The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

GREETING TELLS
News coverage of George W. Bush and Tony Blair often
shows them standing close together, shaking hands. Bush
is usually on the left of the picture and Blair on the right.
When viewers look at these images they simply see two
heads of state greeting each other. They seldom notice the
asymmetry of the picture, and the way it affects their perception
of the two leaders. Because more of Bush's arm is
in view, he appears, subliminally, to be more in control
and therefore the more powerful of the two. This effect is
more pronounced when the two leaders are standing close
to each other, engaged in a 'huddled handshake', because
in these circumstances one hardly sees the arm of the
person on the right at all. Some politicians seem to know
this instinctively, and they sometimes take steps to try and
minimize the disadvantages of appearing on the right of a
picture. There are two ways of doing this:
• RELOCATING THE HANDSHAKE. By extending their
arm early and forcing the handshake to take place in the
other person's space, a politician can ensure that more of
their right arm appears in the photograph. This is exactly
what Nikita Khrushchev did when he met President
Kennedy in Vienna in 1961. At the time Kennedy was
feeling distracted because his back was giving him a lot
of trouble. Khrushchev, on the other hand, felt that he
could run rings around Kennedy, whom he regarded as a
political lightweight. This is apparent in the way that he
took the initiative during the handshake. As they
approached each other, Khrushchev, who was on the
right, reached forward so that the handshake took place
in Kennedy's body zone rather than his own. With his
arm extended, Khrushchev looked confident and
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