Is Obama just fidgeting or giving the finger?

Typically, people can see whether a movement is intended to communicate (a.k.a. a gesture) or whether the movement’s producer has some other intention, be it practical or just fidgeting. There are however plenty of examples where the movement is ambiguous: it could be a gesture but it could also be a meaningless incidental movement. Barack Obama produced such a movement during a speech. Watch and judge for yourself. Did Obama just flip off Clinton or was he merely scratching his cheek? Again, like in many other cases where the nature of a movement was debated, there is a potential insult to be considered. It is almost as if people are more sensitive to potentially insulting gestures then to other gestures. Some people, like Lehmann or Mr Wood even use this sensitivity to their advantage. They camouflage their insulting gesture and thus create ambiguity on purpose. Those who have a reason to feel offended are insulted by the ‘gesture’. Other people only see a cactus or someone scratching his head. I would predict that if people must judge if a movement is intended to communicate they will do so more often when that would mean it is an insult than when that would mean it is some other gesture. (Question: Can you think of an experiment to test this prediction?) BTW, there is a very interesting related paper on this topic from a psychiatric perspective:

Bucci, Sandra, Mike Startup, Paula Wynn, Amanda Baker, & Terry J. Lewin. (2008). Referential delusions of communication and interpretations of gestures. Psychiatry Research, 158(1), 27-34. (Scopus) Gestures are an important aspect of non-verbal communication, but people with schizophrenia have poor comprehension of them. However, the tests of gesture comprehension that have been used present only scenes in which interpersonal meaning is communicated, though there is evidence that people with psychotic disorders tend to perceive communications where none were intended. Such mistakes about non-verbal behaviour are the hallmark of a subtype of delusions of reference identified as delusions of communication. Thus we hypothesised that patients with delusions of communication would tend to misinterpret incidental movements as gestures and, since delusions are often derogatory to the self, they would also tend to misinterpret gestures as insulting. Patients with acute psychotic symptoms (n = 64) were recruited according to a 2 × 2 design (presence vs. absence of delusions of communication by presence vs. absence of auditory hallucinations). They, and 57 healthy controls, were presented with 20 brief video clips in which an actor either made a well-known gesture or an incidental movement. After each clip, they selected one of four interpretations: a correct interpretation if a gesture had been presented; the interpretation of a different gesture; an insulting interpretation; no gesture intended (correct for incidental movements). The patients made significantly more errors of all kinds than the controls, perceived significantly more of the incidental movements as gestures, and selected significantly more insulting interpretations of the clips. These differences between patients and controls were almost wholly due to patients with delusions of communication. These results suggest that the difficulties that people with delusions of communication experience in understanding gestures can be explained, at least in part, by the misattribution of self-generated internal events to external sources.

Perhaps we all suffer from delusions of communication to some degree when we are in a situation where we expect to be insulted (rightly or wrongly). I know I always check for fingers when I feel I did something impolite in traffic. Don’t you?

Wanker Gesture Lands Lawyer in Jail

The Wanker gesture is the second most often occuring gesture in the news, with giving the finger a mile in the lead. In third place is the 'fuck-you' forearm jerk. What do these have in common? They are insults, and unexpected insults are apparently very newsworthy. (source: Wikipedia) The latest wanker case comes from the Austin, Texas, US...

From Keyetv.com: Travis County Court at Law #6 Judge Jan Breland put Adam Reposa into jail after he made what is described in court documents as "…a simulated masturbatory gesture with his hand while making eye contact with the Court…"

Van Bommel Overdoing Sarcastic Gestures

Mark van Bommel is a Dutch football player who plays for Bayern Munich. He is also a bit of a drama queen, who already supplied us with a decent little gesture scandal before. After already being fined 6200 euro for making a 'fuck you' gesture (forearem jerk) to the crowds at Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium, he repeated the gesture (now dubbed 'doing a Van Bommel') in the final minutes against Hamburg, this time insulting the referee. This time he got an extra two match ban and a 15000 euro fine (compare other fines) What sort of fine would be enough to stop him? Van Bommel's little theatrical performance includes some sarcastic clapping. There is an interesting piece by Steve Tomkins on the correct and incorrect application of sarcasm. He also has some cases of football players clapping sarcastically. In a lovely cool sarcastic style Tomkins sets out to explain why sarcasm is not necessarily rude. If done correctly sarcasm can deliver venomous bites. The key lies in not overdoing what you say or how you gesture, and in the inclusion of a pinch of humour. Obviously, if your victim really did or said something stupid it will make sarcasm succeed easily (your victim can't get angry because he is too busy being ashamed). In this case, Van Bommel overdoes the sarcasm. First, the referee is always right, so he is free to get angry, and indeed he responds by showing the red card. In such a case one must leave room for innocent interpretations to hide behind. If one simply keeps a straight face and claps twice it can always be explained as saying 'good call, ref!'. The fans in the stadium will understand the sarcasm but there will not be enough evidence to punish you. I think that in most cases even the slightest hint of sarcasm will be enough for other people to pick up the message. We humans are so sensitive to insults. Often the mere context will make a straightforward interpretation of an innocent phrase that is intended as sarcasm very unlikely. Him: "did you watch the game yesterday?" (your team lost 2-0 to his, the bastard) You: "yes, great game for the neutral spectators" (it was a teeth-grinding muddy fight) Him: "we gave your lot a good whipping, hey?" (obnoxious little fella, everyone could tell the ref wrongly sent a man off after ten minutes) You: "yes, a victory well deserved. They are really on fire these last few weeks aren't they?" (they only had one win against a second division club and three losses) Every knowledgeable bystander (or at least those you care about) will get your point from the context. But in comparison to your obnoxious colleague you appear to be gracious about it all. He may or may not spot your sarcasm but he has no good option to respond. He can either take your words literally and be a fool, or he can acknowledge your sarcasm and respond to the unspoken allegations (that it was an ugly match, an undeserved victory and a team that sucks anyway). The latter choice will have him on the defensive ("I thought it was a proper red card for hands") in which case you can turn up the sarcasm ("of course, he should have stopped the ball with his genitals"). ps. Thanks to Elif for the link to Tomkin's piece

Buckingham Palace Plonker

There is a funny little gesture story in the news these days. It is about a guard who is making little gestures (and doing a little dance) while he is supposed to be standing very still. The peak of the stroke of a wanker gesture? (source)

On the YouTube: Buckingham Palace Plonker. "Shocking behavior by one of the Queen's Guards in front of Buckingham Palace. Exclusive footage never seen before in front of Buckingham Palace." (little dance - checking time)

Elsewhere the Telegraph reports: "The video clip shows him turning his head - apparently to catch the attention of a colleague - before shaking his right fist up and down. Perhaps realizing that he is being watched, he quickly morphs the gesture into a more typical if slightly camp wave, before resuming his sentry duty." That is a nice and detailed analysis of the gesture that the Foot Guard is making. A wanker gesture that is camouflaged by morphing it into a wave. I concur. And whoever made the analysis, please keep up the good work. Update 1 hour later: It could also be a combination of 'wanker' and 'hurry up', possibly sending a message like 'hey wanker, hurry up". Maybe his colleague was slow on his routine? (see the comments in the Sun)

A Band called Obscene Gesture

I just found out that there is a trashcore (?) band called Obscene Gesture. Don't they look all tough and mean? (source) And then that menacing gesture that is just 'disgusting to the senses', and/or 'repulsive by reason of crass disregard of moral or ethical principles'. These men-boys will have to watch out for the US laws on obscenity. A final note: should their music be considered one giant musical gesture?