Body Language of Palm Out or Talk To The Hand.
Cue: Palm Out or Talk To The Hand
Synonym(s): Talk To The Hand, Hand To Others, Palm Stop, Palm In Your Face.
Description: The hand comes up abruptly like a stop signal toward another person as the head and eyes turn away.
In One Sentence: Placing the palm out toward another person is a nonverbal way to tell them to stop talking.
How To Use it: Use the palm out gesture to nonverbally tell someone to ‘shut up.’ Many nonverbal signals are safer than actual words and this is no exception. A palm out can quiet a person without being forced to be overt and actually tell them to do so. Often this saves us from more dramatic confrontation.
The same gesture works on a large crowd when it would be impractical to yell over them. A flash of the palms, or persistently held palm out, tells others to heed to your dominance, as you are prepared to take over.
Context: General.
Verbal Translation: a) “I’m using my hand and palm to tell you to stop talking immediately, I don’t want to hear it.” b) “Talk to the hand, because I’m not listening, that’s enough already.”
Variant: See Palm Down Displays or Palm Power, Palm Up Displays or The Rogatory Posture.
Cue In Action: She had enough, the conversation had gone on long enough. The personal insults were going too far. She put her hand up in her face and turned her head away. It was clear she didn’t want to hear another word from her.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Palms carry important power. This palm out, or palm-in-your-face-gesture, is a conversation ender. It is a way for people to say that they do not wish to entertain any more thoughts and have a strong unwillingness to speak. The combination of palms as power and insisting that someone speak to them implies that we wish to offer our disrespect.
Palms carry very significant power and whereas palms up are accepting or offering, palms out or down, signify power and dominance. The intent of palms in someone else’s face is one of high authority and to send message of disagreement and that they are disgraceful and deserve no respect.
Cue Cluster: Watch for the head to quickly turn away and down, eyes averted.
Body Language Category: Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Barriers, Blocking or Shielding, Closed body language, Dislike (nonverbal), Disapproval cues, Dominant body language, Hostile body language, Palm power, Regulators, Rejection body language, Speech-independent gestures.
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