Amber Heard's TMZ testimony demonstrates how not to answer questions
Avoid this at all costs
We’re going to dive into Amber Heard’s testimony again. This time I will look less at her deception (but don’t worry, there’s still a lot to spot) and more at how she demonstrates the linguistic behaviours of someone talking about a sensitive matter.
By sensitive matter, I mean a subject that causes someone stress when they speak about it. Either because they don’t want to talk about it in full, or because they want to make sure they choose their words carefully.
When looking for truthful answers to questions, there are a couple of things we hope to hear.
We would like to hear them directly answer the question. The more an answer addresses the specific points of the question and the language of the question, the more truthful it is likely to be.
For example: if the question is “did you go to the Italian restaurant?” And the reply is “no, I didn’t go there”, this address the question very directly. The “no” responds to the “did you” part of the question. The “go” reflects exactly the “go” in the question, and the “there” is explicitly the “Italian restaurant”.
Answers like “why would I do that?”, “I very rarely go out”, “you know I hate going there at the weekend”, “I don’t like Italian food” are more likely to be deceptive. They fail to deal directly with the question.
Straight to it
In answers, we’re also looking for a very straight line to the truth. The more new concepts that are brought into an answer, or the more words added to convince you or persuade you of the answer, the more deceptive the answer is likely to be.
If the question was “how many bikes have you sold today?” A straight answer would be “I’ve sold 12 bikes today”.
Some examples of deceptive answers to this question:
“About normal for this time of year”
“This week I’ve been selling around 20 a day”
“We had a lot of customers in”
“I’ve sold 12 bikes and 30 bike helmets today”
With those points in mind, watch this short video of Amber in court. What can you spot?
Let’s have a look
Deposition Video
I would like to him know information, so that he finds out about the divorce filing or my intention to do so, from some other source other than TMZ which was alerted….
This is not about the answer to a question, but as a side note, “TMZ which was alerted” is passive and the person who alerted them isn’t mentioned by Amber. Given this was probably an unguarded moment, we can conclude it wasn’t Amber personally who alerted them as she doesn’t say “I”, but she had knowledge of the alert.
Time for the questions
Attorney Camille Vasquez
You slipped up there didn't you Miss Heard? You let it slip out that TMZ had been alerted to your filing of the domestic violence restraining order, didn't you?
Heard
I disagree. That's not what I'm talking about.
This is a fairly composed and well put together answer. There’s very little, if any, language in there to convince or persuade us of her answer.
She’s actually asked two questions in one here—“you slipped up there didn’t you?” and “you let it slip out… didn’t you?”. Both of these could have been answered with a simple “no I didn’t”. Instead, Heard replies, “I disagree”. For her to “disagree” it means she must find the scenario at least possible for her to disagree with it rather than deny it.
So, is deception taking place in this answer? It could be. Her second sentence, “that’s not what I’m talking about”, is in the present tense although the video she’s talking about is 6 years in the past. “That wasn’t what I was talking about” would be correct.
Or, maybe she’s using present tense because she’s just watched the video at the current time. Entirely possible. However, we would expect her answer to be slightly different, “That’s not what I’m talking about THERE”.
RELATED
Next question
Vasquez
TMZ is the same outlet that you released the video of Mr. Depp attacking the kitchen cabinets the day before this deposition was taken. Wasn't it?
Heard
I didn't do that. I don't know how to do that
If Amber had finished at “I didn’t do that” I’d have nothing else to add here and conclude this is truthful. Why did she feel the need to tell us, “I don’t know how to do that”?
People being deceitful often feel the need to add words in to “strengthen” their deceit. They don’t feel the words they’ve used are strong enough on their own, so they seek to bolster what they are saying with words that are not needed to get to the truth.
On a logical perspective, ask any of your friends or family if they think they’d know how to leak a video to a website. Most people would have some thoughts or ideas, so it’s strange that a member of the Hollywood world has no idea.
Next question
Vasquez
TMZ owns the copyright to that video now, doesn't it?
Heard
I have no idea what TMZ owns
The answer here doesn’t directly address the question. The only answers that do are “yes”, “no” and “I don’t know”. Instead of choosing one of those very simple and unqualified answers, Heard opts to tell us that she doesn’t know what TMZ owns in general terms, she doesn’t even mention copyright or videos.
“No idea” is often used in deception. Forget copyright of videos, what do you think a large website like TMZ owns? I’d bet you have some answers to that question. Maybe computers, buildings, keyboards, or pictures. If you had an answer to that question, then you have some idea of what TMZ owns. Most people will. That’s why “no idea” is regularly used in deception. Generally, about most things, we have some ideas. Those ideas may be dumb, stupid, wrong, or strange. But they are ideas, not “no ideas”.
Next question:
Vasquez
Did they pay you for that?
Heard
I never got paid for it because I had nothing to do with that.
As a side point, the first question asked in this section was 29 words long. Vasquez’s questions have been getting shorter, this is six words long. This ramps up the pressure and gives Heard less time to think. Hence, we’ll see Heard stutter more and become less direct as we go on.
Amber’s answer here is OK, especially as it’s a trap question. If she says “no” it can be claimed that she gave it for free. If she says “yes” then … well.. game over.
But the order is interesting. I’d expect the most important thing to come first “I did not give them the video” and the less important thing second “so there was nothing to be paid for”. That doesn’t mean she’s being deceptive, it’s a data point at this stage.
“I had nothing to do with that”, is a distant denial. She could have said something more solid like “It wasn’t me who leaked that tape”. The distant language she chose to use would reflect the situation that someone on her team passed the tape to TMZ, with Amber carefully distant from this action.
Next question
Vasquez
So TMZ was just lucky in getting the inside scoop to your divorce from Mr. Depp, huh?
Heard
I have no idea. It is not… That's not my area of exper… expertise. I wouldn't even know how to do that.
And also, what does that get me? If I wanted to leak things about Johnny, I could have done that in a much more successful way in a bigger way. For years..
Vasquez is almost mocking Amber now. In return, Amber starts to stutter and restart her sentences. The stuttering is an indication of stress, giving evidence in court is stressful. So is being deceptive, or talking about something you don’t want to talk about.
The restarts show she is picking her words carefully, but her mouth is working faster than her mind. That isn’t a sly way of saying Heard is stupid, it happens to all of us. Our brain signals to our mouths to say the next set of words, then thinks there are better words to say and sends the emergency stop signal so that we can start again.
This answer doesn’t address the question. It contains “no idea” again. Amber surely knows at least some people to whom she sent the video. One of them could have leaked it. Even if she doesn’t know who, or can’t think who would do that to her, she has some idea, not no idea.
Again, she tells us she doesn’t know how to leak a video. It feels like her head is still flustered around the stutters, so she has gone back to use a phrase she felt worked well before.
And then she really ruins it. To ease the stress, Amber tries to take control of the conversation, to move away from the topic that is causing her stress and onto ground where she feels she is safer. She makes a huge mistake here.
In the first part of the answer, she says she doesn’t know how to leak to the press. Then she says if she wanted to leak things, she’d be very successful at it. Well, to know you’d be successful at something, you have to know how to do it. Otherwise, you’ve no idea if you’d have any kind of success.
Imagine someone said, “I don’t know how to play chess. But if I played chess, I’d certainly be a world champion” with a straight face. That what happens here.
Finally, it’s worth noting that Amber is the only person in this exchange that uses the word “leak” around giving the video to TMZ. Vasquez has only said it was “released”.
Next question
Vasquez
Not when you were extorting him for $7 million.
Heard:
I got a fraction of what I was entitled to in the state of California by the way
This answer is a good example of how rattled Heard is by this line of questioning. Camille Vasquez has just accused her, in front of the court and millions of TV viewers, of extorting money.
Amber is so desperate to move onto areas where she feels she has the higher ground, that she fails to respond to the accusation, she lets it go by and gives an unrelated “fact”.
I’m not going to score this though as Heard wasn’t asked a direct question here
Conclusion
There are numerous indicators of deception here. Every single question in this sequence could have been answered more robustly and without the distractions that Heard brings in.
From the distant language used in places, I conclude that Heard knows, or has a very good idea, of who leaked the tape to TMZ.
No further questions
Amber Heard’s reputation may be lower after her star turn in court, but we can make positive things out of it. Watch the video again, read the analysis again, and you’ll be much more clued-up as to when the answers to questions you ask are truthful or hiding something.
More on how to spot deception