Revista de comunicación política e institucional

No. 43 (2021): New ways of communicating
Articles

Rajoy’s eyebrow: The control of facial expressions in interviews and press conferences

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Keywords

  • Asimetría hemisférica,
  • Comunicación no verbal,
  • Detección del engaño,
  • Emoción,
  • Entrevistas,
  • Expresión facial,
  • Ruedas de prensa
  • Emotion,
  • Facial expression,
  • hemispheric asymmetry,
  • press conferences,
  • nonverbal communication,
  • lie detection,
  • interviews

How to Cite

Martínez Selva, J. M. . (2021). Rajoy’s eyebrow: The control of facial expressions in interviews and press conferences. Más Poder Local, (43), 76-87. Retrieved from https://www.maspoderlocal.com/index.php/mpl/article/view/expresion-facial-rajoy-mpl43

Copyright (c) 2021 José María Martínez Selva

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Some years ago, Spanish journalists noticed that the then Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, displayed an involuntary contraction of his left eyebrow when taking difficult questions. This paper reviews the data on the role of emotional facial expression and other non-verbal responses in interviews and, particularly, on the most plausible scientific explanation for this non-verbal reaction of the Spanish politician. Spontaneous emotional expressions are more robust on the upper region of the face. The right brain hemisphere is more involved in those emotional expressions taking place on the left side of the face, that are also more pronounced and swift than those observed on the right side. The non-verbal reaction of the Spanish premier was indicative of a spontaneous reaction of unease, but not necessarily of deception. Uncomfortable questions may evoke non-verbal emotional signals that might be useful for journalists in order to address those subjects that are sensitive, or even those leading to deception or dissimulation, and ultimately worth of further questioning.

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