Lance Armstrong’s body language during Oprah interview. Was Lance Armstrong Lying?

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Below are my rough notes from the Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah.

Posture Tell Weexpected and hoped that Lance Armstrong would be humble and contrite in hisOprah interview. We didn’t see his head down in shame shoulders down as he wasasked about his bad behavior. Instead he starts the interview siting up andvery comfortable and large taking up space in a stereotypical powerful Americanmale leg cross. It is a blocking cross that protects him but signals hissuperiority.  This is telling and showshow he feels about Oprah Winfrey. The feet are the most honest portion of thebody. Lance’s left leg is pointed away from Oprah Winfrey. Lance’s right legcrosses over his left protecting his pelvis and the bottom of Lance’s rightfoot is towards Oprah symbolically stepping and stomping on her.

Castle Hand PositionHeis also in a double protective sitting position. His legs are crossed and hishands folded and resting on his lap with the fingers interlaced in what I callthe castle wall. This hand position gives you something to do with your handsand protects you from frontal attack and is normal for anyone stressed orfearful but he does it in combination with a dominant leg cross of superiorityshowing he wants to “win “the interview. He will protect himself and end on top. He is saying with his body “I want to be in charge and I need to protectmyself from this attack. “

AsOprah begins talking about how Lance agreed to this no holds bar interview… “Lancewipes his nose symbolically saying, “This doesn't smell good to me. “
Lip Behavior Asshe lays out the no holds bar open field interview parameters rules LanceArmstrong's mouth tightens and he brings his lips together. Lance also gives apursed lip sour taste expression. This will be one of over 30 times he givesthe lip suppression cue in the interview that indicate he is keeping in thetruth and in this first instance also indicating that he is not looking forwardto this interview.

Thisfirst set of lip suppression cues are not surprising considering thecircumstances that led up to the interview and the stress of any Oprahinterview, but it is interesting for Lance to do. He has successfully lied tointerviewers and the press for many years. He rarely showed that cuebefore.  He has been able to presenthimself so well to the media for so many years.   
Eye Behavior andSuppressed Anger Hedoes show his acting skills in many of his responses. He is able to look Oprahdirectly in the eye with no eye movement cues as he responds throughout theinterview. He is a confident deceiver. For example, he looks at Oprah directlyas she asks him the first question.  He isstill sitting in the cross leg castle wall protected and guarded position buthe is looking at her with his head but the rest of his body is positioned so heis facing away from her.  He does a microfacial cue as he begins to answer the first question. There is a micro facial cuethat is a fraction of the second of a true feeling expressed before the neocortexcan control the limbic brain response to the situation of anger. This is goingto be a very interesting interview.

Voice cues and Micro-facialcues Lancesays he looked up the definition of cheat instead of answering Oprah’s question,“Didn’t you know how big this (the story the deceit the betrayal) was.  He gets more upset with her. His voice getslouder he says, “You asked me the question and I said I didn't know.” and hishead strikes out at her and he grimaces. He feels cornered. You also hear himstutter out his answer and his voice becomes strident. In addition you see amicro facial cue of rage come across his face just for an instant and he bareshis teeth at Oprah.

Interestingwhen asked about his bad behavior he says, “I will spend the rest of my life …”then doesn’t finish the sentence.   Thisis Lance backing off his responsibility. He hesitates again and begins again, “Iwill spend the rest of my life trying to apologize to people.” First he doesnot say he will apologize he says he will try. Then he de-emphasizes others andputs the focus on his pain using the wordI and “my life.”  “I willspend the rest of my life. Heis self-focused on his pain rather than other focused. Recognizing the severepain he caused others.  He emphasizes hissuffering the price he will pay.

More anger shown towardsOprah.Lancesays, “I am happier today” and she calls him on it and he gets mad at Oprah andreplies noting this is not the first time she caught he says, “Once again Isaid I was happier today.” He was vocally emphasizing the word today saying it loudly and forceful andadding a thrust of the chin forward toward Oprah and an explosive T in today.He then finishes the sentence, “Not yesterday Today.” a reply that makes nosense except to emphasize how he is able to lie by choosing certain wording. Asformer president Clinton said, “I did not have sexual relations (instead of theword intercourse) “He is accusing Oprah of misinterpreting him and showssuppressed anger again when she really just caught him in a lie.

When asked by Oprah ifhe paid off UCI so that they would look over what he had done.Lance’sresponse is fascinating (very similar to his taped interrogation years ago bythe way) He sweeps his head from his left to his right. But really his head sweepsforceful totally away from Oprah to retreat from the question then he catcheshimself and quickly swings it back.  In what I call the Shakespearean, “Thou dothprotest too much.” 

Lancethen presses his lips together he is overly enthusiastic in his denial whichsignals to me there's something not quite right in his response. He is lying.
Whenhe is asked about the female masseuse that testified against him, Riley, hebrings his hand up to cover his mouth and says, “She is one of those people Ihave to apologize to she is one of these people who got run over got bullied.” Hisword choice bullied instead of betrayed shows us that he thinks of the behavioras a school boy playing a game in a school yard.  When Oprah calls him on that sidestep saying,“You sued her and she was telling the truth,” Lance says, “To be honest withyou and then rambles on smiling and even slightly laughing as he says “…there wereso many people I am sure we did. “ He says it so lightly and races through itand smirks and even says, “I don't remember the many people Idon't remember. To say in effect there were so many people I “won this game” Idon't remember “is so appalling.  Thesmirk shows there is dissonance about how he feels about the situation. But thesmile and laugh show he is not conflicted about what he did that was bad but indicatesthat he doesn't like getting caught in betrayal of so many people.
Eye Block
As he finishes thisresponse he does an eye block bringing the eyelids down and keeping them closedmore than normal baseline, this shows he feels cornered on this particular lineof questioning he does not want to talk about how he sued his friends andterribly betrayed so many people. Normal behavior perhaps, but why didn’t heshow shame and guilt?
Fist raised to OprahWhenOprah says, “you're suing people knowing they're telling the truth what is that?”he responds with a long pause his hand goes up into a fist and he places thatfist over his mouth again I believe he’s suppressing his anger his desire topunch Oprah in getting into this line of questioning the anger is all the wayup and is tightly held together… To the glare in his eyes the timestamp atthis point is one hour into the played interview. I wish I had a freeze framescreen grab of the steel sharp glare of his eyes.

Whenasked by Oprah did you call Betsy telling the truth about thewomen in the Indiana hospital he responded with a long pause again preparing whathe wants to say to this statement rather than just coming out with the truth in aquick loud smooth flow that is his baseline for honest answers. He also shakeshis head no and does an eye blink block and follows that with the glare atOprah and twisted lips. He avoids answering the question and puts his handsover his knees wrapping them around the knee interlacing the fingers togetherto put a wall up between him and Oprah he really doesn't want to go here evenknowing he agreed to any kind of questioning.
She asked if he madepeace with them andhe goes “me no” shouting it out and looks at Oprah like she's crazy and snarlsagain as an attack his wording in his response is telling. “…because they'vebeen hurt too badly.” Notice he abdicates responsibility. The emphasis awayfrom himself they've been hurt too badly instead of the how can they forgive meI've hurt them so badly. Why didn’t he say “because I hurt them so badly?”
Oprah calls him on hisability to rationalize his behavior Onsuing the woman on defamation of character because he didn’t say she was fat. saying “Well, I called her a liar called her a bitch but I didn't call her fat.” He smiles and actually raiseshis body in pride at his skill at playing the right word game. He doesn't feellike he did anything bad. Interesting we see into the way he rationalizes hereand he's actually laughing he’s figured it out it was a game to me. He does notsay I did harm or I betrayed.

When asked about hisunder the breath use of the” whore word” Lance’s voice gets rough and he used thefiller word as he says “not good” and he brings hischin down as he shakes his head no.
Whenasked by Oprah,  "when the Department of Justice dropped the case, I have to ask,why? "did you have any influence on that? Lance says with his words no but his headshakes yes. He does not complete the sentence in his response but he doessmirk. He then brings his lips together in an eerie clown like closed lippedsmile.
Thisshows he got away with something and he is secretly happy and gleeful that hedid. Again in his mind he “won.” that game.
Iwish I had I a screen grab of this at 1:18 on the taped show.
Lance says he disrespected the rules then uses the word but to split theanswer. Know that when anyone speaks to you and makes a statement and followsit with the word but the truth comes after the word but.  He follows it with. “but because regardlessof that generation when you have what was going on at the time.” So the truthhe reveals is that he feels it was that generation that was responsible. Then Lancepauses and says, “but that was my choice and touches his chest with closedfingers. That's the first time I feel like at some level Lance is realizingthat it was his choice that he does take responsibility.
When asked about hisfriend George being interviewed.
Thereare an awful lot of "buts” in his response.  Lance says, “I don't fault GEORGE KAPPY but…. showsin a fact that he does feel George was responsible that he is upset withGeorge. Always listen to what is said after the "but" because that isthe truth.
 Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.