Body Language of Angular Distance or Body Alignment
Cue: Angular Distance
Synonym(s): Body Alignment
Description: The orientation in space between two people relative to one another. The angular distance measures how chairs, shoulders, or even feet, are positioned in relation to other people.
In One Sentence: Bodies orient toward things they like and away from things they dislike.
How To Use it: Use angular distance to show how interested or disinterested you are with a person. Orient your shoulders toward people you find appealing and away from those you don’t. Conversely, you may feign disinterest or interest by angling shoulders away, or toward, respectively. In more advanced body language, you may turn the shoulders away, but still face your conversation partner. This keeps them guessing and permits you to maintain a frame of control over them. Angling away in this case, keeps them guessing causing them to fight to keep your attention. This technique has proven effective in creating social value in a dating context.
Context: General.
Verbal Translation: a) “I’m totally engrossed in this conversation.” b) “We’re talking right now, but we need to keep our possible exits clear in case problems arise c) “We totally disagree and we will never see eye-to-eye.”
Variant: Related to Blading Body Language, Body Angling or Ventral Displays.
Cue In Action: Mark was new at the office and started up a conversation with Julie. At first they took up a 45-degree angle toward one another, showing an informal interaction. But as common interests were discovered, they closed into a head-to-head orientation and became fully engrossed.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Body alignment deals with the degree to which people agree or disagree.
a) Generally head-to-head orientation or squared-up position (0 degrees), is reserved for intimacy or direct confrontation, so does not always signal good things. b) A 45-degree angle is used for a general open interaction between collaborators and c) Bodies angled away at 45-degrees is a signal that someone is being blocked out of a conversation to a great degree, and that they are at risk of being totally dismissed. d) back to back (180-degrees) implies that completely dismissal is occurring.
Cue Cluster: Various depending on context and arrangement.
Body Language Category: Body pointing, Blading, Like, Disliking, Escape movements, Orienting reflex or orienting response.
Resources:
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