Tiger Woods may behave
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—What Does
Tiger’s
Apology Really
___Tell Us?
By Mark Langford
____February 19th, 2010
_Sky News
NEWS.SKY.COM
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Golfer Tiger Woods
has made
a tearful public apology for
cheating on his wife –
but experts say his display of
contrition may not have been
as straightforward as it seemed.
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of what the superstar said shows
he spoke more about himself
than anyone else,
referring to himself more than
100 times and his wife
Elin just 10 times.
He said “sorry” three times and
used the words “apology”, “foolish”,
“irresponsible” and “blame” twice.
“Integrity”, “failures” and “shame”
all got a mention and at the end of
the speech he walked over to hug
his mother,
who was in the room with him
alongside friends and colleagues.
The carefully scripted and
choreographed event was clearly
designed to start the process of
winning back the loyalty of his family,
friends, fans and sponsors in the
wake of his fall from grace.
But success will depend on
whether they believe his sorrow
to be genuine –
and experts who watched the
performance were divided
on the matter.
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Robert Phipps, who has analysed
the body language of many famous
people for different TV programmes,
said he saw no tell-tale signs to
indicate the world’s most
successful golfer was lying.
“These can be the blinking
rate increasing,
the hand coming to the face,
or to the side of the neck,
and he didn’t do any of those things,”
he said.
“His breathing rate wasn’t
particularly rapid,
and he wasn’t licking his lips –
we do that when we are lying,
because we want to stop
the lies coming out.
“Also he looked straight at people
when he was talking to them,
holding the look,
not glancing away.”
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.However,
chartered psychologist
Dr Jane McCartney,
who specialises in addiction,
was not convinced everything
was as it seemed.
“It was stage-managed,
quite lacking in emotion,”
she told Sky News.
“It was very well rehearsed and
there may well have been a
level of sincerity,
but it was so well-rehearsed.
“It reminded me of a little boy
up before the headmaster having to
say sorry for whatever misdemeanour
he’d been caught for.”
Dr McCartney,
who specialises in addiction,
also rubbished Woods’ claim
to be a sex addict.
“I’m not convinced it’s an addiction.
It’s a good get-out but it’s not an
addiction per se.
It’s a habit,”
she said.
Here is a list of key words
from his 15-minute statement,
next to the number of times
they were used:
:: I/me – 141 times
:: Elin – 10 times
:: wife – seven times
:: family – six times
:: sorry – three times
:: selfish – twice
:: irresponsible – twice
:: wrong – twice
:: foolish – twice
:: hurt – twice
:: apology – twice
:: blame – twice
:: integrity – once
:: failures – once
:: shame – once
:: Elin – 10 times
:: wife – seven times
:: family – six times
:: sorry – three times
:: selfish – twice
:: irresponsible – twice
:: wrong – twice
:: foolish – twice
:: hurt – twice
:: apology – twice
:: blame – twice
:: integrity – once
:: failures – once
:: shame – once
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