Body Language of Hard Swallow or Swallowing Hard
Cue: Hard Swallow or Swallowing Hard
Synonym(s): Swallowing Hard
Description: When the throat swallows harder than normal, possibly even gulping air along with saliva. Sometimes it is audible, but usually only barely.
In One Sentence: A hard swallow indicates stress.
How To Use it: Avoid using the hard swallow unless you want others to see that you are suffering from stressors.
Context: General.
Verbal Translation: “I’m stressed and my swallowing has become conscious and controlled. I do a poor job of it due to stress induced dryness.”
Variant: N/A.
Cue In Action: While presenting his throat dried up. No matter how much water he drank, his mouth still went dry. When it was time to decide over the investment, his financiers were contemplating, and he was audibly gulping as he hard swallowed.
Meaning and/or Motivation: The hard swallow is a high stress or embarrassment indicator due to low saliva production as the fear response of a person is activated. It is usually involuntary.
In the right context, the hard swallow sometimes indicates that a lie is being told, but it is more reliably, a general signal of high stress.
Cue Cluster: Watch for touching the face and neck, pacing, eyes darting and blushing or blanching.
Body Language Category: Amplifier, Arousal, Autonomic signal, Fearful body language, Low confidence body language, Leaked or involuntary body language, Lying or deceptive body language, Microgestures, Nervous body language, Suspicious body language or suspicion, Worry body language.
Resources:
Beidel, D. C., Turner, S. M., & Dancu, C. V. (1985). Physiological, cognitive and behavioral aspects of social anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23, 109–117.
Birdwhistell, Ray (1952). An Introduction to Kinesics (Louisville: University of Louisville).
Grant, Ewan (1969). “Human Facial Expressions.” In Man (Vol. 4), pp. 525-36.
Guyton, Arthur C. (1996). Textbook of Medical Physiology, 9th edition (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders).
Navarro, Joe. 2008. What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People. William Morrow Paperbacks.