This video analysis is part of our recently released training center content.

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In case you haven’t seen it, here is a 7-minute section of the video that was released showing the shooter before he opened fire on unarmed people at UC Santa Barbara on May 23, 2014.  You can find the Wikipedia overview of the attack here.  (In case the video doesn’t play, please contact me since I assume YouTube will take it down and we can find another way).

For an analysis, I want to show how his behavior changes depending on what topic he is talking about.  These changes are what we talk about in our classes as the “repeat topics” that we are looking to identify as we move through a contact.  These shifts and changes in behavior reveal topics that we would want to follow up with because they are causing a response in the person talking.  How you would incorporate these observations into your job depends on what you are tasked with and what you are looking to get out of a conversation, but regardless of your role, we can improve our ability to recognize these shifts by going through this video systematically.

Before you watch the video, anticipate what behavior you expect to see, knowing that this is a justification for why he is about to conduct an attack.  Once you’ve got that, watch through the 7-minute video once in order to get a general feel for the topics and his behavior.

 

My anticipated behavior was Continue reading »

After having spent over two years commuting from Rockland County to Midtown Manhattan for work five days a week, a commute that consisted of one car, two trains, a subway ride and a bit of foot travel, I was extremely relieved the first morning that I woke up and did not have to rush out of the house to make sure I caught the early inbound train. I wasn’t relieved just because it was a welcome break or because I got to sleep in for a few extra minutes. I was relieved because I realized that there were four hours each day (two hours on the way into work and two hours to get home) during which I no longer had to be on “high alert.” It’s not that I didn’t feel safe on the trains, in the stations or on the sidewalks of the city, but I certainly never felt fully relaxed either.

I count myself lucky to have never been a part of an “incident” while commuting. By “incident,” I don’t mean anything catastrophic or serious, but something as simple as being in the vicinity of an altercation or having an unpleasant encounter. I’ve heard stories from friends and prior coworkers about being knocked over by a person trying to beat them to an open seat on a train or being spat on in the subway. I have seen people kick the wheels out from under a fellow commuter’s rolling bag because the person dragging the bag was walking too slowly, people pushing over trash cans when they missed a connecting train and arguments that I was quite sure were one wrong word away from becoming full-blown altercations. This is certainly not to say that every commute was unpleasant. What it did mean for me was that I always felt that I needed to be at an elevated level of awareness so that I could consistently monitor those around me to feel that I had control over my own safety. In a situation where everyone was running to catch the next train and when platforms, train stations and sidewalks could be packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people, I found that the baseline for commuters was often discomfort caused by annoyance or frustration, and which was often amplified by the trigger of a train delay, cancellation or particularly crowded train car. Being able to distinguish when that discomfort escalated and crossed the line towards becoming aggressive and dominant, and knowing how I would react if I were to encounter it, was the key to my own comfort during my commute.

My view of the weekday commute into the city was that it Continue reading »

I decided to wait a day before commenting on last night’s Vice Presidential debate because I wanted to see how the press was going to report the exchange between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.  I wanted to compare the perception that viewers had of the candidates and then look at the body language that influenced those assessments.  Since a great deal of attention and reporting has been focused on Joe Biden’s performance, we can take a look at how he communicated non-verbally.

The response has been split down the middle, depending on the political affiliations the various news organizations have.  Depending on which website you may have read, the headlines either read that Joe Biden “showed his teeth” or that “he was arrogant and unbound.”  Let’s break down the nonverbal elements for each side of the coin. Continue reading »

Think about something or someone that has angered you recently.  It may be a coworker that annoys you, it may be a company’s customer service rep that you had to deal with on the phone, it may have been a person standing in front of you in line and, despite the ten minutes it took to get to the counter, they still didn’t know what they wanted to order.  Often times your anger towards the person after the fact or after the event has ended and you replay the scene over and over in your head, each time you re-imagine it, your anger towards the person deepens.  You are probably thinking about what you should have said to them or what you would say to them if you were in that situation again.

You don’t even need to be at the scene that initially caused your anger, but you can recreate that emotion in your head at any time and it is likely causing the expression of anger to be displayed across your face.

Anger is one of the 7 Universal Emotions that Dr. Paul Ekman identified through his research that began in the 1950’s.  If you think about anger in your daily life, you may have seen it before in arguments between people and regardless of the type of disagreement; you have often seen it during or preceding fights.  For Marines while we are deployed, a fight can mean getting shot at, finding an IED in the road, having a suicide bomber walk up to us, or being called to a riot that is forming.  For the military and police, fights and anger can have very serious implications and that make anger necessary to understand.
Continue reading »

The foundation of any behavioral profiling program begins with a deep understanding of what a person is conveying through their nonverbal communication.  Tying the domains Kinesics and Biometrics together allow us to quickly make decisions about a person’s intentions, capabilities and emotions.

The six clusters that we use to classify an individual’s behavior (Dominant, Submissiveness, Uncomfortable, Comfortable, Interested, Uninterested)  are the science behind our observations.  With all of these clusters, don’t forget about the Combat Rule of 3’s – that we are going to look for three indicators that all lead to the same cluster before we make a decision.  If you have the science part of the observation down, you are ready to apply the art of the observation and decide if that cluster you have identified fits the baseline or is an anomaly.

The Dominant Cluster

The Dominant Cluster is the manifestation of the limbic system’s “fight response.”  Even though we are rarely in situations that require an actual fight, the Dominant Cluster is how we use our body to intimidate someone else or when we want to be perceived as being in control of the situation.  The key driving force of the dominant cluster is an observation about how much space the person is taking up.  This will be seen when a person tries to show his authority by requiring a great deal larger of an area for his presence.  This is a form of territoriality.  Seeing three of the indicators below can lead to make a determination of “Dominant.”

Lower Body

–       Seated – Feet planted on floor, feet and legs splayed out (taking up space)

–       Seated – Legs crossed (if uninterested to block himself from the person)

–       Seated – Legs crossed with hands on ankle or lower calf – secure and confident in their position

–       Standing – legs shoulder width apart (taking up more space)

Torso

–       Seated – Leaning back with hands clasped behind head (taking up more space)

–       Standing – Hands on hips – authoritative (taking up more space)

–       Standing – leaning forwards – aggressive, making themselves look bigger

–       Standing – Stretching torso and making oneself look taller by standing upright and erect, this can be complemented with their chin up and the chest thrust out

Hands and Arms

–       Arms Spread out on an object (table, counter, etc.) – (taking up more space)

–       Hands clasped behind back – (judging or evaluating)

–       “Wrist Down” when shaking hands/greeting

–       While talking – lecturing (pointing with hands)

–       Steeple gesture with hands (perceived as intellectual and confident), if also touching the lips it may be evaluating

Other Indicators

–       The facial expressions of anger, contempt, disgust, and happiness

–       Maintain gaze for longer period of time, doesn’t avert their gaze

–       Dominant people may breach other’s “intimate” Proxemic zone, showing they feel they can go wherever they want

–       They may initiate touching with others to show they are in charge

–       They may try to break society’s accepted rules to show that they make the rules such as swearing in public

–       It isn’t the ownership of status symbols that show wealth or power, but the flaunting of them or attempts to draw your attention to them makes it dominant

–       They might walk down the direct middle of a path, forcing and expecting people to move out of their way by demonstrating that they are not going to move

–       Ignoring a “no” response from someone

–       Belittling and criticizing a person

–       Interrupting the conversation

–       Ignoring someone else’s presence or their part of the conversation

–       Face may be flushed if preparing to fight and nostrils may flare

–       If evaluating, may be looking over the top of their glasses, pursing their lips or holding their chin in their hands