Body Language of Standing At Forty-Five Degrees or Casual Corner Sitting Position
Cue: Standing At Forty-Five Degrees or Casual Corner Sitting Position.
Synonym(s): Standing Obliquely, Sitting Kitty Corner.
Description: When two people stand or sit with their torsos at forty-five degrees to one another forming a v-shape.
In One Sentence: Standing at forty-five degrees is a casual, cooperative, non-intimate standing posture.
How To Use it: Use the forty-five degree standing orientation when you want to make other people comfortable without being confrontational or intimate. The orientation is perfect for business as it is for friends.
By not facing head-on, it allows people to escape easily if they so desire. This will create positive feelings when people are simply sharing information. The same orientation works well when sitting. When people need to work together to get things done and are on the “same team” meeting in this way permits the easy sharing of information.
Men should always approach women at this angle and maintain it when conversing to make them feel more comfortable. Women and most men rarely appreciate being approached blind such as from behind and approaching head-on can be intimidating. Approaching from the side, therefore, is the best possible approach orientation.
To build intimacy on the other hand, if this is desired, should be done by slowly and carefully orienting to a head-on orientation.
Context: a) General b) Business.
Verbal Translation: “I’m comfortable and cooperative but not intimate, so we can both agree to face slightly toward one-another and slightly away from one another.”
Variant: Angular Distance, Standing Square or Cooperative Side-By-Side Seating Arrangement.
Cue In Action: a) The girls huddled up together and exchanged emails. They were both at forty-five degrees to one another. b) The employees were preparing for their presentation and chose the corner of the table, one on each side, to exchange their ideas.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Sitting over the corner of the table is a cooperative sitting orientation as is standing at forty-five degrees. However, most people would state that standing square, face-to-face was the most honest and trustworthy position people orient themselves in while speaking with someone, but they would only be half right. In fact, most Americans stand at forty-five degrees or at oblique angles to one another. Facing someone dead on, is how boxers square off to one another in the pre-show weigh-in or when two men near physical contact at a bar.
The casual corner position is most appropriate to preserve closeness between people, but at the same time offers a partial barrier. The barrier in this case, is the corner of the table. If chairs are directly facing the table, it avoids direct eye contact, but if preferred, the chairs can face one another across the corner of the table to make sharing of information easier. This seating position is unique because it neatly allows for independent thought, but the proximity still permits intimacy.
When standing at forty-five degrees it permits either party to quickly and easily exit the situation merely by walking forward. This creates comfort because it is a demonstration that both parties do not wish to encroach on the other and block them in.
Cue Cluster: This cue defines the context so does not require additional cues. One might watch for other signals of cooperation, however, such as palms up, head nodding, head tilted to the side, leaning in, eye contact and verbal agreement indicators.
Body Language Category: Body pointing, Blading, Intention movements, Seated body pointing.
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