At the beginning of the third GOP debate last night, the moderator, Carl Quintanilla, introduced the candidates on the stage to the audience. It only took 35 seconds for all 10 candidates to greet the audience, but just in that 35 seconds, lots body language information was expressed and the audience started to perceive the candidates as likable or not.
Jeb Bush was two spots removed from the center stage for the first time. This pic was captured right after XXX introduced his name. His body language here is showing that he is unconfident and weak. He displays a fake smile: the corners of the mouth move toward the ears rather the eyes. The fake smile alone can come from being nervous, but the cluster together with the (right) unilateral raised eyebrow send beta, low-energy, low-confidence and relatively weaker signals.
As a comparison, Marco Rubio displayed a polite smile when being introduced to the audience. A real smile involves two muscles: the zygomaticus major which forces the corners of the mouth up toward the eyes and the orbicularis oculi which is around the eyes forms the crow’s feet. Here the corners of Rubio’s mouth are lifted toward eyes, but little muscle change is found around his eyes. So it’s not a genuine smile, but a polite smile. It is easy to tell which one is more likable, Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio?
A strong comparison comes from Donald Trump. He opens both his arm and palm when being introduced to the audience. By doing this, he creates in impression that he is open, trustworthy, confident, and knows what he is doing. Shortly after this, he generates a thumbs up configuration, which emphasizes an alpha image. He is trying to show that he is authoritative, optimistic, strong and positive.
Ben Carson also opens up his palm and greets the audience, showing he is open and trustworthy, but his arm is closed to the body and his smile is faked without showing any tooth, indicating that he is nervous and unconfident.
Shortly after he greeted the audience, he showed a worried face. As you see in the picture, he is looking down to the floor with muscles contraction in the middle area of the face, implicating that he is worried and not confident.