NathanBowers.com

Before the 2008 election, the History Channel aired The Secrets of Body Language. It featured clips of world leaders with commentary from body language experts.

One clip blew my mind. In it George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and their wives were having a photo op in front of 10 Downing St. Bush was totally in charge of the whole affair even though he was on Blair’s turf. When Bush felt the photo op had run its course, he nodded to Blair and they walked inside. While walking through the door, Bush placed his hand on Blair’s back and ushered him in. Once Blair crossed the threshold, Bush patted him on the back as if to say “good boy”.

Today the Huffington Post featured an identical video, except this time Obama dominated Bush. Obama had the dominant handshake arm grab, he cued the end of the photo op with a wave, and ushered Bush through the door. Obama didn’t dominate the situation as thoroughly as Bush did with Blair, but it was still obvious that Obama was in charge. The behaviors are so similar that they almost look choreographed.

The Secrets of Body Language isn’t airing anymore, but you can get it on iTunes, DVD, and torrent. I highly recommend it to any student of human behavior.

Thanks to Micah Calabrese (see also: Micah’s habits improvement webapp) for remembering my raves about the Body Language show and for sending along the HuffPo video.