Tony Blair and Lie to Me

by Frank | Jun 29, 2012 | Deception, Writing

In my ongoing microexpressions and Forensic Emotional Awareness training, as per the hit show Lie to Me, I came across this fleeting microexpression from Tony Blair during the Leveson Enquiry in the first second of this video (hint: you can click the image for a bigger size).

00.01 I didn't concede on policy at all

This one-sided smile is a clear sign of contempt mixed with pleasure. Contempt can, after all, be pleasurable. But is Mr Blair lying here? Difficult to say as we can’t say for certain what he is expressing contempt for, long-forgotten battles, the question, himself or the interrogator perhaps?

What is certain is that many politicians, at all levels, are adept at manipulating the truth, often for political reasons, sometimes because of hidden motives and sometimes just to hide their expenses. So, over the next few weeks I’m going to up my game and dissect the Leveson enquiry and participants, many of whom are adept manipulators of public opinion.

That’s a writer’s way of saying professional liars. Do forgive me.

Tony Blair, for example is a well polished performer. His famously stilting speech patterns, which were a form of controlling what gets processed by the listener’s brain, are curiously absent here. I’ll cover how that speech pattern works in another post. But, just watch the next two minutes of video below and you’ll see a range of mixed emotions, and then we find this little gem after the protestor breaks in to make his claims.

Mr Blair tries to defend himself. First, he says: “I’ve never had a discussion with them (JP Morgan) about that (the bribery accusations).”

Then just after 02.20 we see the following unconscious smile start as he says: “Or any relationship between them and Irag…” And by the time he’s finished this sentence, he’s turned away to hide the smile and what appears to be a momentary cheek flush. Here it is in four frames grabbed in quick succession.

02.21 No smile baseline

02.22-3 Smile begins

02.23-4-The turn away

02.24 back in control post blush

So, is Mr Blair lying here? Again context is everything, he could just be embarrassed at feeling he needs to answer a protestor’s accusations, or he could be hiding something after all.

Then just before Leveson says, “You’re entitled to say what you want,” there’s this little flash of anger:

02.28 You're entitled to say what you want

Note the rolled in lips, a tell-tale sign of anger, and what Dr Paul Ekman calls a very “reliable muscle” as it’s hard to do consciously. But anger at what? Initially my politician-sceptical bias made me think it was Blair reacting to Leveson’s interruption and taking offence. But is that my bias, what was really happening, or something else? I’ll be taking a masterclass on this later in the year with Ekman International and hopefully after that I’ll have a clear structure for getting to the heart of it.

There’s also a possible mix of surprise in this last frame, note the raised brows and the jaw drop (mouth closed).

You can watch the full video below or check out the press release from the original YouTube video-poster on Blair’s relationship with JP Morgan.

What started all this off? How to Lie to Me: Real-World Microexpressions Training.

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