When a queen speaks to her nation

Compared videotapes of the 1983, 1984, and 1985 annual speeches of the Dutch Queen to determine how much stress the Queen experienced during the 1985 speech. A discrepancy between the opinions of the government and those of the Queen could evoke tension that would be expressed in the nonverbal behavior of the Queen during the presentation. It was expected that in 1985 such a discrepancy would occur. Differences in speech disturbances, object manipulation, and looking up were observed; however, the expected pitch differences were not found. Results add to the validity of nonverbal behaviors as indices of tension and demonstrate that nonverbal analysis could be applied to real world events that were formalized and ritualized.