Category: Aggressive body language

*No Photo, Aggressive body language, Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Dominant body language, Frustration or frustrated body language, Hostile body language, Negative body language

Body Language of Counting On Fingers

by Chris • October 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Counting On Fingers

Cue: Counting On Fingers

Synonym(s): N/A

Description: It is done by rhythmically bringing the index finger over the opposite hand as if to anchor each point being delivered.

In One Sentence: Counting rhythmically on the fingers denotes a person who is condescending or trying to be clear about various points.

How To Use it: Use the gesture in order to appear superior to another person or that you are frustrated with having to repeat orders, steps, or points you have already made. By belittling others, you may achieve superiority if they do not supersede or dismiss your arrogance. In other words, avoid counting on the fingers, at least in a way that is not genuinely helpful.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m going to really slow things down for you and make my points deliberate by counting out each point by number.”

Variant: The Baton Gesture is similar in that each point is emphasized rhythmically, but this is more of an artifact of passion. See Baton Gestures.

Cue In Action: After going over the issues five times, his wife decided he just wasn’t going to get it. She started over with her fingers “ONE, I’m not going to pick up Jimmy, TWO, I expect you to fix the garage door, THREE…”

Meaning and/or Motivation: A cocky, arrogant and sometimes confident gesture implying that a person needs to keep up with the various points that are being made. The sender does not feel the receiver is intelligent enough to keep up. Think of counting out loud in order to give a child a fair warning to obey you.

Cue Cluster: Counting on fingers is often coupled with leaning in, a condescending voice, arms akimbo, invasion of space, palm down displays, erratic gesticulation and angry, sneering, or disgusted facial expression.

Body Language Category: Arrogance or arrogant body language, Aggressive body language, Anger, Authoritative body language, Dominant body language, Frustration or frustrated body language, Hostile body language, Negative body language.

Resources:

Austin, Elizabeth E. and Naomi Sweller. Presentation and Production: The Role of Gesture in Spatial Communication. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2014. 122: 92-103.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/gestures-help-children-but-not-adults-in-recall-study/

Alibali, M.W., Heath, D.C., and Myers,H.J. (2001). Effects of visibility between speaker and listener on gesture production: Some gestures are meant to be seen. Journal of Memory and Language, 44, 169–188.

Beattie, G., & Shovelton,H.(1999).Mapping the range of information contained in the iconich and gestures that accompany spontaneous speech. Journal of Language and social Psychology, 18, 438–462.

Bailenson, J. N. & Yee, N. 2005. Digital Chameleons: Automatic assimilation of nonverbal gestures in immersive virtual environments. Psychological Science, 16: 814-819.

Cook, Susan Wagner; Terina KuangYi Yip and Susan Goldin-Meadow. Gesturing Makes Memories That Last. Journal of Memory and Language. 2010. 63: 465-475.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/gesturing-really-work-improve-memory

Ekman, Paul ; Friesen, Wallace V. ; O’sullivan, Maureen ; Chan, Anthony ; Diacoyanni-tarlatzis, Irene ; Heider, Karl ; Krause, Rainer ; Lecompte, William Ayhan ; Pitcairn, Tom ; Ricci-bitti, Pio E. ; Scherer, Klaus ; Tomita, Masatoshi ; Tzavaras, Athanase. Universals and Cultural Differences in the Judgments of Facial Expressions of Emotion
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1987. 53(4): 712-717.

Fischer, Julia; Peter Fischer; Birte Englich; Nilüfer Aydin and Dieter Frey. Empower My Decisions: The Effects of Power Gestures on Confirmatory Information Processing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2011. 47: 1146-1154.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/downside-power-posing-body-language-looking-power-posing-action-study/

Goldin-Meadow, Susan; Susan Wagner Cook, and Zachary A. Mitchell. Gesturing Gives Children New Ideas About Math. Association for Psychological Science. 2009. 20 (3): 267-272.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/gesturing-helps-children-learn-math/

Gorkan Ahmetoglu, Viren Swami. Do Women Prefer “Nice Guys?” The Effect Of Male Dominance Behavior On Women’s Ratings. Social Behavior And Personality, 2012; 40(4), 667-672.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/how-to-significantly-increase-male-attractiveness-with-simple-body-language-nice-guys-finish-last-once-again/

Goldin-Meadow, S. Widening The Lens: What The Manual Modality Reveals About Language, Learning and Cognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2014; 369-1651. 20130295 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0295
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/spontaneous-hand-gestures-help-children-learn-study/

Holle, H., & Gunter,T.C. (2007). The role of iconic gestures in speech disambiguation: ERP evidence. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 1175–1192.

Holler, J., Shovelton, H.,& Beattie, G.(2009).Do iconic hand gestures really contribute to the communication of semantic information in a face-to-face context? Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33, 73–88.

Hubbard, A.L., Wilson, S. M., Callan, D. E., & Dapretto, M.(2009).Giving speech a hand: Gesture modulates activity in auditory cortex during speech perception. Human Brain Mapping, 30, 1028–1037.

Kelly, S. D., Barr, D. J., Church, R. B., & Lynch, K.(1999).Offering a hand topragmatic understanding: The role of speech and gesture in comprehension and memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 577–592.

Kelly, S. D., Creigh, P., & Bartolotti, J.(2009).Integrating speech and iconic gestures in a Stroop-like task: Evidence for automatic processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 683–694.

Kelly, S.D., Kravitz, C.,& Hopkins, M.(2004).Neural correlates of bimodal speech and gesture comprehension. Brain and Language, 89(1), 253–260.

Krahmer,E., & Swerts, M.(2007).The effects of visual beats on prosodic prominence: Acoustic analyses, auditory perception and visual perception. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 396–414.

Krauss, R. M., Dushay, R.A., Chen,Y., & Rauscher, F.(1995).The communicative value of conversational hand gesture. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31(6), 533–552.

Kendon, A. 1994. Do gestures communicate? A review. Research on Language and Social Intraction. 27(3): 175-200.

Lindemann, Oliver ; Alipour, Ahmad ; Fischer, Martin H. Finger counting habits in Middle Eastern and Western individuals: An online survey. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2011 42(4): 566(13).

Leonard, T., & Cummins, F.(2010).The temporal relation between beat gestures and speech. Language and Cognitive Processes, 26, 1457–1471.

Parrill, F. and I. Kimbara. 2006. Seeing and hearing double: the influence of mimicry in speech and gesture on observers. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 30(4): 157-166.

Renninger, Lee Ann; T. Joel Wade, Karl Grammer. Getting that female glance: Patterns and consequences of male nonverbal behavior in courtship contexts. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2004; 25: 416–431.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/part-i-how-to-read-male-sexual-body-language-a-study-for-women-and-the-men-who-wish-to-cheat-the-system/

Singer, Melissa A. and Susan Goldin-Meadow. Children Learn When Their Teacher’s Gestures and Speech Differ. American Psychological Society. 2005. 16(2): 85-89.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/children-learn-better-when-teachers-use-gesture/

Simone, Pika; Nicoladis, Elena; Marentette, Paula, F. A cross-cultural study on the use of gestures: Evidence for cross-linguistic transfer? Bilingualism Language and Cognition. 9(3): 319 -327

Sun Jung, Hyo Sun and Hye Hyun Yoon. The Effects of Nonverbal Communication of Employees in the Family Restaurant Upon Customers’ Emotional Responses and Customer Satisfaction. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 2011. 30: 542-550.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/effect-body-languagel-cues-family-restaurant/

Teixeira Fiquer, Juliana; Paulo Sérgio Boggio and Clarice Gorenstein. Talking Bodies: Nonverbal Behavior in the Assessment of Depression Severity. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2013. 150: 1114-1119.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/using-nonverbal-behaviour-to-assess-depression-severity/

Wu, Y. C., & Coulson, S.(2005).Meaningful gestures: Electrophysiological indices of iconic gesture comprehension. Psychophysiology, 42, 654–667.

Wang, Lin ; Chu, Mingyuan Neuropsychologia. The role of beat gesture and pitch accent in semantic processing: An ERP study. 2013, Vol.51(13), pp.2847-2855.

Aggressive body language, Anger body language, Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Barriers, Dominant body language, Hostile body language, Ownership gesture, Power play, Space invasion, Territorial displays, Threat displays

Body Language of Cornering and Blocking

by Chris • October 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Cornering and Blocking

Cue: Cornering and Blocking

Synonym(s): Door Frame Proper (The), Doorway Intimidator (The), Blocking Someone In, Hand Against The Doorway, Blocking Someone In, Preventing Someone From Leaving, Cornering Someone.

Description: The act of eliminating exits by preventing people from leaving or moving about freely. Leaning against the doorway to prevent someone from exiting or cornering someone so they can’t leave are examples. Cornering can be done with the arms, legs, tables and so forth.

In One Sentence: Blocking the exits such that people can not escape is a signal that one wishes to control and dominant a person.

How To Use it: It is generally not advised to corner and block other people as it will usually cause others to feel controlled.

One exceptions exist. Here, men can use the cornering tactic on women in a dating context to arouse. However, this should only be done under conditions where trust has been built. When done properly, cornering, such as by moving a girl into a controlled situation including for example, the corner of a room, against a countertop, table, desk, and so forth, can create sexual excitement through dominance. One should be careful to heed any verbal or nonverbal signals of disapproval, as if done against another’s wishes, will result in sexual harassment charges.

Bullies often use cornering tactics to control other people. However, I can not advise such tactics. In the right context, though, as mentioned, cornering can produce desirable sexual excitement – in fact, sexual intercourse physically requires cornering.

Blocking, on the other hand, can be used to nonverbally demarcate territory. When unwanted solicitors arrive at my door, I usually prop myself against the door jam so they understand that I am not prepared to welcome them inside. Arms and legs can be used to create boundaries and private space for which you do not want others to enter.

Context: a) Dating b) Business c) General

Verbal Translation: “I’m going to stop you from exiting the situation with my body until I’m through with you.” “I’m trying to intimidate you by blocking you in.”

Variant: See Encroaching.

Cue In Action: a) She wasn’t happy and wanted to leave but he wrapped each arm around her and pinned her against the bar so she couldn’t leave. a) In effort to seduce her, he worked her into the corner and began to make out with her. His use of force turned her on.

b) Another door-to-door salesman had just solicited him at the house. To prevent this salesman from entering, he propped himself up against the jam of the front door.

c) She was set to confront her husband about his work around the house. She cornered him while he was sitting at his desk with her arms akimbo in the doorway. She used the posture to make it clear that she was prepared to barricade his exit.

Meaning and/or Motivation: The intention of the “doorway intimidator” is to control the situation through dominance. This person will habitually corner a subject and then subject them to confrontation and intimidation.

In some cases, those who corner have sexual interests. They wish to corner in effort to seduce, but the primary motive is to prevent escape and then subject them to a high level dominance.

a) A common mistake done especially by men in dating situations whereby they cut off exit points and block women. It signals aggression, dominance and a desire to control if it’s unwanted. If it is welcomed and she finds him attractive, blocking can excite her and build intimacy through closeness and dominance.

b) In business and other general context, blocking and cornering is an exercise in control and dominance. However, when people become cornered, they become nervous or aggressive due to the fight or flight response. While dominance is achieved in the short-term, the long-term results can be toxic and produce undesirable results. This person is trying to prevent escape while they espouse their thoughts upon others. It is a high confrontation posture because it traps people.

Cue Cluster: Cornering is accompanied by an invasion of space, head lowered in a judgment posture, arms pointing, physical touching, sometimes aggressive and loud or forceful voices, encroaching on space liberally, use of the index fingers to point while speaking, and holding the arms akimbo when not propped against the exit.

Body Language Category: Arrogance or arrogant body language, Aggressive body language, Anger, Authoritative body language, Barriers, Dominant body language, Hostile body language, Ownership gestures, Power play, Space invasion, Territorial displays, Threat displays.

Resources:

Aranguren, Martin. “Nonverbal interaction patterns in the Delhi Metro: interrogative looks and play-faces in the management of interpersonal distance.” Interaction Studies. 2016. 16(1) forthcoming.

Aranguren, Martin and Stephane Tonnelat. Emotional Transactions in the Paris Subway: Combining Naturalistic Videotaping, Objective Facial Coding and Sequential Analysis in the Study of Nonverbal Emotional Behavior. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2014. 38:495–521. DOI 10.1007/s10919-014-0193-1
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/seriously-stop-touching-use-nonverbal-signaling-manage-unwanted-touching-busy-public

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Cook, M. Experiments on orientation and proxemics. Human Relations, 1970, 23, 61-67.

Dolphin, Carol Zinner. Beyond hall: Variables in the use of personal space in intercultural transactions. Howard Journal of Communications. 1988. 1(1): 23-38.

Coutts, Larrym. ; Ledden, Maribeth. Nonverbal Compensatory Reactions to Changes in Interpersonal Proximity. The Journal of Social Psychology. 1977 102(2): 283-290.

Felipe, N. Interpersonal distance and small group interaction. Cornell Journal of Social Relations, 1966, 1, 59-64.

Greenberg, Carl I. ; Firestone, Ira J. Greenwald, Anthony G. (editor). Compensatory responses to crowding: Effects of personal space intrusion and privacy reduction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1977. 35(9): 637-644.

Graziano, Michael S.A. and Cooke, Dylan F. Parieto-frontal interactions, personal space, and defensive behavior. Neuropsychologia. 2006. 44(6): 845-859.

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Holt, Daphne J ; Cassidy, Brittany S ; Yue, Xiaomin ; Rauch, Scott L ; Boeke, Emily A ; Nasr, Shahin ; Tootell, Roger B H ; Coombs, Garth. Neural correlates of personal space intrusion. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2014. 34(12): 4123-34.

Haase, Richard F. ; Dimattia, Dominic J. Berdie, Ralph F. (editor). Proxemic behavior: Counselor, administrator, and client preference for seating arrangement in dyadic interaction. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 1970 17(4): 319-325.

Johnson, Richard R. and Jasmine L. Aaron. Adults’ Beliefs Regarding Nonverbal Cues Predictive of Violence. Criminal Justice and Behavior. 2013. 40 (8): 881-894. DOI: 10.1177/0093854813475347.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/wanna-fight-nonverbal-cues-believed-indicate-violence/

Kenner, Andrew N. ; Katsimaglis, George. Gender differences in proxemics: taxi-seat choice. Psychological Reports. 1993 72(2): 625(2).

Mcelroy, James C. ; Morrow, Paula C. Personal space, personal appearance, and personal selling. Psychological Reports. 1994 74(2): 425(2).

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*No Photo, Aggressive body language, Anger body language, Closed facial gestures, Emotional body language, Greeting gesture, Hostile body language, Negative body language, Power play, Threat displays, Up nonverbals

Body Language of The Chin Jut and Chin Lift

by Chris • October 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of The Chin Jut and Chin Lift

Cue: Chin Jut

Synonym(s): Chin Lift, Jutting The Chin, Lifting The Chin, Pushing The Chin Out.

Description: Pushing the chin out and up by slightly tilting the head backwards.

In One Sentence: Jutting the chin out and away from the body tells others that one is ready to confront rather than conform.

How To Use it: Use the signal to show your dominance and to intimidate others. In competition you can use the chin to taunt your opponent and tempt them into submission by demonstrating your pride and smugness. The cue can also be done during normal conversation to issue a challenge of another person’s authority. As the cue is subtle, it is often registered under conscious awareness, but the message will be received as an insult against another person and their position.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m sticking my chin out to say hello there, I see and acknowledge you.” b) “I’m sticking my chin out to tempt you into punching me and fighting me. It is a challenge as I’m not going to back down.”

Variant: See Chin Stroking, Chin Tuck, Head Lowered.

Cue In Action: a) When passing each other on their bikes, the two riders tilted their chins upward as an acknowledgement. b) It almost came to blows; he stuck his chin out, balled up his first and made threatening remarks.

Meaning and/or Motivation: When the gesture is not done as a greeting or acknowledgement gesture, jutting the chin out means smugness, confidence, pride and confrontation. It is a challenge display, almost like a dare to attack. Lifting the chin exposes the neck to attack but it also puts the chin on full exposure. During physical conflict, a quick jab to the chin often puts people unconscious because it compresses the nerve that runs behind the jaw. Just ask any professional boxer! Keeping the chin tucked, on the other hand, keeps it protected and reduces it as a target making it a submissive posture.

a) A greeting gesture done by quickly forcing the chin outward and returning it to its origin. It is done to acknowledge someone else without having to directly interact with them and done most often by dominant individuals. It signifies superiority, fearlessness and arrogance. b) This is a signal used to display pride, confidence and smugness because it exposes the vulnerable neck to attack. This can be a gesture done subtly as a slight protrusion of the lower jaw.

Cue Cluster: When the chin jut is used in conflict it is accompanied by other threatening language such as balled up fists, arms either lose at the side of the body taunting, or raised and batoning.

Body Language Category: Greeting gesture, Aggressive body language, Anger, Closed facial gestures, Emotional body language, Hostile body language, Negative body language, Power play, Expansive movements, Threat displays, Up nonverbals.

Resources:

Beall, Alec and Jessica L. Tracy. The Puzzling Attractiveness of Male Shame. Manuscript submitted to Evolutionary Psychology. www.epjournal.net – 2014. 12(x): 1-39
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/male-nonverbal-shame-attractive/

Bohns, Vanessa K. and Scott S. Wiltermuth. It Hurts When I Do This (Or You Do That): Posture And Pain tolerance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2012. 48: 341-345.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/dominant-and-submissive-postures-affects-more-than-public-perception-it-also-affects-felt-pain-and-physical-strength/

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http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/tilting-the-head-is-display-of-intimidation-study/

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http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/reading-bodily-postures-facial-expressions-incorrectly-can-disastrous-just-ask-violent-offenders/

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http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/people-can-read-dominance-split-second

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http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbal-expression-pride-recognized-cross-culturally/

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*No Photo, Aggressive body language, Anger body language, Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Enthusiasm (nonverbal), Frustration or frustrated body language, High confidence body language, Hostile body language, Power play, Threat displays

Body Language of Chest Thumping

by Chris • October 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Chest Thumping

Cue: Chest Thumping

Synonym(s): Thumping The Chest.

Description: A smacking of the chest with the closed fist either lightly during low emotion or quickly and forcefully during high emotion.

In One Sentence: Chest thumping is a primitive gesture done to show animal-like dominance.

How To Use it: Use the chest thump to draw attention to the self after winning a dominance competition. It is applicable especially in sports, but it can be used when competing intellectually as well. During an argument between lovers, a single chest thump can show that you are sincere about your assertions. Chest thump can be used to show high passion. Caution should be used as the gesture is quite primitive and can backfire by appearing too animal-like.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m smacking my chest because I want to emphasis something I’m saying that’s important to me.” b) “I just scored a goal or did something important, that was me that did that, I’m important, I’m the boss.” c) “I’m thumping my chest like a gorilla in a show of confidence and dominance.”

Variant: See Batoning Gesture. The fist may also pounding a table or the hand might chop violently.

Cue In Action: a) He wanted to make his point heard so when he asserted that he really needed to go fishing, he smacked his fist against his chest (each time he referenced himself) and said “I, me, I, need to get some time to myself or I’m going to explode.” b) While talking about his the recent passing of his wife, he pounded his chest with his fist as if emphasizing what he lost and how it felt to him. c) They neared blows. Clothing was removed and chests were thumped. The drunken fools acted like gorillas.

Meaning and/or Motivation: A primitive throwback to chimpanzee behaviour. Thumping the chest is a high authority and high aggression display meant to intimidate others and draw attention to the prowess of the person delivering it so as to collect adulation and attention from others as the context warrants.

Other times, chest thumping is done lightly to emphasis something that is important and dear to the heart.

Cue Cluster: Chest thumping is associated with other dominant cues such as expansive movements, arms out and away from the body, high gesticulation, arms akimbo, angry or happy facial expression, loud voice, gravity defying behaviour such as jumping up and down (in celebration) and chest puffing or broad side displays.

Body Language Category: Arrogance or arrogant body language, Aggressive body language, Anger, Authoritative body language, Confident, Dominant body language, Enthusiasm (nonverbal), Frustration or frustrated body language, High confidence body language, Hostile body language, Power play, Threat displays.

Resources:

Berkowitz, L., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2004). Toward an understanding of the determinants of anger. Emotion, 4, 107-130.

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Aggressive body language, Arrogance or arrogant body language, Barriers, Crotch display, Defensive body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, Low confidence body language, Threat displays

Body Language of The Chair Straddler or Seat Straddling

by Chris • October 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of The Chair Straddler or Seat Straddling

Cue: Chair Straddling

Synonym(s): Seat Straddling

Description: A sitting posture where a person sits on a chair backwards with their legs spread wide open and the forearms rested on the back of the chair.

In One Sentence: The chair straddler is perceived as cowardly as his genitals are on display, but he hides behind the shield of the chair.

How To Use it: Use this posture to appear timid and cowardly, but also dominant and aggressive. In other words, its use is limited to appearing socially awkward. Perhaps its use is best left to television characters trying to appear socially challenged.

Context: General

Verbal Translation: “I’m going to spread my legs behind this protective barrier showing myself to be dominant, authoritative and yes cowardly at the same time.”

Variant: See Leg Spreading.

Cue In Action: Charles made himself comfortable by pulling up a chair from another table, turning it around and sitting in it. His folded arms were placed on the back of the chair and his legs spread wide open facing everyone else.

Meaning and/or Motivation: A dominant body position where the back of the chair is utilized as a barrier or shield to separate the individual from others. So while leg spreading appears dominant since the genitals are fully exposed, the back of the chair acts like a shield making the chair straddler appear cowardly. Chair straddlers are people who wish to remain protected while interacting with others.

If the straddler is the type who habitually tosses figurative spears or flings arrows from behind his barrier, then he may be read as insecure and lacking in confidence. The chair straddler might defend his seating style by saying “it’s comfortable,” but the body language reader should ask himself “what it is about the posture, that makes the straddler feel so comfortable?”

Cue Cluster: The arms are usually folded across the back of the chair coupled with a crooked smile, leaning in to invade space, and a boisterous attitude.

Body Language Category: Dominant body language, Arrogance or arrogant body language, Aggressive body language, Barriers, Defensive, Low confidence body language, Expansive movements, Threat displays, Crotch Display.

Resources:

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