The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

POLITICAL TELLS
associated with a different group of hand postures:
• PUNCHING. When politicians want to make an
emphatic point they frequently form their hand into a fist
and use it like a club to beat time to what they're saying.
Sometimes the closed fist is raised in the air as a salute,
at other times it may be slammed down on the lectern as
a way of emphasizing a key point, or out of anger or frustration.
In its role as a club, the aggressive implications of
the fist are obvious - it is being used, symbolically, to
crush whatever the speaker feels needs to be destroyed.
There are occasions when the hands are used to grab an
object which could serve as a symbolic weapon. For
example, when Nikita Khrushchev addressed the United
Nations in 1960, he got so cross that he took off his shoe
and banged it on the lectern!
• PRODDING. Politicians often use an extended forefinger
to make their point or to issue a warning. Sometimes the
finger is raised in the air, didactically. At other times it
may be used like a dagger or a sword, thrusting downwards
or in the direction of the audience or an imaginary
adversary.
• GRIPPING. In order to harm someone it's sometimes
necessary to grab hold of them first. When they are
making political speeches, politicians often reveal their
aggressive feelings towards others by grabbing hold of
imaginary people or issues and then shaking or squeezing
them.
• SCRATCHING. The fingernails provide a primitive means
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