A couple months ago I read Blink. It's about our subconscious and how we make decisions -- sometimes in just the blink of an eye, such as when a police officer has to decide whether to pull the trigger or a poker player has to decide whether to fold a hand. It also includes stories about how people can take a very "thin slice" of someone's behavior and determine if a person is lying.
I thought of this book when I watched the video of Ted "I did not sleep with that man" Haggard, which is linked to below. Watch his face when he says he didn't use drugs, and when he says he didn't have sex with the gay prostitute. Watch closely.
At first he shakes his head no, and then he switches and shakes his head yes. Interesting non-verbals.
Does any person in America believe this guy?
You can watch the video I'm referring to through this link on Andrewsullivan.com.Can you not feel really sorry for Haggard's family? Can you believe he answered these questions from his car with his kids in the back seat? (The reporter asked if he could step out of the car to do the interview, and he declined.)
Who in the world just wakes up one morning and decides he wants to buy Meth? These types of behaviors are built over a period of years.
Last week, if you had shown me video of Haggard, just 30 seconds worth -- before I knew that he was one of America's most influential evangelicals, and who had a hotline straight to Karl Rove and the Bush White House -- I would have asked: Who's the 'Mo?
And I would have asked that question in the blink of an eye.
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