The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

POLITICAL TELLS
• REFUSING TO ANSWER. Politicians often refuse to
answer questions when it's clearly legitimate for them not
to give an answer - for example, when they're asked to
divulge confidential information or to make predictions.
In these cases they can get away by appealing to a higher
principle, such as the need to keep a secret or be
discreet.
• IGNORING THE QUESTION. This often happens when
the interviewer interrupts the politician to ask another
question. Instead of answering the new question, the
politician simply continues to answer the original
question, behaving as if the new question had never been
asked.
• REPEATING THE ANSWER. Politicians may refuse to
answer a question, insisting that they have already
answered it. This also conveys other messages - it
suggests, for example, that the politician is fully aware of
what's happening, and that he or she is not prepared to
play along with the interviewer. There are, however,
cases where the politician will use the same form of
words in response to apparently different questions. This
is intended to make the politician look confident, and the
interviewer incompetent.
There are several reasons why politicians' answers are
equivocal and vague. For a start, using imprecise language
allows politicians to give answers that don't offend anybody.
When the electorate is divided on a controversial
issue it's obviously not in the politician's interests to give
an answer that's likely to alienate large numbers of people
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