Week 2: Articles, Articles, and More Articles

After meeting with my advisor, I decided that I would officially begin my project by researching articles relating to body language and politics, hoping to stumble upon some studies that were previously conducted specifically on nonverbal communication in presidential debates. After I realized that the articles I needed were scholarly and usually around $40, my advisor Mr. Hansen remembered that he once had access to hundreds of research articles on a website called Jstor. Unfortunately, his login was no longer valid, so we were stuck until he found a way to gain access to the site.

While waiting for Mr. Hansen to get onto Jstor, I decided to do some light reading on nonverbal communication in politics. I found a short article on Forbes called Body Language In The Presidential Debate Reveals More About Us Than About The Candidates? The article began by describing our tendency to look for leaders who exhibit status (broad arm movements, bold strides, decisive gestures) and warmth (smiles, raised eyebrows, head tilts). Later, I read about the significance of the visibility of teeth as an indicator of emotions as showing the lower teeth was a sign of anger while displaying the upper ones often signified happiness.

Finally, by contacting a former student, Mr. Hansen was able to get us a login ID onto Jstor! I was happy because I was finally able read lengthy articles that would hopefully give me insight into how to analyze a candidate’s body language, what to look for etc. When I logged onto Jstor and started searching for articles, I realized that my task would be a bit more difficult than I had thought as there were an abundance of body language and politics articles, but none that specifically address nonverbal communication in presidential debates. Nonetheless, I started reading Nonverbal Displays and Political Leadership in France and the U.S. by Roger D. Masters and Dennis G. Sullivan. I have not yet completed reading this as it is a lengthy one. So far, I have learned that a viewer's emotional response to a candidate is determined by the kind of facial displays expressed by the leader, the leader’s gestures, and possibly the viewers’ previous attitudes towards the leader. I have also read that happy/reassuring and angry/threatening emotions should usually elicit support among supporters, but fear/evasion should be less effective.

In the next coming days, I plan on finishing reading this article and beginning a couple others that I have found including Predicting Election Outcomes from Positive and Negative Trait Assessments of Candidate Images and Capturing the Power of a Campaign Event: The 2004 Presidential Debate in Tempe. Hopefully, I will gain useful knowledge regarding the analysis of nonverbal communication in politics.