When you know you are right…

Last night my wife and I were watching an old episode of Cash Cab that we had recorded on Tivo. We’ve been fans of the show for a long time, so we’ve seen most of the episodes. But, we were happy to find an episode had been recorded that we hadn’t seen yet. Off we go for our virtual ride-along in the Cash Cab…

A group of 3 people get in to the cab. It appears to be a husband/wife team with a friend tagging along. The friend got in first and sat in the back. The wife got in next and sat behind the driver’s seat. The husband gets in last and takes the Hot Seat. This is the seat who must say the official answer to each question. The host, Ben Bailey, does the intro, asks if they want to play, they agree and away they go. First round, easy questions. Ben asks the first easy question. All 3 of the passengers agreed on the simple answer and as the player gave his answer, he nodded his head emphatically several times. Ben confirmed that the answer was correct and they were up $25 bucks. Question 2, another easy one. The team agreed again on the simple answer and as the player gave his answer, he again nodded his head. They, again, got the answer correct.

At this point, I started mimicking his head nodding as we played along from home. We laughed each time it happened.

Several questions went by with the same head nodding occurring as another correct answer was given. But then something interesting happened. A question was asked and instead of the 3 people in the cab immediately agreeing on the correct answer, this time they were unsure. Rather than use a shout-out for help, they decided on an answer. The player in the hot seat give the answer. STRIKE ONE! The answer was incorrect. We backed up Tivo to make sure we just saw what we thought we saw. Sure enough,instead of nodding his head in agreement as he answered, he was shaking his head from side to side. He knew the answer was wrong and gave it anyway.

A few more questions followed and they were all answered correctly with more emphatic nodding to go along. By this time I’m fascinated with how it was playing out. Then, something happened. A question was asked and the players were unsure of the answer. With time running out the player gave an answer that he thought might be correct, but he wasn’t sure. As he gave the answer, his head was still. No head nodding or shaking. This time he simply had no idea if he was right or wrong.

They got the question correct and answered a couple more with head-nodding accuracy until they reached their destination. They risked it all on the double-or-nothing video bonus question and they all nodded along as they gave the answer that they were 100% sure was correct. They exited the cab after winning $1,600.

It makes me wonder what sort of additional information we give off with our body language as we talk to people in our day-to-day lives. I’m sure there are deep-rooted psychological explanations for how this guy was answering the questions and nodding when correct, shaking when incorrect and sitting still when unsure. But, they are all way over my head. But, for me it lead to one of the most interesting rides in the Cash Cab that I’ve seen in quite some time.