Body Language of Hidden Mouth or Mouth Conceal
Cue: Hidden Mouth or Mouth Conceal
Synonym(s): Covering The Mouth, Hand Over The Mouth, Talking Through The Hand, Mouth Guard (The).
Description: Done by placing the hand over the mouth, in part, or whole and “talking through it.”
In One Sentence: Hiding the mouth is a nonverbal signal indicating secrecy and the need for security.
How To Use it: One should do their best to avoid covering their mouth with their hand as it is an obvious display of lack of confidence.
Context: General.
Verbal Translation: “I’m insecure or telling a lie so I’m covering my mouth to give me protection, security and secrecy.”
Variant: The gesture can be done with a fist, a finger, or a ‘shushing’ motion with the index finger vertically placed over the lips. In the Mouth Guard the hand raises up to the cheek, or side of the mouth, or by wrapping a finger around the upper lip. Sometimes the hand does a downward swipe with the mouth, the hand is made into a fist and rested against the mouth, or it seems as if the person is talking through their hand. See Hand To Mouth.
Other times the subconscious mind is so powerful that the hand comes up and slaps the mouth, such as when telling a lie, but to cover this ‘tell’, a fake cough is added.
Cue In Action: a) While on a date, Dave wrapped his fingers around his upper lip. He felt terribly uncomfortable being around such an attractive girl. Ccovering his mouth gave him a place to hide – a security blanket. b) After telling a fib, Billie brought her index finger up to the corner of her mouth as if shushing herself.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Hand covering the mouth shows timidity, low self esteem and appears dishonest to others.
Mouth covering is also way to reduce the pain of telling a lie. In this case, it is so as to “speak no evil.” Small children perform a full cover and even slap their mouths when they say something they shouldn’t. Grown adults will sometimes cup their hands to their mouths like children in effort to “jam the words back in their mouths” but usually use more subtle gestures such as talking through their hand or placing a finger softly over their lips.
Talking with ones hand covering the mouth “talking through the hand” or resting the hand around the mouth by wrapping the fingers around the top, are significant clues indicating insecurity.
Subconsciously, hand-to-mouth gestures leads people to distrust others, and see them as less honest overall.
Cue Cluster: Hand to mouth is a standalone cue and doesn’t require many additional cues to spell meaning. The context of the cue, be it high anxiety such as on a date or interview, or while being suspect of lying, will define the meaning of hand to mouth.
Body Language Category: Barriers, Blocking or Shielding, Closed facial gestures, Low confidence body language, Low confidence hand displays, Lying or deceptive body language, Negative body language, Security blankets, Shy nonverbal, Suspicious body language.
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