By Jared Sais
Since there were only six girls left on this week’s episode, I really wanted to hone in on each of their non-verbal cues and micro-expressions to determine their true feelings for the bachelor. I also focused a lot on Sean’s reaction to each of them to see how he really feels about the remaining ladies.
Let’s start with the first one-on-one date…
AshLee
AshLee was the one girl brave enough to tell Sean the truth about Tierra. As she was talking to Sean about the drama, she showed micro-expressions of anger: pinching her lips, lowering her eyebrows and glaring her eyes. She also revealed feelings of contempt when speaking about Tierra by moving only one side of her face.
In response, Sean said, “When she tells me something about Tierra, I believe it.” As he says it, Sean shakes his head no and shrugs, telling me that he doesn’t believe what he just said.
Even so, when he’s on the beach talking with Ashlee about Tierra, Sean puts his hand on his head with his thumb pointing down, meaning a thumbs down to Tierra. I think he’s really beginning to wake up, even if it is very slowly.
At the start of their dinner together, the bachelor asked her if there was anything else he needed to know before meeting her family, and when she replied “yes,” he gulped, which is a sign of fear. He also showed a micro-expression of surprise with his raised eyebrows and the widening of his eyes.
Sean smiled big enough to have crow’s feet (wrinkling at the corners of her eyes) when speaking with her, so he really likes AshLee. You don’t show that much emotion (the fear, the surprise and the genuine happiness) if you don’t like someone.
Of course, he shook his head no as he said, “I think you’re perfect the way you are,” meaning that he’s still not sold on her just yet. He also shrugged as he told her that he had no questions at this point, revealing that he’s either lying or not being 100 percent truthful.
As for AshLee’s feelings for Sean? She nodded to confirm that she was telling the truth when she said she loved him.
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Tierra
It’s no surprise that Tierra showed feelings of contempt when speaking about the other girls. What is surprising is that Sean also showed signs of contempt multiple times. I think (hope) her drama is finally getting to him.
Tierra totally fibbed and told Sean that she tried bonding with the other girls in the house. As soon as she stopped talking, she started licking her lips and put her hands up to pull back her hair on both sides of her face. Her body language showed that she’s trying to manipulate Sean by lying to him about her feelings towards the girls and also about her feelings for him.
Of course, Tierra did her famous eyebrow raise. And when she said the above comment about the other girls and herself, her right eyebrow rose for a long period of time. This eyebrow raise is a sign of cynicism. The funny thing is she did this facial gesture after something she said, meaning that even she doesn’t believe the words that just came out of her mouth.
The tone and pitch of Tierra’s voice also gave away her true feelings. Both were very choppy as she spoke, revealing that her words were not actually true.
As she was speaking to “her boyfriend,” Sean had his lips pinched, meaning he was bit angry with either her or the situation.
The drama queen revealed her own anxiety when she played with her straw throughout dinner. The body goes under a great deal of stress when lying, so it tries to cover that stress up by releasing it through agitated movements and fidgeting.
Related Link: Tierra Causes Drama on ‘The Bachelor,’ Ladies Against Her
Lindsay
Based on Sean’s tone and pitch as he spoke about Lindsay, it was easy to see that he’d give her the group date rose. He slowed down his speech and emphasized his feelings for her. He really is crazy about her. Although he has strong feelings for Desiree and Catherine as well.
Lesley
Her body language told me that she wants to feel more in love with Sean than she does. She really, truly likes him, but she may not be in love with him as she had hoped. When she talked about loving him, she did a lot of shrugs and other non-verbal gestures which mean “I don’t know.”
The sad thing is that I don’t think the show revealed everything that happened between this couple. It seems a bit weird that they really got along last week, but then this week, there was a lack of…well, everything. Their connection was strained on both sides. I really thought she would make it to the top three, but after this date, I didn’t know if she’d end up with a rose.
Sean, you did a great job by getting rid of dramatic Tierra and her “sparkle”, but I have to say, I think you should have kept Lesley around. I think you guys would have been great for each other, but then again, we didn’t really see what happened between you two. Still, I count this week as a major victory. Bye bye, Tierra!
Jared Sais is co-author of the website The Non-Verbal Game. He is an expert in non-verbal communication, who specializes in body language, micro-expressions and lie deception as they relate to life and love. For more information and to download a free PDF of the speech he gave at NYC’s Single In Stilettos, click here.
