Kathy Griffin Statement

Was her apology sincere, was Kathy Griffin sorry for her post and picture of a beheaded Donald Trump. Kathy Griffin is a comedian and actress. Actors learn how to feign emotions. The word feign means to pretend to be affected by (a feeling, state, or injury) That is what Ms. Griffin was doing here in her apology. It was a very poor performance. There are many deceptive markers in her body language and statements.

When detecting deception the investigator looks at four key areas of a persons body language, words and statements to determine if the person is being truthful and is committed to their words and actions or are they being deceptive. Those areas are, Comfort/Discomfort, Emphasis, Synchrony, Perception Management. (Joe Navvarro Nonverbal Communication Course)

Comfort/Discomfort:

The only Discomfort she displayed was the fact that she was angry that she had to apologize. There were no true signs of guilt or sadness.  

Perception Management:

She starts off her statement with "hay everybody it's me Kathy Griffin" this is a very egotistical way of introducing one's self and that she is a person of importance. Also she is very close to speaking in the third person. That is a way of distancing herself from the words she is about to say.

A better statement would have said "Hi everyone for those who do not know me, my name is Kathy Griffin."

Emphasis:

Throughout her narrative there is a lack of "illustrators" body language tells/expressions. When people speak, they naturally
incorporate various parts of their body, such as the eyebrows, head, hands, arms, torso, legs, and feet, to emphasize a point for which they feel deeply or emotionally. This movement proves important to investigators because, as a rule, people emphasize when genuine.
Deceptive people, for the most part, do not emphasize with non-verbals.  They will think of what to say and how to deceive, but rarely do they
think about the presentation of the lie. When people are committed to their words there will be movement. They are adding Emphasis to the words they are expressing. When people are being deceptive they are concentrating on their words and there will be a lack of Emphasis,  "illustrators"  body language "tells" this was very apparent in her apology statement. 

Synchrony:

 Her words and actions were not congruent with each other. This is shown with her shaking her head "no" through out her statement. She should have been shaking her head up and down in the "yes" affirmative body language tell/expression. This tells me she is not "limbic" committed to her words. During the important parts of her apology she closes her eyes, she is distancing herself from her own words.

This tells me she is not committed to her own words.  She also rolls her eyes upward during her apology, she is trying to minimize her actions. This eye roll is also a sign of contempt/disrespect that she has to apologize to you little people. It has the same meaning as when someone is talking to you and picking lint off their cloths. You are beneath me. It is a sign of disrespect.

Her hand cutting motion shows that she was angry. True emotions are always expressed before words and actions. When she touched her heart with both of her palms her timing was a little off. The timing was bad. She should have touched her heart at the same time she made her apology not after.  

At the very end she nods her head up and down in the "yes" body language tell, this in a very aggressive gesture as she again closes her eyes distancing herself from her own words and expressions. This is a very arrogant way of expressing her apology. It is like she is saying ok I apologized to you, are you happy now. At the same time you will see a quick compressed smile this is called "duping delight." She was being very deceptive about her apology and she knows it.

Statement Analysis

What a person does not say or leaves out of a statement can be as important as what they do say, what did she not say?

She never once apologized to Donald Trump or his family for her actions during her apology. There were a few "qualifying words such as "just" and "sincerely."  These words weaken her statement.  She was angry she had to apologize shown in a few micro expressions of "disgust, lip compressions, eye rolls and the fast pace of her apology." She wanted to get this over with quickly and was not happy she had to do it. In her statement "I have made many mistakes in my career and I will continue" this tells me she knows what she did and she and is not the least bit sorry for it. She will continue to make mistakes and does not care what you think. A better statement would have said " I have made many mistakes in my career, I am sorry for those mistakes and I will not make them again." The only reason she apologized is she had to because of the backlash and the possibility the Secret Service was about to pay her a visit.