simon-Thomas, E. R., Keltner, D., Sauter, D. A., Sinicropi-Yao, L., & Abramson, A. (2009). The voice conveys specific emotions: Evidence from vocal burst displays. Emotion, 9(6), 838-846.
For more information
Our workshops are only for groups and organizations. If you’re part of a larger group interested in training please email us at info@humintell.com.
If you’re just an individual looking for some training for yourself, we encourage you to view our recorded webinars that are available on Body Language here, and Behavioral Indicators here.