A Body Language Expert Tells Us Who JoJo Should Pick On The Bachelorette

The Bachelorette finale doesn’t air until August 1, and that means we won’t know until then for sure who gets that final rose from JoJo. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t obsessively speculate about whether it will go to Jordan, the favorite from the first episode, or Robby, a self-proclaimed “frontrunner.” That said, we decided to do a little homework and back up our observations with science. We asked a real-life body language and lie detection expert to break down those fantasy suite dates between JoJo and the final two. Blanca Cobb has some serious credentials including a BA and MS in Psychology. She has trained with some of the top deception detection and linguistic statement analysis experts in the world. She’s no “mind reader” (her word), but she does have a keen awareness of clues to look for related to things like authenticity and truthfulness. Cobb watched video clips of JoJo first with Robby and then with Jordan. She did an analysis of both body language and verbal statement clues. She then made notes when what people said matched up with what their body language was saying and, more interestingly, when it didn’t match up. “People’s words will betray them,” she says, quoting Mark McClish, a statement analysis expert for the U.S. Marshals with whom Cobb has trained. Watching not just how JoJo and her men interact but paying close attention to the words they are using might just help us get a clue as to who she will eventually pick.

Robby was the first to tell JoJo “I love you” way back in Uruguay. He hasn’t stopped saying it since. He told her that after the hometown visits, his family remarked that they could just “see” that he was in love with her. So does his body language during the overnights in Thailand match up? According to Cobb, it does. When watching the video, something that Cobb noticed about Robby was that every time he said “I love you,” he followed it up with an intimate gesture. In one instance, before he moves in for the kiss there is “intimate face-to-face touching.” She explains that contact like that is what you do when you love somebody, especially at the beginning stages of a relationship. “You expect to see a lot of intimacy,” Cobb says. “That, to me, is congruent with what he is saying. Not only is he saying the words he follows it up with what he does.” Other examples are when Robby rushes to hug Jojo on the balcony. He picks her up high. They engage in a full body, torso to torso hug. “That’s what you want to see. When couples love each other, and you’re really into each other and really connected to that person, and you’re intimate, then you’re going to be torso to torso, chest to chest, hip to hip in an embrace,” Cobb says. She also points out that Robby is very specific about how JoJo makes him feel. He has a level of specificity that she did not see when she watched Jordan.

Speaking of Jordan, Cobb had a very different take on the former NFL Quarterback. Unlike Robby, who consistently makes eye contact with JoJo during their date, Jordan not so much. Cobb found several instances of inconsistencies between what Jordan was saying out loud and what his body language was saying for him. For example, Jordan tells JoJo that he loves her, but then he immediately shakes his head ‘no.’ This is a massive red flag for Cobb. “Right out of the gate there is a conflict. There is an incongruency,” she says. Cobb did a statement analysis on Jordan and in one exchange she observed that he said to JoJo, “In the past month, ever since I told you I was in love with you, I think about that wedding day.” Cobb says his use of “that wedding day” instead of the closer, more personal “our wedding day” is telling. Jordan continued: “When I think about getting on a knee…” After that statement, he shrugs his shoulders. “When you have a shoulder shrug, that’s means you are uncertain,” Cobb says. He also tightens his lips, which is a big deal she explained. Between the language and the little gestures, Cobb draws a conclusion. “He’s giving her a bunch of hooey. That’s my opinion,” she says, with a laugh. “There was nothing in that clip that makes me think that’s he’s that into her.”

So what did Cobb see when she turned her learned gaze towards the Bachelorette herself? What did she see when she watched JoJo? With Robby, Cobb says her reactions show that JoJo appreciates the love from Robby, but she comes off a little unsure. Cobb sees a lot of congruency between what JoJo says and what she does. When JoJo says that how she feels about Robby is “such a great feeling,” she follows it up with a confirmation head nod. She’s basically nodding her head "yes," then she looks down. “People will do that to stop emotion. It’s not that she’s embarrassed of it, sometimes you just don’t want to cry in front of people.” With Jordan, JoJo keeps reaching out to Jordan and making contact with him, though, there isn’t the same type of response that came from Robby. When they hug, JoJo grabs onto his arm, but Cobb suggests that we should notice the actual physical distance between them. JoJo says, “We have that passion and chemistry, and I feel so happy.” Cobb isn’t buying it. “I don’t believe this statement. I didn’t see evidence of this in the clip that I analyzed.” So where does that leave us? Many people have speculated that JoJo picks Jordan next week. His brother Luke might have even given that away last week. Given Cobb’s analysis, that might not be the best move, if JoJo is, as they say, is here for the right reasons. “Based on what I’ve seen, Robby is definitely more into her than Jordan. Hands down.” All will be revealed on Monday. In the meantime, go crazy looking for clues like shoulder shrugs, head nods, and eye contact. You can find out more about Blanca Cobb and the fascinating work she does on her website.