Author: Chris

*No Photo, Body size reduction, Defensive body language, Emotional body language, Escape movements, Frustration or frustrated body language, Protective reflexes, Submissive body language

Body Language of The Bow and Body Bend

by Chris • October 18, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of The Bow and Body Bend

Cue Bow and Body Bend

Synonym(s): Kowtow (Chinese), b) Standing Fetal Position (when due to pain), Prostration.

Description: a) The bow is a gesture done by bending at the waist toward the ground. b) A standing fetal position where the body bends at the waist.

In One Sentence: Bowing is a form of appeasement and also submission which is used to show respect.

How To Use it: Use the bow to show others respect or admiration. This can be done by titling the head down slightly which comes across as shame, or by lowering the eyes. When both cues are done simultaneously, this signals a desire to placate a higher authority. Lowering the body by bending at the waist can also be used to show that one is not in full spirits. This is read as cowering. When done in the face of authority, this may produce feelings of sympathy rather than aggression. In turn, they may offer care and assistance to try to ‘lift your spirits.’

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: a) “I respect you enough to trust you won’t hit me on the top of my head while I lower my eyes toward the ground.” b) “I’ve been emotionally hurt (in the guts) and feel like I need to crouch over in pain.”

Variant: See Crouching.

Cue In Action: a) When addressing the King, Sir Charles bent at the waist and bowed to show his admiration. b) After missing a crucial putt, Tiger bend over in emotional agony.

Meaning and/or Motivation: a) It is a form of supplication as it lowers the body. It is usually done in front of an audience or high ranking official as a way to accept their gratitude or adulation. The body bend shows others that they respect the authority figure and that they are ready to submit to them and their will.

b) A standing fetal position meant is meant to protect or comfort during emotional stress. The body takes on a smaller position and hunches up in exasperation. When the body bends in this way, it’s trying to appear submissive and create a smaller target preventing a more dominant individual from attacking. We see this type of posture when people are hurt emotionally and it is especially prominent while in a seated position. The body will lean to the side and the arms will fold over the stomach as if the guts were cramped up in pain.

Cue Cluster: b) Normally accompanied by hands coming up to the head and clasping or sometimes cut short as if swatting the air away in disgust.

Body Language Category: Body size reduction, Defensive, Escape movements, Frustration or frustrated body language, Protective reflexes, Emotional body language, Submissive body language.

Resources:

Adams, E.S., Mesterton-Gibbons, M., 1995. The cost of threat displays and the stability of deceptive communication. J. Theor. Biol. 175, 405–421.

Bohns, Vanessa K. and Scott S. Wiltermuth. It Hurts When I Do This (Or You Do That): Posture And Pain tolerance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2012. 48: 341-345.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/dominant-and-submissive-postures-affects-more-than-public-perception-it-also-affects-felt-pain-and-physical-strength/

Bartholomewn, Morgan E.; Sheri L. Johnson. Nonverbal Dominance Behavior Among Individuals at Risk for Mania. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2014. 159: 133-138.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/failure-to-use-submissive-body-language-linked-to-bipolar-and-mania-study/

Blidstein, Gerald J. The Nonverbal Language of Prayer (review).Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 2007 25(2): 195-196.

Boyson, A. R., Pryor, B., & Butler, J. (1999). Height as power in women. North American Journal of Psychology, 1, 109–114.

Burgoon, J. K., & Hoobler, G. (2002). Nonverbal signals. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (3rd ed., pp. 240–299). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Burgoon, J. K., Johnson, M. L., & Koch, P. T. (1998). The nature and measurement of interpersonal dominance. Communication Monographs, 65, 308–335.

Carney, D. R., Hall, J. A., & LeBeau, L. S. (2005). Beliefs about the nonverbal expression of social power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 29, 105–123.

Cashdan, Elizabeth. Smiles, Speech, and Body Posture: How Women and Men Display Sociometric Status and Power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1998. 22(4): 209-228.

Cunha, U. ; Leduc, M. ; Nayak, U.S.L. ; Isaacs, B.. Why do old people stoop?
Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. 1987 6(4): 363-369.

Dunn, Cynthia Dickel. Speaking politely, kindly, and beautifully: ideologies of politeness in Japanese business etiquette training. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. 2013. 32(2): 225(21).

Ellis, L. (1994). The high and the mighty among man and beast: How universal is the relationship between height (or body size) and social status? In L. Ellis (Ed.). Social stratification and socioeconomic inequality (Vol. 2, pp. 93–111). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Ginsburg, Harvey J. ; Pollman, Vicki A. ; Wauson, Mitzi S. Odom, Richard D. (editor). An ethological analysis of nonverbal inhibitors of aggressive behavior in male elementary school children. Developmental Psychology. 1977 13(4): 417-418.

Kimbrell, G. Relationship of the upright agonistic posture in the foot shock situation to dominance-submission in male C57BL/6 mice. Psychonomic Science. 1969. 16(3): 167-168.

Katza, Carmit; Irit Hershkowitz; Lindsay C. Malloya; Michael E. Lamba; Armita Atabakia and Sabine Spindlera. Non-Verbal Behavior of Children Who Disclose or do not Disclose Child Abuse in Investigative Interviews. Child Abuse & Neglect. 2012. 36: 12-20.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/reading-nonverbal-behaviour-child-abuse-cases-encourage-children-divulge-information-truth-telling

Li Huang, Adam D. Galinsky, Deborah H Gruenfeld and Lucia E. Guillory. Powerful Postures Versus Powerful Roles: Which Is the Proximate Correlate of Thought and Behavior? 2011, Psychological Science; 22(1): 95–102.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/whats-more-powerful-nonverbal-power-or-real-power/

Mehrabian, Albert Holzberg, Jules D. (editor). Inference of Attitudes From the Posture, Orientation and Distance of a Communicator. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1968. 32(3): 296-308.

Mehrabian, Albert Deese, James (editor). Significance of posture and position in the communication of attitude and status relationships. Psychological Bulletin. 1969. 71(5): 359-372.

Matsumoto, D., & Willingham, B. (2006). The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat: Spontaneous expressions of medal winners of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(3), 568–581.

Mouterde, S. C., Duganzich, D. M., Molles, L. E., Helps, S., Helps, R., & Waas, J. R. (2012). Triumph displays inform eavesdropping little blue penguins of new dominance asymmetries. Animal Behaviour, 83, 605–611.

Malatynska, E.,Knapp,R.J.,2005.Dominant-Submissive Behavior as Models of Mania and Depression. NeuroScience and.Biobehavior .Rev.29(4–5): 715–737, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.03.014.

Meier, B. P., Hauser, D. J., Robinson, M. D., Friesen, C. K., & Schjeldahl, K. (2007b). What’s ‘up’ with God?: Vertical space as a representation of the divine. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 699–710.

Meier, B. P., & Robinson, M. D. (2004). Why the sunny side is up: Associations between affect and vertical position. Psychological Science, 15, 243–247.

Meier, B. P., & Robinson, M. D. (2005). The metaphorical representation of affect. Metaphor and Symbol, 21, 239–257.

Meier, B.P., Robinson, M.D., & Caven, A.J. (in press). Why a big mac is a good mac: Associations between affect and size. Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

Melamed, T. (1992). Personality correlates of physical height. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 1349–1350.

Middleton, W. C., &Moffett, D. C. (1940). The relation of height and weight measurements to intelligence and to dominance-submission among a group of college freshmen. Research Quarterly of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 11, 53–59.

Montepare, J. M. (1995). The impact of variations in height on young children’s impressions of men and women. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 19, 31–47.

Matsumura, Shuichi ; Hayden, Thomas J. When should signals of submission be given?–A game theory model. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 2006. 240(3): 425-433.

Morris, Desmond (1994). Bodytalk: The Meaning of Human Gestures (New York: Crown Publishers).

Prieto, A. G., & Robbins, M. C. (1975). Perceptions of height and self-esteem. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 40, 395–398.

Park, Lora E.; Lindsey Streamer; Li Huang and Adam D. Galinsky. Stand Tall, But Don’t Put Your Feet Up: Universal and Culturally-Specific Effects of Expansive Postures On Power. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2013; 49: 965–971.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/are-expansive-postures-of-power-universal-or-cultural/

Pitterman, Hallee ; Nowicki Jr, Stephen. A Test of the Ability to Identify Emotion in Human Standing and Sitting Postures: The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-2 Posture Test (DANVA2-POS). Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs. 2004. 130(2): 146-162.

Richards, Lynne ; Mcalister, Laurie. Female Submissiveness, Nonverbal Behavior, and Body Boundary Definition. The Journal of Psychology. 1994 128(4): 419-424.

Riskind, John H. Manis, Melvin (editor). They stoop to conquer: Guiding and self-regulatory functions of physical posture after success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1984 47(3): 479-493.

Rule, Nicholas, O.; Reginald B. Adams Jr.; Nalini Ambady and Jonathan B. Freeman. Perceptions Of Dominance Following Glimpses Of Faces And Bodies. Perception. 2012; 41: 687-706 doi:10.1068/p7023
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/people-can-read-dominance-split-second

Robinson, Michael D. ; Zabelina, Darya L. ; Ode, Scott ; Moeller, Sara K. The vertical nature of dominance-submission: Individual differences in vertical attention. Journal of Research in Personality. 2008. 42(4): 933-948.

Schubert, T. W. (2005). Your highness: Vertical positions as perceptual symbols of power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 1–21.

Schwartz, B., Tesser, A., & Powell, E. (1982). Dominance cues in nonverbal behavior. Social Psychology Quarterly, 45, 114–120.

Stepper, S., & Strack, F. (1993). Proprioceptive determinants of emotional and nonemotional feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 211–220.

Scarpa, Stephano; Alessandra Nart; Erica Gobbi and Atillo Carraro. Does Women’s Attitudinal State Body Image Improve After One Session Of Posture Correction Exercises? Social Behavior and Personality. 2011; 39(8): 1045-1052.

Sturman, Edward D. Involuntary Subordination and Its Relation to Personality, Mood,
and Submissive Behavior. Psychological Assessment. 2011. 23(1): 262-276 DOI: 10.1037/a0021499
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbal-submission-men-women-depression-critical-examination-use-disuse-submission/

Schenkel, Rudolf. Submission: Its Features and Function in the Wolf and Dog. American Zoologist. 1967. 7(2): 319-329.

Tracy, J. L., & Matsumoto, D. (2008). The spontaneous expression of pride and shame: Evidence for biologically innate nonverbal displays. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 105(33), 11655–11660.

Tracy, J. L., & Robins, R. W. (2007). The prototypical pride expression: Development of a nonverbal behavior coding system. Emotion, 7(4), 789–801.

Tiedens, Larissa Z ; Fragale, Alison R. Power moves: complementarity in dominant and submissive nonverbal behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology. 2003. 84(3): 558-68.

Tracy, J. L., & Robins, R. W. (2004). Show your pride: Evidence for a discrete emotion expression. Psychological Science, 15, 194–197.

Weisfeld, Glenn E. and Jody M. Beresford. Erectness of Posture as an Indicator of Dominance or Success in Humans. Motivation and Emotion. 1982. 6(2): 113-130.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-language-cues-dominance-submission-children/

Walsh, Joseph ; Eccleston, Christopher ; Keogh, Edmund. Pain communication through body posture: The development and validation of a stimulus set. Pain. 2014. 155(11): 2282-2290.

Welker, Keith M. ; Oberleitner, David E. ; Cain, Samantha ; Carré, Justin M. Upright and left out: Posture moderates the effects of social exclusion on mood and threats to basic needs. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2013 43(5): 355-361.

Courtship display, Enthusiasm (nonverbal), Indicator Of Sexual Interest (IOsI), Ownership gesture, Power play, Space invasion, Threat displays

Body Language of Bottom Slapping or Bottom Pinching

by Chris • October 18, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Bottom Slapping or Bottom Pinching

Cue: Bottom Pinching

Synonym(s): Ass Slap, Bum Slap, Bum Pinch, Buttock Clasping

Description: A quick tap on the rear end of another person.

In One Sentence: The bottom slap is a cheeky way to show sexual intimacy or camaraderie.

How To Use it: Use the bottom slap to show your wife that you find her attractive. Women can also use the bottom slap on men they find sexually interesting. The bottom slap is also effective to build trust and companionship between men and women. Therefore, it is useful in a sporting context to build team spirit and create bonds.

Slapping someone on the bum when it is unwelcome can serve to make them uncomfortable and is therefore a power play and an assertion of dominance. This is ill advised as it can result in charges of sexual harassment.

Context: a) Dating b) General.

Verbal Translation: a) “I find you sexually attractive and am paying you an overt compliment.” a) “I own that ass and I’m touching it because I can and you are subordinate to me so you can’t object.” b) “Nice goal you scored there, now we can bond over it with an ass slap in celebration, way to go.”

Variant: Buttock clasping is a sexual display of affection usually done during copulation or while dancing. It is a firm grasping of the rear end. The rear end can be pinched rather than slapped which is universally sexual in nature.

The pinch takes on three forms and has been an Italian “pastime:” the pizzicato which is a quick tweak with the thumb and middle finger, the vivace which is more vigorous and uses several fingers and done more than once and the sostenuto which is prolonged and heavy handed with a rotation.

Cue In Action: a) A man slapped the waitress on the bum as she walked by – it was unwelcomed and was met with an ice cold glare. a) As her husband walked by without a towel after his shower his wife slapped him on the cheeks. b) After scoring a point in volleyball, the two female athletes slapped each other on the butts during a quick embrace.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Usually done by a man on a woman between husband and wife (or vice versa) or dating partners in sexually permissive cultures. At times done to strangers or between people not in a romantic relationship and therefore unwanted and considered sexual assault. It is often done between members of a sports team for bonding.

In a dating context, the bottom slap indicates ownership through touching and sends a sexual signal of interest. At times an ass slap can be seen as a threat display, aggressive in nature and even predatory if unwelcome such as between coworkers in a business setting.

In a sporting context, the bottom slap is to build team spirit and show solidarity and camaraderie. The intent of the bottom pinch or slap is not nearly as important as the feelings attached to it by the recipient and if unwelcome, is a signal of aggression and a threat display, but if welcomed, is a sign of affection and solidarity.

Cue Cluster: a) Usually combined with a cheeky or coy grin and lustful eye contact. When it is unwanted the smile might be more of a smirk with eyes cast toward the person in an objectifying fashion. b) During bonding in sports it is accompanied by other celebration such as arms up postures, excited facial expressions, and loud voices of celebration.

Body Language Category: Courtship display, Enthusiasm (nonverbal), Indicators of sexual interest (IOsI), Liking, Ownership gestures, Power play, Space invasion, Threat displays.

Resources:

Argo, J. J., Dahl, D. W., & Morales, A. C. (2006). Consumer contamination: How consumers react to products touched by others. Journal of Marketing, 70(April), 81–94.
Aranguren, Martin. “Nonverbal interaction patterns in the Delhi Metro: interrogative looks and play-faces in the management of interpersonal distance.” Interaction Studies. 2016. 16(1) forthcoming.

Aranguren, Martin and Stephane Tonnelat. Emotional Transactions in the Paris Subway: Combining Naturalistic Videotaping, Objective Facial Coding and Sequential Analysis in the Study of Nonverbal Emotional Behavior. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2014. 38:495–521. DOI 10.1007/s10919-014-0193-1
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/seriously-stop-touching-use-nonverbal-signaling-manage-unwanted-touching-busy-public

Bailenson, J.N. & Yee, N. (in press). Virtual interpersonal touch: Haptic interaction and copresence in collaborative virtual environments. International Journal of Multimedia Tools and Applications.

Bohm. 1997. Effects of interpersonal touch, degree of justification, and sex of participant on compliance with a request. The Journal of social psychology. 137: 460-469.

Curtis, Yvette ; Eddy, Lisabeth ; Ashdown, Brien K. ; Feder, Holly ; Lower, Timothy. Prelude to a coitus: Sexual initiation cues among heterosexual married couples. Sexual and Relationship Therapy. 2012. 27(4): 322-334.

Crusco, A. and C. Wetzel. 1984. The midas touch: the effects of interpersonal touch on restaurant tipping, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 10: 512–517.

Debrot, Anik ; Schoebi, Dominik ; Perrez, Meinrad ; Horn, Andrea B. Touch as an interpersonal emotion regulation process in couples’ daily lives: the mediating role of psychological intimacy. Personality & social psychology bulletin. 2013. 9(10): 1373-85.

Feldman, R., Singer, M.,& Zagoory, O. (2010). Touch attenuates infants’ physiological reactivity to stress. Developmental Science, 13(2), 271–278.

Fisher, J; Rytting, M and Heslin, R. 1976. Hands touching hands: affective and evaluative effects on interpersonal touch, Sociometry 39: 416–421.

Fromme, Donald ; Jaynes, William ; Taylor, Deborah ; Hanold, Elaine ; Daniell, Jennifer ; Rountree, J. ; Fromme, Marie. Nonverbal behavior and attitudes toward touch. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1989. 13(1): 3-14.

Greer, Arlettee. ; Buss, Davidm. Tactics for promoting sexual encounters. Journal of Sex Research. 1994. 31(3): 185-201.

Greenbaum, Paul ; Rosenfeld, Howard. Varieties of touching in greetings: Sequential structure and sex-related differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1980. 5(1): 13-25.

Gurevitch, Z. D. The Embrace: On the Element of Non-Distance in Human Relations. The Sociological Quarterly. 1990. 31(2): 187-201.

Guéguen, N. (2007). Courtship compliance: The effect of touch on women’s behavior. Social Influence, 2, 81-97.

Guéguen, Nicolas. Nonverbal encouragement of participation in a course: the effect of touching Social Psychology of Education. 2004. 7: 89–98.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/a-touching-way-to-encourage/

Guéguen, N and C. Jacob 2006, Touch and consumer behavior: A new experimental evidence in a field setting, International Journal of Management 23: 24–33.

Gueguen, N. (2001a). Toucher et soumission a` une requeˆte: Re´plications expe´rimentales en situation naturelle et e´valuation de l’impact du statut. Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale. 2001(a). 14(3):113-158.

Gue´guen, N. (2001b). L’effet d’influence du toucher sur le comportement du consommateur: 2 illustrations expe´rimentales en exte´rieur. Direction et Gestion: La Revue des Sciences de Gestion. 2001(b). 190–191, 123–132.

Gue´guen, N., & Jacob, C. The effect of touch on tipping: An evaluation in a French’s bar. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 2005. 24(2): 295-299.
Gueguen, Nicolas; Celine Jacob; Gaelle Boulbry. The Effect of Touch on Compliance With a Restaurant’s Employee Suggestion. Hospitality Management. 2007. 26: 1019-1023.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/touching-leads-compliance-study/

Gueguen, Nicolas; Sebastien Meineri and Virginie Charles-Sire. Improving Medication Adherence by Using Practitioner Nonverbal Techniques: A Field Experiment on the Effect of Touch. Journal of Behavioral Medice. 2010. 33:466–473
DOI 10.1007/s10865-010-9277-5
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/touching-boosts-compliance-improving-medical-compliance-using-nonverbal-communication/

Hertenstein, Matthew J; Keltner, Dacher; App, Betsy; Bulleit, Brittany A; Jaskolka, Ariane R 2006. Touch Communicates Distinct Emotions. Emotion. 6(3): 528-533

Hall, Jeffrey A. and Chong Xing. The Verbal and Nonverbal Correlates of the Five Flirting Styles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2015. 39:41–68. DOI 10.1007/s10919-014-0199-8
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/first-12-minutes-flirting-using-nonverbal-communication-study-reveals-26-body-language-cues-attraction/

Hosey, Geoffrey ; Thompson, Robin. Grooming and touching behaviour in captive ring-tailed lemurs ( Lemur catta L.). Primates. 1985. 26(1): 95-98.

Hadi, R., and Valenzuela, A., A meaningful embrace: Contingent effects of embodied cues of affection. Journal of Consumer Psychology. 2014. http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/whats-in-a-nonverbal-object-caress/

Jeffrey D. Fisher; Marvin Rytting; Richard Heslin. 1976. Hands Touching Hands: Affective and Evaluative Effects of an Interpersonal Touch. Sociometry, 39(4): 416-421.

Kaufman, D. and J. Mahoney. 1999 The effect of waitresses’ touch on alcohol consumption in dyads, The Journal of Social Psychology 139: 261–267.

Krishna, A., & Morrin, M. (2008). Does touch affect taste? The perceptual transfer of product container haptic cues. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(6), 807–818.

Kneidinger, L. M.; Maple, T. L.; Tross, S. A. 2001. Touching behavior in sport: functional components, analysis of sex differences, and ethological considerations. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 25(1): 43-62.

Kleinke, C. Compliance to Requests Made by Gazing and Touching Experimenters in Field Settings. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1977. 13: 218–223.

Lastovicka, J. L., & Sirianni, N. J. (2011). Truly, madly, deeply: Consumers in the throes of material possession love. Journal of Consumer Research, 38(2), 323–341.

Lynn et al., 1998 M. Lynn, J.M. Le and D. Sherwyn. 1998. Reach out and touch your customers, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quaterly 39: 60-65

Maclaren, Kym. Touching matters: Embodiments of intimacy. Emotion, Space and Society. 2014. 13: 95-102.

Moore, Monica. Courtship Signaling and Adolescents: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Journal of Sex Research. 1995. 32(4): 319-328.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/girls-just-want-to-have-fun-the-origins-of-courtship-cues-in-girls-and-women/

Nannberg, J., & Hansen, C. Post-compliance touch: An incentive for task performance. The Journal of Social Psychology. 1994.134, 301–307.

Peck, J., & Shu, S. B. (2009). The effect of mere touch on perceived ownership. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(Oct), 434–447.

Peck, J., & Wiggins, J. (2006). It just feels good: Consumers’ affective response to touch and its influence on persuasion. Journal of Marketing, 70(Oct), 56–69.

Remland, M. S. and T. S. Jones 1995. Interpersonal Distance, Body Orientation, and Touch: Effects of Culture, Gender, and Age. Journal of Social Psychology 135(3): 281-297.

R. Stephen and R. Zweigenhaft. 1986. The effect on tipping of a waitress touching male and female customers. The Journal of Social Psychology 126 pp. 141–142.

Rempel, J., Holmes, J., & Zanna, M. (1985). Trust in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 95–112.

Smith, D. E., Gier, J. A., & Willis, F. N. 1982. Interpersonal touch and compliance with a marketing request. Basic and Applied Social Psychology. 3: 35-38.

Thompson, Erin H. and James A. Hampton. The Effect of Relationship Status on Communicating Emotions Through Touch,. Cognition and Emotion. 2011. 25(2): 295-306. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2010.492957.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/using-touch-convey-emotion

Williams, L. E., Huang, J. Y., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). The scaffolded mind: Higher mental processes are grounded in early experience of the physical world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1257–1267.

Williams. 1993. Effects of Mutual Gaze and Touch on Attraction, Mood, and Cardiovascular Reactivity Source: Journal of Research in Personality. 27(2): 170-183.

Willis, F. N., & Hamm, H. K. 1980. The use of interpersonal touch in securing compliance. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 5: 49-55.

Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, High confidence hand displays, Leadership body language

The Hidden Meaning Behind The Bonaparte Posture

by Chris • October 18, 2014 • 0 Comments

The Hidden Meaning Behind The Bonaparte Posture

Cue: Bonaparte (the)

Synonym(s): Clasping Inside Of Jacket With Thumbs Up.

Description: A posture done by clasping the inside of the jacket edge with thumb up and placing the other hand in the pocket.

In One Sentence: Displaying the thumbs from the edges of the coat demonstrates high pride and confidence.

How To Use it: Use this posture to showcase your pride. It is effectively used when trying to show others that you are in control, dominant, but also superior. Therefore it must be used with caution or will appear as smug. The posture is well suited to business context or while debating since it dismisses your opponents arguments while simultaneously showing supreme confidence.

Context: Business or General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m here, proud and in charge.”

Variant: See Military Man or Regal Stance, Cowboy Pose Stance, Arms Akimbo, Arms Crossed With Thumbs Up, Thumb Hiding, Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture.

Cue In Action: The lawyer posed for his company photograph by flexing the thumbs out clasping the edge of his overly expensive suit.

Meaning and/or Motivation: It is a thumbs up or thumbing gesture as it exposes them for all to see. Exposing the thumbs is a sign that a person feels confident and lacks timidity. This is a cue usually done by men of status and authority. It was made popular by the French military and political leader Napolean Bonaparte.

Cue Cluster: Coupled with the Bonaparte posture is a proud disposition include head held high and back, chin out, relaxed swaying torso but with a rigid upright posture.

Body Language Category: Confident, Dominant body language, Authoritative body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, High confidence hand displays, Leadership body language.

Resources:

Andric, Michael ; Solodkin, Ana ; Buccino, Giovanni ; Goldin-Meadow, Susan ; Rizzolatti, Giacomo ; Small, Steven L. Brain function overlaps when people observe emblems, speech, and grasping. Neuropsychologia, 2013, Vol.51(8), pp.1619-1629

Allen, Jill; Sarah J. Gervais and Jessi L. Smith. Sit Big to Eat Big: The Interaction of Body Posture and Body Concern on Restrained Eating. Psychology of Women Quarterly 2013. 37(3): 325-336. DOI: 10.1177/0361684313476477pwq.sagepub.com
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/sit-big-to-eat-big-how-constrictive-postures-reduce-food-consumption/

Arnette, S. L., & Pettijohn, T. F., II. (2012). The effects of posture on self-perceived leadership. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3, 8–13.

Briñol, P., Petty, R. E., & Wagner, B. (2009). Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1053–1064.

Chandler, Jesse ; Schwarz, Norbert. How extending your middle finger affects your perception of others: Learned movements influence concept accessibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2009. 45(1): 123-128.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/how-extending-the-middle-finger-affects-perception/

Carney, Dana R.; Amy J.C. Cuddy; Andy J. Yap. Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance. Psychological Science, 2010; 21 (10): 1363-1368.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/benefits-power-posing-high-stakes-performance/

Cesario, J., & McDonald, M. M. (2013). Bodies in context: Power poses as a computation of action possibility. Social Cognition, 31, 260–274.

Cuddy, A. J. C., Wilmuth, C., Yap, A. J., & Carney, D. R. (in press). Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview performance. Journal of Applied Psychology.

Fabbri-Destro, M.,& Rizzolatti,G. (2008). Mirror neurons and mirror systems in monkeys and humans. Physiology, 23, 171–179.

Fogassi, L., Gallese,V., Fadiga,L., & Rizzolatti,G. (1998). Neurons responding to the sight of goal directed hand/armactions in the parietal area PF (7b) of the macaque monkey. Society for Neuroscience, 24, 257.5.

Fusaro, M., Harris, P. L., & Pan, B. A. (2012). Head nodding and head shaking gestures in children’s early communication. First Language, 32, 439–458. doi:10.1177/0142723711419326

Fischer, Julia; Peter Fischer; Birte Englich; Nilüfer Aydin and Dieter Frey. Empower My Decisions: The Effects of Power Gestures on Confirmatory Information Processing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2011. 47: 1146-1154.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/downside-power-posing-body-language-looking-power-posing-action-study/
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/benefits-power-posing-high-stakes-performance/

Huang, L., Galinsky, A. D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Guillory, L. E. (2011). Powerful postures versus powerful roles: Which is the proximate correlate of thought and behavior? Psychological Science, 22, 95–102.

Holle, H., & Gunter,T.C. (2007). The role of iconic gestures in speech disambiguation: ERP evidence. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 1175–1192.

Holler, J., Shovelton, H.,& Beattie, G.(2009).Do iconic hand gestures really contribute to the communication of semantic information in a face-to-face context? Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33, 73–88.

Hubbard, A.L., Wilson, S. M., Callan, D. E., & Dapretto, M.(2009).Giving speech a hand: Gesture modulates activity in auditory cortex during speech perception. Human Brain Mapping, 30, 1028–1037.

James, W. (1950). The Principles of Psychology. New York, NY: Dover. (Original work published 1890)

Kendon,A.(1994).Do gestures communicate? A review. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 27, 175–200.

Knutson, K.M., McClellan,E.M., & Grafman, J.(2008).Observing social gestures: An fMRI study. Experimental Brain Research, 188, 187–198.

Kelly, S. D., Barr, D. J., Church, R. B., & Lynch, K.(1999).Offering a hand topragmatic understanding: The role of speech and gesture in comprehension and memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 577–592.

Kelly, S. D., Creigh, P., & Bartolotti, J.(2009).Integrating speech and iconic gestures in a Stroop-like task: Evidence for automatic processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 683–694.

Kelly, S.D., Kravitz, C.,& Hopkins, M.(2004).Neural correlates of bimodal speech and gesture comprehension. Brain and Language, 89(1), 253–260.

Krahmer,E., & Swerts, M.(2007).The effects of visual beats on prosodic prominence: Acoustic analyses, auditory perception and visual perception. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 396–414.

Krauss, R. M., Dushay, R.A., Chen,Y., & Rauscher, F.(1995).The communicative value of conversational hand gesture. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31(6), 533–552.

Laird, J. D., & Lacasse, K. (2014). Bodily influences on emotional feelings: Accumulating evidence and extensions of William James’s theory of emotion. Emotion Review, 6, 27–34.

Lee, E. H., & Schnall, S. (2014). The influence of social power on weight perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1719–1725.

Lindenberg, R., Uhlig,M., Scherfeld,D., Schlaug,G., & Seitz, R.J.(2012).Commu- nication with emblematic gestures: Shared and distinct neural correlates of expression and reception. Human Brain Mapping, 33, 812–823.

Montgomery, K.J., Isenberg, N., & Haxby,J.V. (2007). Communicative hand gestures and object-directed hand movements activated the mirror neuron system. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2, 114–122.

Molnar-Szakacs, Istvan ; Wu, Allan D ; Robles, Francisco J ; Iacoboni, Marco Robertson, Edwin (Academic Editor). Do You See What I Mean? Corticospinal Excitability During Observation of Culture-Specific Gestures (Gesture Perception). PLoS ONE. 2007. 2(7): p.e626

Michalak, J., Mischnat, J., & Teismann, T. (2014). Sitting posture makes a difference: Embodiment effects on depressive memory bias. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 21, 519–524.

Minvaleev, R. S., Nozdrachev, A. D., Kir’yanova, V. V., & Ivanov, A. I. (2004). Postural influences on the hormone level in healthy subjects: I. The cobra posture and steroid hormones. Human Physiology, 30, 452–456.

Nair, S., Sagar, M., Sollers, J., III, Consedine, N., & Broadbent, E. (2014). Do slumped and upright postures affect stress responses? A randomized trial. Health Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/hea0000146

Ohgami, Y., Matsuo,K., Uchida,N., & Nakai,T. (2004). An fMRI study of tool-use gestures: Body partas object and pantomime. Neuroreport, 15, 1903–1906.

Pease, Barbara and Allan Pease. 2006. The Definitive Book of Body Language Hardcover. Bantam.

Ranehill, Eva; Anna Dreber; Magnus Johannesson; Susanne Leiberg; Sunhae Sul and Roberto A. Weber. Assessing the Robustness of Power Posing: No Effect on Hormones and Risk Tolerance in a Large Sample of Men and Women. Psychological Science, March, 2015. doi: 10.1177/0956797614553946 http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/power-posing-no-effect-hormones-amy-cuddy-wrong/

Riskind, J. H. (1984). They stoop to conquer: Guiding and selfregulatory functions of physical posture after success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 479–493.

Riskind, J. H., & Gotay, C. C. (1982). Physical posture: Could it have regulatory or feedback effects on motivation and emotion? Motivation and Emotion, 6, 273–298.

Stepper, S., & Strack, F. (1993). Proprioceptive determinants of emotional and nonemotional feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 211–220.

Strelan, P., Weick, M., & Vasiljevic, M. (2013). Power and revenge. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 521–540.

Skipper, J.I., Goldin-Meadow, S., Nusbaum,H.C.,& Small,S.L. (2007).Speech- associated gestures, Broca’s area, and the human mirror system. Brain and Language, 101, 260–277.

Sherzer, Joel The Brazilian Thumbs-Up Gesture. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 1991, Vol.1(2), pp.189-197

Straube,B., Green,A., Bromberger,B., & Kircher, T. (2011).The differentiation of iconic and metaphoric gestures: Common and unique integration processes. Human Brain Mapping, 32, 520–533.

Straube, Benjamin ; Green, Antonia ; Jansen, Andreas ; Chatterjee, Anjan ; Kircher, Tilo. Social cues, mentalizing and the neural processing of speech accompanied by gestures. Neuropsychologia. 2010. 48(2): 382-393.

Tiedens, L. Z., & Fragale, A. R. (2003). Power moves: Complementarity in dominant and submissive nonverbal behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 558–568.

Willems, R.M., Ozyurek,A., & Hagoort,P.(2007).When language meets action:The neural integration of gesture and speech. CerebralCortex, 17, 2322–2333.

Wieser, Matthias J.; Tobias Flaisch and Paul Pauli. Raised Middle-Finger: Electrocortical Correlates of Social Conditioning with Nonverbal Affective Gestures. 2014. PLoS ONE 9(7): e102937. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102937
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/powerful-nonverbal-effect-raised-middle-finger-persistent-brain-consequences-pairing/

Wu, Y. C., & Coulson, S.(2005).Meaningful gestures: Electrophysiological indices of iconic gesture comprehension. Psychophysiology, 42, 654–667.

Welker, K. M., Oberleitner, D. E., Cain, S., & Carré, J. M. (2013). Upright and left out: Posture moderates the effects of social exclusion on mood and threats to basic needs. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 355–361.

Yap, Andy J. Abbie S. Wazlawek, Brian J. Lucas, Amy J. C. Cuddy, Dana R. Carney. The Ergonomics of Dishonesty: The Effect of Incidental Posture on Stealing, Cheating, and Traffic Violations, 24(11); 2281-2289.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-posture-physical-environment-determine-feelings-and-behaviour-study/

Xu,J., Gannon,P.J., Emmorey,K., Smith,J.F., & Braun,A.(2009). Symbolic gestures and spoken language are processed by a common neural system. Proceedings of the NationalAcademyofSciences, 106, 20664–20669.

Authoritative body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, Gravity defying body language, High confidence body language, Indicator Of Sexual Interest (IOsI), Leadership body language, Open body language, Power play, Threat displays

The Body Language of Body Raising or Body Elevating

by Chris • October 18, 2014 • 0 Comments

The Body Language of Body Raising or Body Elevating

Cue: Body Raising

Synonym(s): Body Elevating, Raising The Body, Standing Tall, Erect Body Posture.

Description: Any action that raises the body in relation to others.

In One Sentence: Body raising is a way to appear more dominant and authoritative.

How To Use it: Use body raising when you want to show that you are in command of a situation. A stage is a good example of the power of raising the body. Make-shift stages in life include the front stoop of a house. To intimidate solicitors simple take on a higher body position by raising one step higher. When friends appear at your front stoop, you may wish to “level the playing field” by taking on the same step height. When gaining a height advantage is not as easily manipulated (you are short, they are tall) taking on a seated position will help create a more even level. Likewise, standing over taller people as they sit has the same effect. Whatever the case, use height to create the illusion of dominance.

Context: a) General b) Dating, c) Business

Verbal Translation: a) c) “I’m raising my body in effort to be viewed as a threat and source of authority so you listen and obey me.” b) “I’m raising my body so you see me as more attractive.”

Variant: Variants include an increase in relative height by overall body and posture, the head raised high for example, standing up from a seated position, or forcing other people to sit. See Body Lowering for opposite cue.

Cue In Action: a) Instead of asking his suspect to get out of the car, the officer, kept him in the car and peered down at him from his standing position to maintain his position of authority. b) Because he was short, he would always be sure to approach women seated rather than standing to appear more dominant.

Meaning and/or Motivation: A technique whereby a person takes a higher position relative to another to show that they wish to dominate. Status and dominance are closely related to the relative height of a person. This is why people are naturally seen as leaders when they are taller rather than when they are shorter.

Height can be artificially raised with high heels or special footwear for men, by using situation specific features such as staircases, using chairs which are taller or elevated platforms. We habitually see judges high on their bench so as to command authority over their court.

Cue Cluster: Body raising is usually associated with other dominant cues such as head held high, an upright posture, expansive movements of the arms and legs such as arms akimbo, genital framing in the cowboy pose, strong eye contact, leaning in so as to intimidate and so forth.

Body Language Category: High confidence body language, Threat displays, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, Gravity defying body language, Indicators of sexual interest (IOsI), Leadership body language, Open body language, Power play, Authoritative body language.

Resources:

Aviezer, Hillel; Ran R. Hassin; Jennifer Ryan; Cheryl Grady; Josh Susskind; Adam Anderson; Morris Moscovitch and Shlomo Bentin. Angry, Disgusted, or Afraid? Studies on the Malleability of Emotion Perception. Psychological Science. 2008. 19(7): 724-732.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/emotions-read-context-study/

Aggarwal, Pankaj and Min Zhao. Seeing the Big Picture: The Effect of Height on the Level of Construal. Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming; 2014
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/height-embodies-thinking-height-marketing/

Adams, E.S., Mesterton-Gibbons, M., 1995. The cost of threat displays and the stability of deceptive communication. J. Theor. Biol. 175, 405–421.

Boyson, A. R., Pryor, B., & Butler, J. (1999). Height as power in women. North American Journal of Psychology, 1, 109–114.

Burgoon, J. K., & Hoobler, G. (2002). Nonverbal signals. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (3rd ed., pp. 240–299). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Burgoon, J. K., Johnson, M. L., & Koch, P. T. (1998). The nature and measurement of interpersonal dominance. Communication Monographs, 65, 308–335.

Brin, Pablo and Oli Richard. Body Posture Effects On Self-Evaluation: A self-Validation Approach. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009; 39: 1053–1064.

Carney, D. R., Hall, J. A., & LeBeau, L. S. (2005). Beliefs about the nonverbal expression of social power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 29, 105–123.

Eddie Harmon-Jones and Carly K. Peterson. Supine Body Position Reduces Neural Response to Anger. Association for Psychological Science. 2009; 20 (10): 1209-1210.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/supine-body-posture-reduces-aggression/

Flack, William F., Jr. Peripheral Feedback Effects of Facial Expressions, Bodily Postures, and Vocal Expressions on Emotional Feelings. Cognition and Emotion. 2006. 20 (2), 177-195. DOI:10.1080/02699930500359617
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-and-facial-expressions-influence-mood/

Guéguen, Nicholas. High Heels Increase Women’s Attractiveness. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2014. DOI 10.1007/s10508-014-0422-z
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/high-heels-exact-power-men-study-women-wear-heels/

Girard, Jeffrey M.; Jeffrey F. Cohna; Mohammad H.Mahoor S.; Mohammad Mavadati;
Zakia Hammal; and Dean P. Rosenwalda. Nonverbal Social Withdrawal In Depression: Evidence From Manual And Automatic Analyses. Image and Vision Computing. 2013.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-language-signals-withdrawal-depression

Hensley W.E. 1994. Height as a basis for interpersonal attraction. Adolescence 29: 469-
474.

Kurtz, D.L. 1969. Physical appearance and stature: important variables in sales recruiting Personnel Journal December: 981-983.

Kimbrell, G. Relationship of the upright agonistic posture in the foot shock situation to dominance-submission in male C57BL/6 mice. Psychonomic Science. 1969. 16(3): 167-168.

Michalak, J., Rohde, K., Troje, N. F. How We Walk Affects What We Remember: Gait Modifications Through Biofeedback Change Negative Affective Memory Bias. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 2015. 46:121-125.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/walking-happy-leads-actual-happiness-game-emotions-body-language/

Marsh, Abigail A; Henry H. Yu; Julia C. Schechter and R. J. R. Blair. Larger than Life: Humans’ Nonverbal Status Cues Alter Perceived Size. PLoS ONE. 2009. 4(5): e5707. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005707.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/large-life-nonverbal-dominance-affects-perception-size/

Marsh, Abigail A; Karina S. Blair; Matthew M. Jones; Niveen Soliman, and R. J. R. Blair. Dominance and Submission: The Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Responses to Status Cues Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2009. 21:4, pp. 713–724.

Michalak, Johannes, Judith Mischnat and Tobias Teismann. Sitting Posture Makes a Difference—Embodiment Effects on Depressive Memory Bias. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. 2014. 21, 519-524. DOI: 10.1002/cpp.1890
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/sit-can-embody-depression-body-language-postures-control-mental-processes/

Mehrabian, Albert Deese, James (editor). Significance of posture and position in the communication of attitude and status relationships. Psychological Bulletin. 1969. 71(5): 359-372.

Meier, B. P., & Robinson, M. D. (2004). Why the sunny side is up: Associations between affect and vertical position. Psychological Science, 15, 243–247.

Meier, B. P., & Robinson, M. D. (2005). The metaphorical representation of affect. Metaphor and Symbol, 21, 239–257.

Meier, B.P., Robinson, M.D., & Caven, A.J. (in press). Why a big mac is a good mac: Associations between affect and size. Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

Melamed, T. (1992). Personality correlates of physical height. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 1349–1350.

Montepare, J. M. (1995). The impact of variations in height on young children’s impressions of men and women. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 19, 31–47.

Matsumura, Shuichi ; Hayden, Thomas J. When should signals of submission be given?–A game theory model. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 2006. 240(3): 425-433.

Nelson, Nicole L. and James A. Russell. Preschoolers’ Use of Dynamic Facial, Bodily, and Vocal Cues to Emotion. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2011; 110: 52-61.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/children-read-body-language-study/

Navarro, Joe. 2008. What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People. William Morrow Paperbacks.

Oosterwijk, Suzanne; Mark Rotteveel; Agneta H. Fischer and Ursula Hess. Embodied Emotion Concepts: How Generating Words About Pride and Disappointment Influences Posture. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009. 39: 457–466. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.584
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/embodiment-nonverbal-posture-thinking-pride-shame-literally-changes-body-language/

Oosterwijk, S., Rotteveel, M., Fischer, A. H., & Hess, U. Embodied emotion concepts: How generating words about pride and disappointment influences posture. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009. 39, 457–466.

Prieto, A. G., & Robbins, M. C. (1975). Perceptions of height and self-esteem. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 40, 395–398.

Pablo Brin and Oli Richard. Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009; 39: 1053–1064.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/posture-affects-confidence-of-thoughts/

Paul H. Morris, Jenny White, Edward R. Morrison and Kayleigh Fisher. High Heels As Supernormal Stimuli: How Wearing High Heels Affects Judgements of Female Attractiveness. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2013. 34: 176-181.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/high-heels-supernormal-body-language-signal

Pablo Briñol; Richard E. Petty and Benjamin Wagner. Body Posture Effects on Self-Evaluation: A Self-Validation Approach. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009. 39(6): 1099-0992. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.607.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/fix-posture-fix-confidence/

Pawlowski B., R.I.M. Dunbar, and A. Lipowicz. 2000. Tall men have more reproductive success. Nature 403: 184.

Pierce C.A. 1996. Body height and romantic attraction: a meta-analytic test of the male-taller norm. Social Behavior and Personality 24: 143-150.

Tomei, Alexander and Jeremy Grivel. Body Posture and the Feeling of Social Closeness: An Exploratory Study in a Naturalistic Setting. Current Psychology. 2014. 33:35–46
DOI 10.1007/s12144-013-9194-1
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/stand-increase-feelings-closeness-use-body-posture-influence-perception/

Schubert, T. W. (2005). Your highness: Vertical positions as perceptual symbols of power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 1–21.

Schwartz, B., Tesser, A., & Powell, E. (1982). Dominance cues in nonverbal behavior. Social Psychology Quarterly, 45, 114–120.

Stepper, S., & Strack, F. (1993). Proprioceptive determinants of emotional and nonemotional feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 211–220.

Shepperd J.A. and A.J. Strathman. 1989. Attractiveness and height: the role of stature in dating preference, frequency of dating, and perceptions of attractiveness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 15: 617-627.

Stogdill R. 1948. Personal factors associated with leadership. Journal of Psychology 25:35-71.

Schubert, T. W. (2005). Your highness: Vertical positions as perceptual symbols of power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 89. 1–21.

Schenkel, Rudolf. Submission: Its Features and Function in the Wolf and Dog. American Zoologist. 1967. 7(2): 319-329.

Tiedens, Larissa Z ; Fragale, Alison R. Power moves: complementarity in dominant and submissive nonverbal behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology. 2003. 84(3): 558-68.

Tracy, J. L., & Robins, R. W. (2004). Show your pride: Evidence for a discrete emotion expression. Psychological Science, 15, 194–197.

Tracy, J. L., & Robins, R. W. (2007). The prototypical pride expression: Development of a nonverbal behavior coding system. Emotion, 7(4), 789–801.

Valentova JV, Stulp G, Trebicky V, Havlıcek J. Preferred and Actual Relative Height among Homosexual Male Partners Vary with Preferred Dominance and Sex Role. PLoS ONE. 2014. 9(1): e86534. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0086534

Watkins, Christopher D. and Paul J. Fraccaro. Taller Men Are Less Sensitive to Cues of Dominance in Other Men. 2010. Behavioral Ecology; 21: 943-947.

Wilson P.R. 1968. Perceptual distortion of height as a function of ascribed academic status. Journal of Social Psychology 74: 97-107.

Woll S. 1986. So many to choose from: decision strategies in videodating. Journal of Social and Personality Relationships 3: 43-52

Appease, Defensive body language, Fearful body language, Low confidence body language, Nonthreatening body language, Readiness to submit postures, Submissive body language

The Body Language of Body Lowering or Body Shrinking

by Chris • October 18, 2014 • 0 Comments

The Body Language of Body Lowering or Body Shrinking

Cue: Body Lowering

Synonym(s): Body Shrinking, Lowering The Body, Shrinking The Body,

Description: A technique whereby a person takes a lower position relative to another which can include the overall body and posture, the head shrunk into the shoulders, sitting down from a standing position and so forth.

In One Sentence: Body lowering signals a desire to shrink the body’s overall size to appear more submissive.

How To Use it: Use body lowering to signal that one is willing to relinquish dominance to another person. In a dating context, a man might lower himself so that he can match his female partner’s eye level and build intimacy rather than tower over and dominant her. A boss might lower himself to the level of an employee to build trust. A server might crouch down at the edge of the table while taking orders. This can help build trust between him and his patrons giving him a shot at a higher tip. As body lowering also shrinks the size of the overall profile it can reduce punishment by appearing more submissive. It can also allow a person to fly under the radar when avoiding being called on such as in a classroom situation. Use body lowering when you want to build trust, show submission, and hide in plain sight.

Context: a) Social, b) Dating, c) Business

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m lowering my body, cowering, so that you don’t see me as a threat and won’t punish me so severely.” b) “I’m lowering my body so that you don’t see me as a threat and protect me, care for me, or give something to me” c) “I don’t want to be called upon so I’m going to slink down in my chair, head down – I don’t know the answer to this question.”

Variant: See Body Raising, Bow and Body Bend, Sinking In The Chair. The curtsey, bow and body bend are examples of body lowering that shows a willingness to submit to the audience and accept their adulation. Some churches also accept a curtsey went entering a pew.

Cue In Action: a) When pulled over by the cops, Jake shrunk down in his shoulders, propped himself against his car with his legs bent at the knee, head drooping. b) Deborah was beginning to like Jeff and whenever she and he were standing next to him, she shrunk her body and melted into his by placing her head down against his chest.

Meaning and/or Motivation: A technique whereby a person takes on a lower position relative to another. This implies that a person wishes to take on a lesser role by submitting and receive care and authority passively from another (this person is more dominant).

Status and dominance are closely related to the relative height of a person which is why people are naturally seen as needing protection when shorter and conversely, naturally as leaders when they are taller.

Height can be artificially reduced by sitting, standing at the bottom of a staircase, slouching, drooping the head and so forth.

Tall men and women might find their posture suffers because they tend to slink down to fit in with the rest of the crowd rather than standing tall. All techniques indicate the desire to reduce overall size so as not to appear threatening.

Cue Cluster: Body lowering is usually associated with other submissive cues such as head lowered and eye contact avoidance. However, in dating, women may couple eye contact with body lowering so as to take a submissive role to appease and flirt with men.

Body Language Category: Appease, Defensive, Fearful body language, Low confidence body language, Nonthreatening body language, Readiness to submit postures, Submissive body language.

Resources:

Boyson, A. R., Pryor, B., & Butler, J. (1999). Height as power in women. North American Journal of Psychology, 1, 109–114.

Burgoon, J. K., & Hoobler, G. (2002). Nonverbal signals. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (3rd ed., pp. 240–299). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Burgoon, J. K., Johnson, M. L., & Koch, P. T. (1998). The nature and measurement of interpersonal dominance. Communication Monographs, 65, 308–335.

Brin, Pablo and Oli Richard. Body Posture Effects On Self-Evaluation: A self-Validation Approach. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009; 39: 1053–1064.

Carney, D. R., Hall, J. A., & LeBeau, L. S. (2005). Beliefs about the nonverbal expression of social power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 29, 105–123.

Cashdan, Elizabeth. Smiles, Speech, and Body Posture: How Women and Men Display Sociometric Status and Power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1998. 22(4): 209-228.

Kimbrell, G. Relationship of the upright agonistic posture in the foot shock situation to dominance-submission in male C57BL/6 mice. Psychonomic Science. 1969. 16(3): 167-168.

Kret, M. E. and B. de Gelder. When a Smile Becomes a Fist: The Perception of Facial and Bodily Expressions of Emotion in Violent Offenders. Exp Brain Res. 2013. 228: 399-410. DOI 10.1007/s00221-013-3557-6.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/reading-bodily-postures-facial-expressions-incorrectly-can-disastrous-just-ask-violent-offenders/