MAM Body Language Analysis: Mike Halbach Hides Information
When I write, for both this blog and my general body language blog, my aim is to empower people to read and understand body language so that they can spot the same behaviours within their daily lives and present the best versions of themselves to others.
Mike Halbach Hides Information as he Talks to the Media
Part 1, Episode 3. Approximately 8 minutes into the episode, or 55 minutes in from the end.
Mike Halbach–Body Language & Nonverbal Behaviour
Mike Halbach, Teresa Halbach's brother, displays some unusual behaviours throughout the series. What is he hiding? Is he involved somehow in a cover-up, or is there something more sinister?
In this clip, Halbach displays three behaviours that indicate something is amiss—a single shoulder shrug, a tongue jut and hidden hands. Let’s look at each of those separately.
Shoulder Shrugs
One-Sided and Full Shoulder Shrugs
I've written about the one-sided shoulder shrug before when I analysed Trump's nonverbal behaviour. In short, its meaning is a lack of confidence in the words we speak. Get ready for many examples of this single shoulder shrug in this blog, because the Making a Murderer TV show was bursting with them. These were mainly from the side of the prosecution—the side against Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.
The one-sided shoulder shrug signals that the speaker is not confident in their own words. The shrug takes place as the words are being spoken or at the end of the sentence. In contrast, a full shoulder shrug (both shoulders) indicates the speaker is confident in their words. For example, saying, “I don’t know”, with a single shoulder shrug, means there’s more to it and the speaker is potentially withholding information. Saying the same line with a full shoulder shrug indicates the speaker doesn’t know. It can be subtle or pronounced.
Do not take this as a lying cue per se, it’s merely an indicator of a lack of confidence in spoken words. Its significance relies entirely on the words spoken.
Remember these have opposite meanings:
One-sided shoulder shrug—not confident in words spoken
Full shoulder shrug—confident in words spoken
In terms of clues to deception, we are interested in the one-sided shoulder shrug, because we are looking for misalignment between verbal and nonverbal communication.
Mike Halbach Speaks to the Media
Mike Halbach’s Statement
"You know, he's [Avery] denying this. He certainly has to blame it on someone else, but um–I mean–he, he chooses the Manitowoc County Police. I don't believe that one bit. Um–all the evidence I know about, and that evidence that other representatives presented today, obviously, are leading to him."
Analysing Mike Halbach’s Statement and Body Language
Let’s break it down and add some nonverbal behaviour and statement analysis.
"You know, he's denying this. He certainly has to blame it on someone else, but um–
Halbach shrugs both shoulders.
“I mean–
This is a false start, where he changes his direction of speech. People often do this when they aren’t prepared or when they are being deceptive.
“he, he chooses–
Halbach shrugs one shoulder (red flag)–not confident in his statement.
“the Manitowoc County Police. I don't believe that one bit.
Full shoulder shrug.
“Um–all the evidence I know about
Single shoulder shrug (red flag)–not confident in his statement.
“All the evidence I know about”, suggests he could be aware of other evidence.
“and that evidence that other representatives presented today, obviously, are leading to him."
Then we see what looks like another single shoulder shrug. However, it seems more like him raising his arm to gesture, so I’m ignoring this one.
Let's isolate that last part. He says it, but doesn't believe it:
"All the evidence I know about, and that evidence that all the references presented today, obviously, are leaning to him."
Words and body language are misaligned. Here lies a red flag. This is an area in which to investigate further.
Tongue Jut
Just after saying, "I don't believe that one bit. Um...", Halbach juts his tongue out.
We jut out our tongue when either, we feel like we've got away with something, we’ve just been caught or we’ve made a mistake.
The tongue quickly juts out and then retracts. This subtle cue can easily be confused with lip licking. Lip licking is a self-soothing or pacifying behaviour in which we try to bring comfort to ourselves by licking our lips. This can happen as a result of a dry mouth during the fear response. Like with other self-soothing gestures, lip licking increases with stress.
Hidden Hands
There's one more interesting behaviour here that I'd like to point out.
Note that for most of the duration of the video snippet, Mike Halbach has his hands behind his back. Our hands indicate trust, and when can't see someone's hands we perceive them as being deceitful and untrustworthy. Generally, when people are upfront and honest about something, they typically have their hands visible with palms open. Hands hidden behind the back nonverbally says, 'leave me alone' or 'don't come near me'.
This is just one small interaction yet several behaviours are present, which make us question Halbach’s honesty.
