Bloggers Personalities and Their Words

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Man speaking with his hand

Do you believe you can identify someone’s personality from their words?

Tal Yarkoni, a doctoral graduate from the University of Colorado at Boulder, did an interesting study on bloggers and how their words revealed their personality. You can read a post about this on the Research Digest Blog, from the British Psychological Society, titled, “The links between bloggers’ personalities and their use of words.”

So, what do you know about my personality? What can you tell me about me from my words and my blog?

Terri Horman on Camera: Avoiding Questions

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It’s amazing how much our body language communicates, isn’t it? Terri’s behavior and body language tells us a lot, and has from the very first press conference we saw her, even though she has never spoken a word publicly.

I am amazed at how strong Terri is acting in the face of all the adversity. She doesn’t show any emotions whatsoever when questioned by the reporter who probes her for information. She tries to hide behind the woman she is with, but that is about it.

For her to be so emotionless after her daughter has been taken away, she has been accused of a murder-for-hire plot, and she has people still squarely looking at her in the disappearance of Kyron Horman, she has to have nerves and a resolve of steel not to leak any emotions or to lash back at the media. You have to wonder at this point, if she even feels emotions at all to be so flat lined. I am blown away by her behavior here.

When we see her walk away to the elevator in the parking garage, she holds her head high as she walks, did you notice? I almost get the feeling she thinks she can beat this, yet when I look for any signs of arrogance, I don’t see any, which is baffling. Could she just think she is smart enough to get herself out of all of this?

Both Kaine Horman and Desiree Young, Kyron’s biological parents, are publicly stating now that Terri Horman has failed two polygraphs. Terri is fascinating to watch, even when she doesn’t say a word.

Reporter Asks Kaine: Were there red flags?

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Kyron Horman’s parents share details about their son, the search and Terri Moulton Horman

A reporter asks Kaine Horman and Desiree Young, missing boy and biological parents to Kyron, if there were red flags with Terri Horman, Kaine’s second wife, and they both respond yes.

Desiree Young tells us that when she talked to Terri the day Kyron went missing, things didn’t seem right to her. She had a motherly intuition that something was wrong.

Kaine said, “In the natural course of actions, she (Terri) was separating herself. I don’t think it was purposefully, but it was just apparent…”

Desiree says, “This is the stuff you write in novels. This is not our life. It’s just a little boy. I just don’t understand it.”

I think Desiree is distancing herself from Kyron because she refers to Kyron as, “It’s just a little boy.” It doesn’t flag me in any way with deception. It just clues me in how she is coping with this nightmare.

The reporter asks Desiree what is was like when Terri was hugging both of them in the first presser, when she had these suspicions, and Desiree replies, “Extremely frustrating, um, its hard for me because I am not really a fake person. What you see is…I wear my emotions and I don’t have a face I put on for other people… It’s extremely difficult to stand next to somebody you know is lying about your son and where he is.”

I personally do not believe that Kaine was suspicious of Terri during the first press conference (which I wasn’t sure of at that time). I think it took him more time to come around, but that would absolutely be expected. He was much more emotionally invested in “his family unit”.

Several people have commented that Kaine is not very emotional. It doesn’t strike me as unusual for “him”. I do think he has been through the war with all that is going on, and he has found his rock in Desiree, his ex-wife, who is there for him and supporting him. I suspect both Desiree and Tony Young have been kind to Kaine, which is amazing. Many ex-wives would resent their ex-husband for putting them in this position, but Desiree seems to have a compassionate and kind heart. Kaine is lucky for that. He has a compassionate shoulder to lean on.

Tidbits of My Life

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Strawberries

This past weekend, I went to a 50th birthday party of a friend of ours. I was helping his wife in the kitchen prepared an early dinner. I asked her what I could do, and she told me I could slice strawberries for the lovely salad she had prepared.

I took the strawberries over to the cutting board after washing them, and pulled the first one out. I put it on the glass cutting board before me, and I sliced it. I wasn’t feeling confident, because I am not one to put strawberries in my salad, so I wanted to make sure I was doing it “right”.

I glanced over to my friend after I finished and I said, “Is this what you want?”

She replied, “Yes” with a slight hesitation. I knew instantly something was wrong. She really meant no.

I looked down at my strawberry realizing I did something wrong, but I was clueless as to what. Then it hit me, I sliced the strawberry into circles, instead of hearts! How dorky I was.

Realizing what she had wanted, I said, “Oh, I see how you want! You want me to slice it the other direction so we have hearts.”

She knows of my ability and quickly retorted with a smile, “You are good.”

Just a silly moment from my life. I write this simply because many people tell me they find hearing about my personal life interesting. Did this interest you?

Long Pause Equal Deception?

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teenage boy (16-17) vodka into a glass

A reader of Eyes for Lies emailed me an interesting question that I felt might help other people. The reader agreed I could publish this.

Here is what the person wrote:

If one asks another a yes no question and they wait for several minutes before answering with a question, do you think the the respondent is likely to be telling the truth?

I asked, “Over the past couple of days have you been able to maintain your sobriety?”

Several minutes passed ….

He asked, “What have I done to make you think I have been drinking?”

I said, “Its a yes or no question…”

He responded, “No, I have not been drinking.”

His behavior indicated to me that he had snuck a couple of drinks. He was drowsy early, and he was trying not to speak, because I think he knew his speech was slightly affected.

The pause that this reader asks about could support honesty or deception. Here is why: If the person was being good and stayed clean, they may think “Why the hell is he questioning me?!” That would explain the pause and then the question that followed.

Or if he was guilty, he may have thought, “Oh no, I’m busted” and then wondered what clues he gave away…hence the same question.

However, the most important clues in the interaction that were given to us are the other signs mention that suspect was drowsy early and was not trying to speak. Those are the things you need to address and ask him about to get to the truth in this matter.

Thanks to the reader for letting me share this story with you.