Body Language Of Echoing
Cue: Echoing
Synonym(s): Related to Mirroring
Description: Echoing is like mirroring where similar body postures are replicated, but not right away. Instead they are copied some time later. Echoing can be so prominent that it appears fluent. Bodies seem to jive as if in an elaborate dance.
In One Sentence: Echoing is a nonverbal tactic or behaviour that happens naturally to show agreement in which a person copies or nearly copies the gestures and postures of another person, not immediately, but with a few seconds or minutes of separation.
How To Use it: Echoing is a great way to create nonverbal liking through subconscious means. By adopting the postures and gestures of others a few seconds after they have initiated them, it will create similar feelings. If done correctly, echoing produces strong liking and builds relationships quickly.
Echoing works equally well in business as it does in dating and friendships. To use echoing make sure that postures are not mimicked exactly in a copy-cat fashion, but instead happen similarly. Should someone catch on to your game, they may become suspicious. Therefore echoing should be done with some degree of caution.
The best kind of echoing happens when it is done naturally and this is the case when two people really seem to jive and get along with one another. Echoing is a nonverbal form of agreement.
Context: General.
Verbal Translation: “We’re almost on the same page, as we are copying each other but not immediately like mirroring. Since our bodies are flowing in a similar pattern our minds are flowing in a similar pattern – therefore we agree with each other and have strong rapport.”
Variant: See Mirroring.
Cue In Action: Some ways bodies echo:
[A] Shifting weight from one foot to the other foot or keeping the weight on the same foot as the person you are talking with.
[B] Leaning the same way on a bar top or up against a wall or other structure.
[C] Crossing the legs in the same direction or opposite direction when facing each other.
[D] Both keeping the legs uncrossed.
[E] Gesturing with the hands similarly.
[F] Drinking in unison or holding drinks with the same hand.
[G] Placing both hands, or just one hand, on the hips.
[H] Leaning in, or leaning out.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Echoing indicates that rapport is being built between two people and that agreement is taking place. In echoing, postures and gestures are not concurrent with what is going on with others, but instead happen after some time has elapsed.
Echoing the gestures and postures of another person, often happens within thirty seconds to a minute after another person. However, it can sometimes even happen with several minutes of separation. When gestures and postures happen simultaneously, on the other hand, we call this mirroring.
When echoing is present rapport is felt between two people. We say that these people are on the same “wavelength.”
Cue Cluster: N/A
Body Language Category: Attentive, Buy signals, Courtship displays, Comfort body language, Honest body language, Indicator of interest (IoI), Indicators of sexual interest (IOsI), Liking, Nonthreatening body language, Rapport or rapport building, Relaxed body language.
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