William and Catherine were spotted looking at each other in this clip, and everyone went
wild.
And there are 3 very good reasons why this body language display had so much impact...
and you're about to find out why.
Welcome back, my body language buddies! my name is Jesús Enrique Rosas, I'm the Body
Language Guy, and it would be great if you join us by just liking this video, subscribing
and hitting that bell! let's get down to it!
Let's take a good look at the clip, and try to relax your mind so you can absorb the moment:
First, the context.
This was a teaser for the Royal Carols: Together at Christmas, when Ellie Goulding was performing.
You might remember that she sang the first song at their wedding reception all the way
back to 2011, so it should not be a surprise that only her presence, let alone her music,
brings back really fond memories in the Cambridges.
One important thing to have in mind is that this is the first ever Royal Christmas Concert
organized and hosted by Catherine.
This information is going to be critical later on.
What is so fascinating about this clip is that it has three very well defined parts.
What we are going to do is define what happens in each one so we can arrive at a general
conclusion.
The first part starts with William searching for Catherine's eyes.
That's a classic form of calling someone's attention silently.
And since he's pretty much in her field of vision, she notices his gaze with the corner
of her eye and immediately locks eyes with him.
This is the start of the "conversation", so to speak.
This half second is very important.
Because apparently, nothing happens.
And this is a very rare body language situation where a LACK of body language signals is,
in fact, the signal itself.
Just bear with me to make sense of this.
We're going to label this moment, moment A for easier reference.
Just to summarize, William has an absolutely neutral face, and Catherine is well, pretty
much neutral.
The only detail I catch is that her neck is a bit tense.
But besides those signals, there's not much to be spotted here.
What happens next is what can be confusing about this clip.
Catherine smiles, but she just smiles with her mouth.
NOW we can confirm that she's tense because her eyes do not move or change from the prior
state to this.
And her lip corners are not pointing upwards that much.
As for William, his lips are pressed and it doesn't look like a smile either.
One split second later after having no facial expression, this is a slight display of tension.
Let's call this, moment B.
Now, the real change happens over the next dozen frames.
William's face changes from tension to another different expression.
You don't need to know how the muscles of the mouth area work, to notice that something
just changed.
Now he has that face that one makes when you're trying to contain laughter.
Like, you're pressing your lips to NOT smile.
It's much, much easier to spot if we compare it directly with his face less than half a
second before.
That's why it's so easy to confuse both displays.
We can call this moment C, because something definitely changed, at least in William.
But what about Catherine? this is the moment when we have to really dive deep into her
expression.
You can barely spot that something happens with her eyes.
There is a shift downward.
She takes a look at William's mouth for less than a tenth of a second.
And it's at that exact moment when William was changing his tense face to playful face.
He was changing from moment B to moment C.
What happens with Catherine next is something that you noticed only subconsciously, and
it's much easier to see if we loop that part of the clip.
Try to pay attention to her shoulders.
How they move.
If you see the progression all the way from moment A to moment C, you'll notice that at
first she was upright and her neck was tense.
After she catches that playful mouth from William, she relaxes.
And we can confirm that she relaxes her body because we were paying attention to her shoulders.
You might think that her shoulders falling that bit is part of her breathing.
But any healthy person, in a resting position will have very subtle breathing.
That movement is a change in posture.
First, she's quite upright, maybe a bit tense, and then she relaxes.
Even if our brain is really paying attention to their faces, we also pick those body clues
subconsciously, and use them automatically to make an assessment of the scene.
Now, let's make a quick recap so see if we got everything right.
William tries to get Catherine's attention, she looks at him, she is somewhat tense at
that moment, she spots his playful, controlled joy, a gesture that after all these years
she must know really well, and then she relaxes.
We are witnessing an interaction in which a couple connects with their eyes, and one
of them helps the other relax.
Remember that Catherine is the one in charge of this event, so it's natural that she must
be tense about getting everything right.
William must be aware of this.
He knows his wife really well, too.
And this is how we can make sense of moment A. The moment when there was virtually no
emotional displays, no body language signals beyond Catherine's tension.
William is giving a silent signal, calling her attention to the fact that the artist
that reminds them of their wedding is performing at that exact moment.
But at the same time he has to be absolutely discreet.
You know how it is, with almost every engagement of this kind.
Now, we cannot discard the fact that this could be an inside joke, or a signal whose
meaning only they know, and that's how Catherine understood immediately.
But even if there were no prearranged message, or inside jokes, just the fact that William
tries to make Catherine relax, that she looks at his mouth, and you know that looking directly
at someone's mouth is that you like them, and finally Catherine relaxing, well... it
doesn't need much subtext.
And the signals don't stop here, because there's a fourth moment.
Maybe it was hard to spot, but when William had already got Catherine's attention, he
shifted his gaze a bit to one side.
Again, to not be so obvious.
But when Catherine finally looks away, certainly much more relaxed than at the start of the
clip, William takes another look at her.
He looks her hair.
Again, it's blink and you'll miss, but he does check out his wife's hair right before
turning away.
That's why I called this a conversation.
A complete story, if you want.
But I must confess that I had real trouble trying to spot this in the small version of
the video that everyone was sharing in social media.
But it's interesting that even with low resolution versions, almost everyone was picking up the
deeper meaning of what was really happening here.
I just needed the high resolution version so I could decipher every single signal for
you.
And there is one very interesting body language clue that could only be seen in this high
resolution clip.
When William turns away, I noticed a sparkle on his eyes.
You might be saying, "Hey Jesús, you're so romantic, but what do you mean a sparkle in
his eyes? is there a scientific way of putting it?".
And yes, there is.
When someone has a strong emotion, it's normal that their eyes get more lubricated, with
a thicker layer of tears.
That makes the eye's surface more reflecting and in turn, lights reflection will be much
more defined and intense.
And there is a very easy and practical way of verifying this, thanks to Beatrice at the
back.
She's got her eyes open, in the same angle of William's, and William's eyes are shinier.
In fact, if we go back a couple seconds, we can also compare with Edoardo Mapelli's eyes.
William's eyes are still shinier than his.
It is not a difference in lighting, because the lighting used is global with overhead
lamps so it falls uniformly over all of them.
So those shinier, sparkling eyes, after connecting with his wife... are relevant.
It's always incredible to watch moments like this that communicate so much without a single
word.
And the next time it happens, we'll be there to decipher it.
If you want to refine your observation skills, all you have to do is download my 100+ body
language tips, right in the description of this video.
My name is Jesús Enrique Rosas and it will always be a pleasure, my body language buddies!
Much Love, and Bliss.