Category: Confident body language

*No Photo, Attentive body language, Confident body language, Rapport or rapport building

The Body Language of Business Gaze

by Chris • October 18, 2014 • 0 Comments

The Body Language of Business Gaze

Cue: Business Gaze

Synonym(s): N/A

Description: An eye pattern where the eyes never leave the face and spend the majority of the time between the forehead and the eyes, never below. Eye contact in a business gaze is held about 80-90% of the total time when it involves men and women and two women, but when two men speak the rate drops to 60-70% of the time.

In One Sentence: The business gaze happens when the eyes remain above the level of the chin so as to remain non-sexual.

How To Use it: Use the business gaze to create solid business relationship and avoid muddying the waters with sexual feelings. The business gaze is also best used between male and female friends to avoid misconceptions about the relationship intended.

Context: Business

Verbal Translation: “I want to keep this business in nature, so I’m keeping my eyes above chin level so as not to appear sexually interested.”

Variant: See Staring or The Evil Eye, Downcast Eyes or Eyes Down, Eye Aversion, Gaze Avoidance and Wandering Eyes, Face Gaze, Friendly Social Gaze, Gaze Omission, Intimate Gaze (The) or Triangular Gaze Pattern.

Cue In Action: When meeting over lunch, Mark and Debbie kept their eyes on each other’s faces despite a strong chemistry between the two.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Gaze patterns often define the context through duration and pattern. If the eyes travel below the face to other parts of the body they signal a person’s desire to explore the possibilities of a sexual relationship. Where eyes look signal what the mind thinks. If business is kept professional, then eyes will be kept on the face alone and not travel to other parts of the body or only briefly out of curiosity. If eyes travel frequently to the breast, chest, shoulders, crotch or rear end, then there is a sexual message attached.

Gaze duration in a business setting also has meaning. If eye contact between men and women is any less than 80-90% it means that both sexes are disinterested. On the other hand, if gaze is held too long amongst men, it is read as aggression, or if too short, as a lack of confidence or shiftiness. If the eyes begin to wander from the face to other parts of the body it is read as sexual interest.

Cue Cluster: Various cues will appear while speaking in a business context and will vary depending on the specific context.

Body Language Category: Attentive, Confident, Rapport or rapport building.

Resources:

Argyle, Michael; Lefebvre, Luc; Cook, Mark 1974. The meaning of five patterns of gaze. European Journal of Social Psychology. 4(2): 125-136.

Argyle, M., and Ingham, R. 1972. Gaze, mutual gaze, and proximity. Semiotica, 1, 32–49.

Argyle, M. and Cook, M. Gaze and Mutual Gaze. London: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Allan Mazur; Eugene Rosa; Mark Faupel; Joshua Heller; Russell Leen; Blake Thurman. Physiological Aspects of Communication Via Mutual Gaze. The American Journal of Sociology. 1980; 86(1): 50-74.

Breed, G., Christiansen, E., & Larson, D. 1972. Effect of lecturer’s gaze direction upon
teaching effectiveness. Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 2: 115.

Ellsworth, Phoebe; Carlsmith, J Merrill. 1973. Eye contact and gaze aversion in an aggressive encounter. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 28(2): 280-292.

Einav, Shiri ; Hood, Bruce M. García Coll, Cynthia (editor). Tell-Tale Eyes: Children’s Attribution of Gaze Aversion as a Lying Cue. Developmental Psychology. 2008. 44(6): 1655-1667.

Foddy, Margaret 1978. Patterns of Gaze in Cooperative and Competitive Negotiation
Human Relations. 31(11):925-938.

Kellerman. 1989. Looking and loving: The effects of mutual gaze on feelings of romantic love. Journal of Research in Personality. 23(2): 145-161.

Kendon, A. Some Functions of Gaze Direction in Social Interaction. Acta Psychologica. 1967. 32: 1-25.

Kleinke, C. L. 1980. Interaction between gaze and legitimacy of request on compliance in a field setting. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 5(1): 3-12.

Leeb. 2004. Here’s Looking at You, Kid! A Longitudinal Study of Perceived Gender Differences in Mutual Gaze Behavior in Young Infants Source: Sex Roles. 50(1-2): 1-14.

Lance, Brent ; Marsella, Stacy. Glances, glares, and glowering: how should a virtual human express emotion through gaze? Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 2010. 20(1): 50-69

McAndrew. 1986. Arousal seeking and the maintenance of mutual gaze in same and mixed sex dyads Source: Journal of nonverbal behavior. 10(3):168-172.

Mulac, A., Studley, L., Wiemann, J., & Bradac, J. 1987. Male/female gaze in same-sex
and mixed-sex dyads. Human Communication Research. 13: 323-343.

Natale, Michael. 1976. A Markovian model of adult gaze behavior. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. 5(1): 53-63.

Phelps, F., Doherty-Sneddon, G., & Warnock Educational Psychology., 27, 91-107. (2006). Functional benefits of children’s gaze aversion during questioning. British Journal Developmental Psychology. 24: 577-588.

Rosenfeld, H., Breck, B., Smith, S., & Kehoe, S. 1984. Intimacy-mediators of the proximity-gaze compensation effect: Movement, conversational role, acquaintance, and gender. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 8: 235-249.

Williams. 1993. Effects of Mutual Gaze and Touch on Attraction, Mood, and Cardiovascular Reactivity Source: Journal of Research in Personality. 27(2): 170-183.

Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Courtship display, Dominant body language, Emotional body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, Indicator Of Sexual Interest (IOsI), Threat displays

Body Language of The Broadside Display or Chest Protrusion.

by Chris • October 18, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of The Broadside Display or Chest Protrusion.

Cue: Broadside Display or Chest Protrusion.

Synonym(s): Chest Protrusion, Peacocking, Chest Puffing, Chest Thrust, Chest Arch, Chest Puff, Breast Protrusion, Torso Splay, Puffing Out The Chest, Baring The Torso, Removing A Shirt, Shirt Removal, Protruding The Breast.

Description: A flaring of the torso and chest by bringing air into the lungs to puff out and appear larger. Read more about coding for the expression of pride here: http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbal-coding-scheme-pride-shame-objectively-read-pride-shame-body-language/

In One Sentence: Puffing out the chest is a signal that one is dominant and virile and for a part of the universal expression of pride.

How To Use it: Men should use the broadside display to intimidate other men or to express pride. If female, a broadside display can also be used to appear in control and confident, however, the effect will be muddied by the protrusion of breasts which can be seen as sexually inviting. That being the case a confident posture in women can help thwart approaches from lesser quality men whom are not able rise to her level. This can give her the advantage. Overall, this posture should be used with care. It is most useful when one wishes to show that one is proud, healthy, and virile.

Context: a) Dating (male) b) Dating (female) c) Business and General

Verbal Translation: a) and c) “I’m large with a big chest and so I’m dominant and you will submit to me.” “I’m puffing out my chest, see how large I am, you better back down and give me the respect I command.” b) “I am confident, proud of my breasts, youthful with good posture, and therefore I’m a good mate. I want you to notice.”

Variant: See Arms Akimbo, Military Man or Regal Stance, Cowboy Pose Stance.

Cue In Action: a) As he walked by a girl on the beach wearing a skimpy bikini he sucked up his gut, took in a deep breath and arched his shoulders back. b) While waiting for a drink, she leaned back on the bar-top with her elbows, puffed out her chest and looked down submissively as a broadcast signal of her availability. c) The male boxers entered the pre-match weigh-in each with their shoulders held back and chest puffed out. c) A security guard, bouncer or police officer standing guard will perform a broadside display in effort to dissuade an attack. c) We also might see this in business when two conflicting ideas have been presented where each party defends and asserts themselves.

Meaning and/or Motivation: a), b) and c) The intent is to intimidate by appearing larger and therefore more dominant, powerful and also to express pride. It is a high comfort display, opened and bare, inviting challenge and attack that is assumed to never come. a) and b) A sexual or aggressive body language posture depending on the sex.

When done by men, it means dominance regardless of the context as the aim is to impress women and intimidate men. This is meant to appeal to women and repel other aggressive men. In more aggressive contexts, chest puffing is a posture that indicates conflict is nearing and is an advertisement of such. It might seem primitive but chest thumping can find itself during the preamble to a fistfight. Men will sometimes remove a jacket or even a shirt when they prepare for physical confrontation.

When done by women, it is aimed at drawing attention to the breast by making them appear larger and more prominent. Women who puff out their chest are trying to secure the attention of nearby men.

Cue Cluster: Chest protrusion is normally coupled with good upright posture. a) Men will often have a swagger in their step and keep gesturing to a minimum with arms kept around waste level, never much higher. b) Women might subconsciously look down, seemingly at their own breasts as a cue for others to do it as well. In the lowered head position women may gaze upward coyly further strengthening the appeal. c) In a business context, chest puffing will appear with more expansive movements such as greater animation in the arms, encroaching on personal space of others, a loud voice, touching to show ownership, fixed unblinking eye contact and a stern face. Usually the back is also arched and the head is held high.

Body Language Category: Authoritative body language, Courtship display, Confident, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, Indicators of sexual interest (IOsI), Emotional body language, Threat displays.

Resources:

Allen, Jill; Sarah J. Gervais and Jessi L. Smith. Sit Big to Eat Big: The Interaction of Body Posture and Body Concern on Restrained Eating. Psychology of Women Quarterly 2013. 37(3): 325-336. DOI: 10.1177/0361684313476477pwq.sagepub.com
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/sit-big-to-eat-big-how-constrictive-postures-reduce-food-consumption/

Arnette, S. L., & Pettijohn, T. F., II. (2012). The effects of posture on self-perceived leadership. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3, 8–13.

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/?preview=true

Briñol, P., Petty, R. E., & Wagner, B. (2009). Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1053–1064.

Bartholomewn, Morgan E.; Sheri L. Johnson. Nonverbal Dominance Behavior Among Individuals at Risk for Mania. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2014. 159: 133-138.
Barber N. 1995. The evolutionary psychology of physical attractiveness: sexual selection and human morphology. Ethology and Sociobiology 16: 395-424.

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/

Cashdan, Elizabeth. Smiles, Speech, and Body Posture: How Women and Men Display Sociometric Status and Power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1998. 22(4): 209-228.

Carney, Dana R.; Amy J.C. Cuddy; Andy J. Yap. Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance. Psychological Science, 2010; 21 (10): 1363-1368.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/benefits-power-posing-high-stakes-performance/

Cesario, J., & McDonald, M. M. (2013). Bodies in context: Power poses as a computation of action possibility. Social Cognition, 31, 260–274.

Cuddy, A. J. C., Wilmuth, C., Yap, A. J., & Carney, D. R. (in press). Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview performance. Journal of Applied Psychology.

Coreen Farris; Teresa A. Treat; Richard J. Viken; and Richard M. McFall. 2008. Perceptual Mechanisms That Characterize Gender Differences in Decoding Women’s Sexual Intent Psychological Science. 2008. 19(4): 348-354.

de Lemus, Soledad; Russell Spears and and Miguel Moya. The Power of a Smile to Move You: Complementary Submissiveness in Women’s Posture as a Function of Gender Salience and Facial Expression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 2012. 38(11): 1480-1494.

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/

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/

Gangestad, S.W., Thornhill, R., Garver, C., 2002. Changes in women’s sexual interests and their partners’ mate retention tactics across the menstrual cycle: Evidence for shifting conflicts of interest. Proc. R. Soc. London, B 269: 975–982.

Gangestad, S.W., Thornhill, R., Garver-Apgar, C.E., 2005b. Women’s sexual interests across the ovulatory cycle depend on primary partner fluctuating asymmetry. Proc. R. Soc. London, B 272: 2023–2027.

Hasegawa, T. and K. Sakaguchi. 2006. Person perception through gait information and target choice for sexual advances: comparison of likely targets in experiments and real life. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 30(2): 63-85.

Hall, Jeffrey A. and Chong Xing. The Verbal and Nonverbal Correlates of the Five Flirting Styles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2015. 39:41–68. DOI 10.1007/s10919-014-0199-8
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/first-12-minutes-flirting-using-nonverbal-communication-study-reveals-26-body-language-cues-attraction/

Huang, L., Galinsky, A. D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Guillory, L. E. (2011). Powerful postures versus powerful roles: Which is the proximate correlate of thought and behavior? Psychological Science, 22, 95–102.

Kelly, Janice R.; Murphy, Julie D.; Craig, Traci Y.; Driscoll, Denise M. 2005. The Effect of Nonverbal Behaviors Associated with Sexual Harassment Proclivity on Women’s Performance Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 53(9-10): 689-701.

Locke, Connson C. and Cameron Anderson. The Downside of Looking Like a Leader: Leader’s Powerful Demeanor Stifles Follower Voice in Participative Decision-Making.. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings. 2010. 8(1): 1-6.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/power-body-language-goes-far/

Li Huang, Adam D. Galinsky, Deborah H Gruenfeld and Lucia E. Guillory. Powerful Postures Versus Powerful Roles: Which Is the Proximate Correlate of Thought and Behavior? 2011, Psychological Science; 22(1): 95–102.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/whats-more-powerful-nonverbal-power-or-real-power/

Laird, J. D., & Lacasse, K. (2014). Bodily influences on emotional feelings: Accumulating evidence and extensions of William James’s theory of emotion. Emotion Review, 6, 27–34.

Lee, E. H., & Schnall, S. (2014). The influence of social power on weight perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1719–1725.

Martens, Jason P.; Jessica L. Tracy and Azim F. Shariff. Status signals: Adaptive
benefits of displaying and observing the nonverbal expressions of pride and shame, Cognition & Emotion. 2012. 26(3): 390-406. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2011.645281
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/significant-nonverbal-expression-pride-shame-body-language-detailed-examination-origin-function/

Martens, Jason P. Martens and Jessica L. Tracy. The Emotional Origins of a Social Learning Bias: Does the Pride Expression Cue Copying? Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2012; 4(4): 492-499.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbal-expression-of-pride-elicits-copying-response-from-others/

Michalak, J., Mischnat, J., & Teismann, T. (2014). Sitting posture makes a difference: Embodiment effects on depressive memory bias. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 21, 519–524.

Minvaleev, R. S., Nozdrachev, A. D., Kir’yanova, V. V., & Ivanov, A. I. (2004). Postural influences on the hormone level in healthy subjects: I. The cobra posture and steroid hormones. Human Physiology, 30, 452–456.

Moore, M. M. and D. L. Butler. 1989. Predictive aspects of nonverbal courtship behavior in women. Semiotica 76(3/4): 205-215.

Moore, M. M. 1985. Nonverbal courtship patterns in women: context and consequences. Ethology and Sociobiology 64: 237-247.

Nelson, Nicole L and James A. Russell. Children’s Understanding Of Nonverbal Expressions Of Pride. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2012; 111: 379-385.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/can-children-read-pride-body-language/

Nair, S., Sagar, M., Sollers, J., III, Consedine, N., & Broadbent, E. (2014). Do slumped and upright postures affect stress responses? A randomized trial. Health Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/hea0000146

Navarro, Joe. 2008. What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People. William Morrow Paperbacks.

Oosterwijk, Suzanne; Mark Rotteveel; Agneta H. Fischer and Ursula Hess. Embodied Emotion Concepts: How Generating Words About Pride and Disappointment Influences Posture. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009. 39: 457–466. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.584
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/embodiment-nonverbal-posture-thinking-pride-shame-literally-changes-body-language/

Park, Lora E.; Lindsey Streamer; Li Huang and Adam D. Galinsky. Stand Tall, But Don’t Put Your Feet Up: Universal and Culturally-Specific Effects of Expansive Postures On Power. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2013; 49: 965–971.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/are-expansive-postures-of-power-universal-or-cultural/

Pillsworth, E. G., M. G. Haselton and D. M. Buss. 2004. Ovulatory shifts in female sexual desire. Journal of Sex Research. 41: 55-65.

Rule, Nicholas, O.; Reginald B. Adams Jr.; Nalini Ambady and Jonathan B. Freeman. Perceptions Of Dominance Following Glimpses Of Faces And Bodies. Perception. 2012; 41: 687-706 doi:10.1068/p7023
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/people-can-read-dominance-split-second

Ranehill, Eva; Anna Dreber; Magnus Johannesson; Susanne Leiberg; Sunhae Sul and Roberto A. Weber. Assessing the Robustness of Power Posing: No Effect on Hormones and Risk Tolerance in a Large Sample of Men and Women. Psychological Science, March, 2015. doi: 10.1177/0956797614553946
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/power-posing-no-effect-hormones-amy-cuddy-wrong/

Riskind, J. H. (1984). They stoop to conquer: Guiding and selfregulatory functions of physical posture after success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 479–493.

Riskind, J. H., & Gotay, C. C. (1982). Physical posture: Could it have regulatory or feedback effects on motivation and emotion? Motivation and Emotion, 6, 273–298.

Roberts, Tomi-Ann and Yousef Arefi-Afshar. Not All Who Stand Tall Are Proud: Gender Differences in the Proprioceptive Effects of Upright Posture. Cognition and Emtion. 2007. 21(4):714-727.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/do-women-benefit-from-power-posing-study-suggests-not/

Scarpa, Stephano; Alessandra Nart; Erica Gobbi and Atillo Carraro. Does Women’s Attitudinal State Body Image Improve After One Session Of Posture Correction Exercises? Social Behavior and Personality. 2011; 39(8): 1045-1052.

Stanton, Steven J. and Robin S. Edelstein. The Physiology of Women’s Power Motive: Implicit Power Motivation is Positively Associated With Estradiol Levels in Women. Journal of Research in Personality. 2009. 43: 1109-1113.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/the-estrogen-factor-the-search-for-nonverbal-power-in-women/

Stanton, Steven J. The Essential Implications of Gender in Human Behavioral Endocrinology Studies. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 2011. 5(9): 1-3. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2011.00009
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/a-critical-commentary-on-amy-cuddys-power-posing/

Stepper, S., & Strack, F. (1993). Proprioceptive determinants of emotional and nonemotional feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 211–220.

Shariff, Azim F. and Jessica L. Tracy. Knowing Who’s Boss: Implicit Perceptions of Status From the Nonverbal Expression of Pride. Emotion. 2009.9(5): 631-639.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/can-you-tell-whos-boss-by-the-nonverbal-expression-of-pride/

Strelan, P., Weick, M., & Vasiljevic, M. (2013). Power and revenge. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 521–540.

Tiedens, L. Z., & Fragale, A. R. (2003). Power moves: Complementarity in dominant and submissive nonverbal behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84,
558–568.

Tiedens, Larissa Z. and Alison R. Fragale. Power Moves: Complementarity in Dominant and Submissive Nonverbal Behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2003, 84(3): 558–568.

Tracy, Jessica L. and Richard W. Robins. The Nonverbal Expression of Pride: Evidence for Cross-Cultural Recognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2008. 94(3): 516–530. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.94.3.516
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbal-expression-pride-recognized-cross-culturally/

Tracy, Jessica L.; Azim F. Shariff; Wanying Zhao and Joseph Henrich. Cross-Cultural Evidence That the Nonverbal Expression of Pride Is An Automatic Status. Journal of Experimental Psychology. 2013; 142 (1): 163-180.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/part-ii-evidence-for-the-universal-expression-of-pride/

Jessica L. Tracy and David Matsumoto. The Spontaneous Expression Of Pride And Shame: Evidence For Biologically Innate Nonverbal Displays. 2008; 105 (33) 11655-11660.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/universal-expressions-of-pride-and-shame/

Williams, L. A., & Desteno, D. Pride: Adaptive Social Emotion Or Seventh Sin? Psychological Science. 2009. 20: 284-288.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/part-ii-evidence-for-the-universal-expression-of-pride/

Weisfeld, Glenn E. and Jody M. Beresford. Erectness of Posture as an Indicator of Dominance or Success in Humans. Motivation and Emotion. 1982. 6(2): 113-130.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-language-cues-dominance-submission-children/

Welker, Keith M. ; Oberleitner, David E. ; Cain, Samantha ; Carré, Justin M. Upright and left out: Posture moderates the effects of social exclusion on mood and threats to basic needs. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2013 43(5): 355-361.

Yap, Andy J. Abbie S. Wazlawek, Brian J. Lucas, Amy J. C. Cuddy, Dana R. Carney. The Ergonomics of Dishonesty: The Effect of Incidental Posture on Stealing, Cheating, and Traffic Violations, 24(11); 2281-2289.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-posture-physical-environment-determine-feelings-and-behaviour-study/

Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, High confidence hand displays, Leadership body language

The Hidden Meaning Behind The Bonaparte Posture

by Chris • October 18, 2014 • 0 Comments

The Hidden Meaning Behind The Bonaparte Posture

Cue: Bonaparte (the)

Synonym(s): Clasping Inside Of Jacket With Thumbs Up.

Description: A posture done by clasping the inside of the jacket edge with thumb up and placing the other hand in the pocket.

In One Sentence: Displaying the thumbs from the edges of the coat demonstrates high pride and confidence.

How To Use it: Use this posture to showcase your pride. It is effectively used when trying to show others that you are in control, dominant, but also superior. Therefore it must be used with caution or will appear as smug. The posture is well suited to business context or while debating since it dismisses your opponents arguments while simultaneously showing supreme confidence.

Context: Business or General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m here, proud and in charge.”

Variant: See Military Man or Regal Stance, Cowboy Pose Stance, Arms Akimbo, Arms Crossed With Thumbs Up, Thumb Hiding, Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture.

Cue In Action: The lawyer posed for his company photograph by flexing the thumbs out clasping the edge of his overly expensive suit.

Meaning and/or Motivation: It is a thumbs up or thumbing gesture as it exposes them for all to see. Exposing the thumbs is a sign that a person feels confident and lacks timidity. This is a cue usually done by men of status and authority. It was made popular by the French military and political leader Napolean Bonaparte.

Cue Cluster: Coupled with the Bonaparte posture is a proud disposition include head held high and back, chin out, relaxed swaying torso but with a rigid upright posture.

Body Language Category: Confident, Dominant body language, Authoritative body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, High confidence hand displays, Leadership body language.

Resources:

Andric, Michael ; Solodkin, Ana ; Buccino, Giovanni ; Goldin-Meadow, Susan ; Rizzolatti, Giacomo ; Small, Steven L. Brain function overlaps when people observe emblems, speech, and grasping. Neuropsychologia, 2013, Vol.51(8), pp.1619-1629

Arnette, S. L., & Pettijohn, T. F., II. (2012). The effects of posture on self-perceived leadership. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3, 8–13.

Briñol, P., Petty, R. E., & Wagner, B. (2009). Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1053–1064.

Chandler, Jesse ; Schwarz, Norbert. How extending your middle finger affects your perception of others: Learned movements influence concept accessibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2009. 45(1): 123-128.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/how-extending-the-middle-finger-affects-perception/

Cesario, J., & McDonald, M. M. (2013). Bodies in context: Power poses as a computation of action possibility. Social Cognition, 31, 260–274.

Cuddy, A. J. C., Wilmuth, C., Yap, A. J., & Carney, D. R. (in press). Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview performance. Journal of Applied Psychology.

Fabbri-Destro, M.,& Rizzolatti,G. (2008). Mirror neurons and mirror systems in monkeys and humans. Physiology, 23, 171–179.

Fogassi, L., Gallese,V., Fadiga,L., & Rizzolatti,G. (1998). Neurons responding to the sight of goal directed hand/armactions in the parietal area PF (7b) of the macaque monkey. Society for Neuroscience, 24, 257.5.

Fusaro, M., Harris, P. L., & Pan, B. A. (2012). Head nodding and head shaking gestures in children’s early communication. First Language, 32, 439–458. doi:10.1177/0142723711419326

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.

James, W. (1950). The Principles of Psychology. New York, NY: Dover. (Original work published 1890)

Kendon,A.(1994).Do gestures communicate? A review. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 27, 175–200.

Knutson, K.M., McClellan,E.M., & Grafman, J.(2008).Observing social gestures: An fMRI study. Experimental Brain Research, 188, 187–198.

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.

Laird, J. D., & Lacasse, K. (2014). Bodily influences on emotional feelings: Accumulating evidence and extensions of William James’s theory of emotion. Emotion Review, 6, 27–34.

Lee, E. H., & Schnall, S. (2014). The influence of social power on weight perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1719–1725.

Lindenberg, R., Uhlig,M., Scherfeld,D., Schlaug,G., & Seitz, R.J.(2012).Commu- nication with emblematic gestures: Shared and distinct neural correlates of expression and reception. Human Brain Mapping, 33, 812–823.

Montgomery, K.J., Isenberg, N., & Haxby,J.V. (2007). Communicative hand gestures and object-directed hand movements activated the mirror neuron system. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2, 114–122.

Molnar-Szakacs, Istvan ; Wu, Allan D ; Robles, Francisco J ; Iacoboni, Marco Robertson, Edwin (Academic Editor). Do You See What I Mean? Corticospinal Excitability During Observation of Culture-Specific Gestures (Gesture Perception). PLoS ONE. 2007. 2(7): p.e626

Michalak, J., Mischnat, J., & Teismann, T. (2014). Sitting posture makes a difference: Embodiment effects on depressive memory bias. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 21, 519–524.

Ohgami, Y., Matsuo,K., Uchida,N., & Nakai,T. (2004). An fMRI study of tool-use gestures: Body partas object and pantomime. Neuroreport, 15, 1903–1906.

Pease, Barbara and Allan Pease. 2006. The Definitive Book of Body Language Hardcover. Bantam.

Ranehill, Eva; Anna Dreber; Magnus Johannesson; Susanne Leiberg; Sunhae Sul and Roberto A. Weber. Assessing the Robustness of Power Posing: No Effect on Hormones and Risk Tolerance in a Large Sample of Men and Women. Psychological Science, March, 2015. doi: 10.1177/0956797614553946 http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/power-posing-no-effect-hormones-amy-cuddy-wrong/

Riskind, J. H. (1984). They stoop to conquer: Guiding and selfregulatory functions of physical posture after success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 479–493.

Riskind, J. H., & Gotay, C. C. (1982). Physical posture: Could it have regulatory or feedback effects on motivation and emotion? Motivation and Emotion, 6, 273–298.

Stepper, S., & Strack, F. (1993). Proprioceptive determinants of emotional and nonemotional feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 211–220.

Strelan, P., Weick, M., & Vasiljevic, M. (2013). Power and revenge. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 521–540.

Skipper, J.I., Goldin-Meadow, S., Nusbaum,H.C.,& Small,S.L. (2007).Speech- associated gestures, Broca’s area, and the human mirror system. Brain and Language, 101, 260–277.

Sherzer, Joel The Brazilian Thumbs-Up Gesture. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 1991, Vol.1(2), pp.189-197

Straube,B., Green,A., Bromberger,B., & Kircher, T. (2011).The differentiation of iconic and metaphoric gestures: Common and unique integration processes. Human Brain Mapping, 32, 520–533.

Straube, Benjamin ; Green, Antonia ; Jansen, Andreas ; Chatterjee, Anjan ; Kircher, Tilo. Social cues, mentalizing and the neural processing of speech accompanied by gestures. Neuropsychologia. 2010. 48(2): 382-393.

Tiedens, L. Z., & Fragale, A. R. (2003). Power moves: Complementarity in dominant and submissive nonverbal behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 558–568.

Willems, R.M., Ozyurek,A., & Hagoort,P.(2007).When language meets action:The neural integration of gesture and speech. CerebralCortex, 17, 2322–2333.

Wieser, Matthias J.; Tobias Flaisch and Paul Pauli. Raised Middle-Finger: Electrocortical Correlates of Social Conditioning with Nonverbal Affective Gestures. 2014. PLoS ONE 9(7): e102937. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102937
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/powerful-nonverbal-effect-raised-middle-finger-persistent-brain-consequences-pairing/

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

Welker, K. M., Oberleitner, D. E., Cain, S., & Carré, J. M. (2013). Upright and left out: Posture moderates the effects of social exclusion on mood and threats to basic needs. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 355–361.

Xu,J., Gannon,P.J., Emmorey,K., Smith,J.F., & Braun,A.(2009). Symbolic gestures and spoken language are processed by a common neural system. Proceedings of the NationalAcademyofSciences, 106, 20664–20669.

Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, Gravity defying body language, High confidence body language, Leadership body language, Up nonverbals

Body Language of Bad Posture

by Chris • October 17, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Bad Posture

Cue: Bad Posture.

Synonym(s): Slouching Posture, Slumped Posture, Poor Posture.

Description: Bad posture happens when the joints are bent, the spine is misaligned and twisted and the person is not able to optimally balance the mass of the body over its framework.

In One Sentence: Bad posture signifies a lack of overall confidence and can indicate a person’s past history of failure.

How To Use it: Bad posture is universally negative and should be avoided generally. However, one might use bad posture to show that ones is apathetic to the situation such as when one is trying to feign fatigue and does not have the energy for a specific task that one wishes to avoid. A bad posture can garner sympathy from others and be useful in dropping or reducing punishment as people assume that one has already suffered enough.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “Because life has treated poorly I hold a defeated, slumped over posture indicating my discomfort, lack of self esteem and misery.”

Variant: See Cocooning, Slouching, Body Raising, Erect Posture or Good Posture.

Cue In Action: Mark carried himself poorly. His shoulders hunched over, his head drooped and hung low. You just knew looking at him that he had experienced grief and depression. He really let life get the best of him and he obviously didn’t know how to take control of his circumstances.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Bad posture means that the bones are not aligned properly throughout the body making the muscles work overtime.

Posture is a term derived from the Latin verb “ponere” meaning “to put in place” and refers to the way the body is held including the arms, legs and spine. Posture refers not only to the erectness of our bodies, but also to our body orientation, direction of lean, and the degree to which our bodies are open and inviting.

Posture tells us a lot about a person and their history and feelings about themselves and how they feel about others. For example, shoulders hunched carries negative sentiments whereas shoulders back mean confidence. Posture can give way to feelings of like or dislike, interest or disinterest as well as many other sentiments.

Postural tonus is a term referring to the relative rigidity and erectness of the body and its overall posture. A “slopper” holds his shoulders rounded and head hanging downward proving to be depressed, drowsy or ill whereas “the scout” carries himself fully erect with shoulders back and head held high depicting confidence and good spirit. Having an erect posture is a sign of high confidence, strength and vigor. People with erect postures are seen as leaders, content and positive. Contrast erect posture with a slouched or limp posture.

Cue Cluster: Other positive cues are associated with a slumped posture such as weak or non-existent eye contact, little or no affect, expressionless faces or grimacing, dropping eyes, and so forth.

Body Language Category: Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, Gravity defying body language, High confidence body language, Leadership body language, Up nonverbals.

Resources:

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/

Bertamini, Marco ; Byrne, Christopher ; Bennett, Kate M. Attractiveness is influenced by the relationship between postures of the viewer and the viewed person. i-Perception. 2013. 4(3): 170-179.

Boyson, A. R., Pryor, B., & Butler, J. (1999). Height as power in women. North American Journal of Psychology, 1, 109–114.

Burgoon, J. K., Johnson, M. L., & Koch, P. T. (1998). The nature and measurement of interpersonal dominance. Communication Monographs, 65, 308–335.

Carney, D. R., Hall, J. A., & LeBeau, L. S. (2005). Beliefs about the nonverbal expression of social power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 29, 105–123.

Cashdan, Elizabeth. Smiles, Speech, and Body Posture: How Women and Men Display Sociometric Status and Power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1998. 22(4): 209-228.

Dijkstra, Katinka; Michael P. Kaschak; and Rolf A. Zwaan. Body Posture Facilitates Retrieval of Autobiographical Memories. Cognition. 2007; 102: 139-149. http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/improve-recall-match-posture-memory-study/

Ellis, L. (1994). The high and the mighty among man and beast: How universal is the relationship between height (or body size) and social status? In L. Ellis (Ed.). Social stratification and socioeconomic inequality (Vol. 2, pp. 93–111). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Eddie Harmon-Jones and Carly K. Peterson. Supine Body Position Reduces Neural Response to Anger. Association for Psychological Science. 2009; 20 (10): 1209-1210.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/supine-body-posture-reduces-aggression/

Flack, William F., Jr. Peripheral Feedback Effects of Facial Expressions, Bodily Postures, and Vocal Expressions on Emotional Feelings. Cognition and Emotion. 2006. 20 (2), 177-195. DOI:10.1080/02699930500359617
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-and-facial-expressions-influence-mood/

Girard, Jeffrey M.; Jeffrey F. Cohna; Mohammad H.Mahoor S.; Mohammad Mavadati;
Zakia Hammal; and Dean P. Rosenwalda. Nonverbal Social Withdrawal In Depression: Evidence From Manual And Automatic Analyses. Image and Vision Computing. 2013.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/body-language-signals-withdrawal-depression

Glenn E. Weisfeld and Jody M. Beresford. 1982. Erectness of posture as an indicator of dominance or success in humans. Motivation and Emotion. 6(2):113 -131.

Hall, Judith ; LeBeau, Lavonia ; Reinoso, Jeannette ; Thayer, Frank. Status, Gender, and Nonverbal Behavior in Candid and Posed Photographs: A Study of Conversations Between University Employees. Sex Roles. 2001 44(11): 677-692.

Katza, Carmit; Irit Hershkowitz; Lindsay C. Malloya; Michael E. Lamba; Armita Atabakia and Sabine Spindlera. Non-Verbal Behavior of Children Who Disclose or do not Disclose Child Abuse in Investigative Interviews. Child Abuse & Neglect. 2012. 36: 12-20.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/reading-nonverbal-behaviour-child-abuse-cases-encourage-children-divulge-information-truth-telling/

LaFrance, Marianne. and W. Ickes. 1981. Posture mirroring and interactional involvement: sex and sex typing effects. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 5: 139-154.

Marsh, Abigail A; Henry H. Yu; Julia C. Schechter and R. J. R. Blair. Larger than Life: Humans’ Nonverbal Status Cues Alter Perceived Size. PLoS ONE. 2009. 4(5): e5707. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005707. http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/large-life-nonverbal-dominance-affects-perception-size/

Michalak, Johannes, Judith Mischnat and Tobias Teismann. Sitting Posture Makes a Difference—Embodiment Effects on Depressive Memory Bias. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. 2014. 21, 519-524. DOI: 10.1002/cpp.1890
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/sit-can-embody-depression-body-language-postures-control-mental-processes/

Mondloch, Catherine J. Sad or Fearful? The Influence of Body Posture on Adults’ and Children’s Perception of Facial Displays of Emotion. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2012. 111(2): 180-196.

Michalak, J., Troje, N. F., Fischer, J., Vollmar, P., Heidenreich, T., and Schulte, D. Embodiment of sadness and depression— Gait patterns associated with dysphoric mood. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2009. 71, 580–587.

Meier, B. P., Hauser, D. J., Robinson, M. D., Friesen, C. K., & Schjeldahl, K. (2007b). What’s ‘up’ with God?: Vertical space as a representation of the divine. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 699–710.

Meier, B. P., & Robinson, M. D. (2004). Why the sunny side is up: Associations between affect and vertical position. Psychological Science, 15, 243–247.

Meier, B. P., & Robinson, M. D. (2005). The metaphorical representation of affect. Metaphor and Symbol, 21, 239–257.

Meier, B.P., Robinson, M.D., & Caven, A.J. (in press). Why a big mac is a good mac: Associations between affect and size. Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

Melamed, T. (1992). Personality correlates of physical height. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 1349–1350.

Middleton, W. C., &Moffett, D. C. (1940). The relation of height and weight measurements to intelligence and to dominance-submission among a group of college freshmen. Research Quarterly of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 11, 53–59.

Montepare, J. M. (1995). The impact of variations in height on young children’s impressions of men and women. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 19, 31–47.

Matsumura, Shuichi ; Hayden, Thomas J. When should signals of submission be given?–A game theory model. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 2006. 240(3): 425-433.

Oosterwijk, S., Rotteveel, M., Fischer, A. H., & Hess, U. Embodied emotion concepts: How generating words about pride and disappointment influences posture. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009. 39, 457–466.

Prieto, A. G., & Robbins, M. C. (1975). Perceptions of height and self-esteem. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 40, 395–398.

Pablo Brin and Oli Richard. Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009; 39: 1053–1064.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/posture-affects-confidence-of-thoughts/

Pablo Briñol; Richard E. Petty and Benjamin Wagner. Body Posture Effects on Self-Evaluation: A Self-Validation Approach. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009. 39(6): 1099-0992. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.607.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/fix-posture-fix-confidence/

Riskind, J. H. Nonverbal Expressions and the Accessibility of Life Experience Memories: A Congruence Hypothesis. Social Cognition. 1983. 2: 62-86.
Rand, G., and Wapner, S. Postural Status as a Factor in Memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 1967. 6: 268-271.

Robinson, Michael D. ; Zabelina, Darya L. ; Ode, Scott ; Moeller, Sara K. The vertical nature of dominance-submission: Individual differences in vertical attention. Journal of Research in Personality. 2008. 42(4): 933-948.

Schubert, T. W. (2005). Your highness: Vertical positions as perceptual symbols of power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 1–21.

Schwartz, B., Tesser, A., & Powell, E. (1982). Dominance cues in nonverbal behavior. Social Psychology Quarterly, 45, 114–120.

Stepper, S., & Strack, F. (1993). Proprioceptive determinants of emotional and nonemotional feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 211–220.

Sturman, Edward D. Invluntary Subordination and Its Relation to Personality, Mood,
and Submissive Behavior. Psychological Assessment. 2011. 23(1): 262-276 DOI: 10.1037/a0021499
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbal-submission-men-women-depression-critical-examination-use-disuse-submission/

Schenkel, Rudolf. Submission: Its Features and Function in the Wolf and Dog. American Zoologist. 1967. 7(2): 319-329.

Tomei, Alexander and Jeremy Grivel. Body Posture and the Feeling of Social Closeness: An Exploratory Study in a Naturalistic Setting. Current Psychology. 2014. 33:35–46
DOI 10.1007/s12144-013-9194-1
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/stand-increase-feelings-closeness-use-body-posture-influence-perception/

Tiedens, Larissa Z ; Fragale, Alison R. Power moves: complementarity in dominant and submissive nonverbal behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology. 2003. 84(3): 558-68.

Tracy, J. L., & Robins, R. W. (2004). Show your pride: Evidence for a discrete emotion expression. Psychological Science, 15, 194–197.

Walsh, Joseph ; Eccleston, Christopher ; Keogh, Edmund. Pain communication through body posture: The development and validation of a stimulus set. Pain. 2014 155(11): 2282-2290.

Confident body language, Defensive body language, Expansive movements, High confidence hand displays, Honest body language, Hostile body language, Indicator Of Sexual Interest (IOsI), Intention movements, Open body language, Threat displays

Body Language of Arms Forward

by Chris • October 17, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Arms Forward

Cue: Arms Forward

Synonym(s): Jesus Pose.

Description: A body position where the hands come forward in front of the body.

In One Sentence: Arms forward signals that attention is in the front of the body and one wishes to bring or repel that attention toward or away from themselves respectively.

How To Use it: Use the arms forward posture to welcome a crowd like a big embrace (the Jesus Pose). The hands may be used in an up and down motion to help emphasis elements in speech. The hands flipped upward can be used to show that one is offering and idea, turned down, to show that one is authoritative and fixed on a point of view, or turned palm out, to repel ideas or people. Therefore, it is the orientation of the palms coupled with the relative movement that dictates your use of the arms forward posture. The embodiment of the gesture is thought to activate certain emotions in people. Pulling toward or pushing away, for example, even without acting on an object, bring to consciousness relative cognitive perceptions. Thus, use your arms in unison with speech to create congruency between body and mind. People will see this as honesty and integrity.

Context: a) Business b) Courtship c) General

Verbal Translation: “Something at the front of my body requires attention”, “I’m drawing attention to myself.”

Variant: Hands might come forward fists clenched, palms up or down, in a chopping motion. See Baton Gesture, Arms Up Posture.

Cue In Action: a) When presenting at a conference, he raised his arms Jesus-like in front of him like a giant hug to accept the crowd’s adulation. b) She beckoned him to come toward her so she could give him a big hug by raising her arms in front. c) The teacher pushed her palm forward and yelled forcefully, “stop!” The students were getting too rough with one another.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Having the arms forward can mean that a person wishes to hug, to fight if fists are clenched, to repel (a physical attack, or likewise, their opinion) if the palms are facing vertical toward an opponent as if pushing away, begging, if palms are turned upward, and authoritative if palms are turned downward.

Cue Cluster: N/A

Body Language Category: Defensive, Threat displays, Expansive movements, Honest body language, Confident body language, Hostile body language, High confidence hand displays, Indicators of sexual interest (IOsI), Intention movements, Open body language.

Resources:

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.

Biau, E., & Soto-Faraco, S.(2013). Beat gestures modulate auditory integration in speech perception. Brain and Language, 124(2), 143–152.

Bartolo, A.,Cubelli,R.,DellaSala,S.,&Drei,S.(2003).Pantomimes are special gestures which rely on working memory. Brain and Cognition, 53, 483–494.

Bernardis, P.,& Gentilucci,M.(2006).Speec hand gestures are the same communication system. Neuropsychologia, 44, 178–190.

Buccino, G.,Vogt,S., Ritzl, A., Fink, G .R., Zilles, K., Freund, H. J., et al.(2004).Neural circuits underlying imitation learning of hand actions: Anevent-related fMRI study. Neuron, 42, 323–334.

Cacioppo, J. T., Priester, J. R., & Berntson, G. G. (1993). Rudimentary determinants of attitudes: II. Arm flexion and extension have differential effects on attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 5–17.

Cashdan, Elizabeth. Smiles, Speech, and Body Posture: How Women and Men Display Sociometric Status and Power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1998. 22(4): 209-228.

Fo¨rster, J. (2004). How body feedback influences consumer’s evaluation of products. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14, 415–425.

Friedman, R. S., & Fo¨rster, J. (2000). The effects of approach and avoidance motor actions on the elements of creative insight. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 477–492.

Friedman, R. S., & Förster, J. (2000). The effects of approach and avoidance motor actions on the elements of creative insight. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 477–492.

Friedman, R. S., & Förster, J. (2002). The influence of approach and avoidance motor actions on creative cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 41–55.

Fabbri-Destro, M.,& Rizzolatti,G. (2008). Mirror neurons and mirror systems in monkeys and humans. Physiology, 23, 171–179.

Fusaro, M., Harris, P. L., & Pan, B. A. (2012). Head nodding and head shaking gestures in children’s early communication. First Language, 32, 439–458. doi:10.1177/0142723711419326

Gentilucci, M., Bernardis, P., Crisi,G., & Dalla Volta, R. (2006). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of Broca’s area affects verbal responses to gesture observation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 1059–1074.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (1999).The role of gesture in communication and thinking. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 419–429.

Goldin-Meadow, S.(2003). Hearing gesture: How our hands help us think. Cam-bridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Gräfenhain, M., Behne, T., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2009). One-year-olds’ understanding of nonverbal gestures directed to a third person. Cognitive Development, 24, 23–33. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2008.10.001

Guidetti, M. (2005). Yes or no? How do young children combine gestures and words to agree and refuse. Journal of Child Language, 32, 911–924. doi:10.1017/S0305000905007038

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.

Hansen, Jacqueline. Teaching without talking: teachers need to be aware of more than just the words they speak to children. They also need to monitor the nonverbal messages that they’re sending to students through proximity, eye contact, gestures, and touching. Phi Delta Kappan. 2010. 92(1): 35(6).

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

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.

Hao, Ning; Huan Yuana; Yi Hua and Roland H. Grabner. Interaction Effect of Body Position and Arm Posture on Creative Thinking. Learning and Individual Differences. 2014. http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/arm-and-posture-effects-on-creative-thinking/

Kendon,A.(1994).Do gestures communicate? A review. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 27, 175–200.

Knutson, K.M., McClellan,E.M., & Grafman, J.(2008).Observing social gestures: An fMRI study. Experimental Brain Research, 188, 187–198.

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.

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

Laird, J. D., Wagener, J. J., Halal, M., & Szegda, M. (1982). Remembering what you feel: Effects of emotion on memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 646–657.

Neumann, R., & Strack, F. (2000). Approach and avoidance: The influence of proprioceptive and exteroceptive cues on encoding of affective information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 39–48.

Ohgami, Y., Matsuo,K., Uchida,N., & Nakai,T. (2004). An fMRI study of tool-use gestures: Body partas object and pantomime. Neuroreport, 15, 1903–1906.

Riskind, J. H., & Gotay, C. C. (1982). Physical posture: Could it have regulatory or feedback effects upon motivation and emotion? Motivation and Emotion, 6, 273–296.

Stepper, S., & Strack, F. (1993). Proprioceptive determinants of emotional and nonemotional feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 211–220.

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/

Skipper, J.I., Goldin-Meadow, S., Nusbaum,H.C.,& Small,S.L. (2007).Speech- associated gestures, Broca’s area, and the human mirror system. Brain and Language, 101, 260–277.

Sherzer, Joel The Brazilian Thumbs-Up Gesture. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 1991, Vol.1(2), pp.189-197

Straube,B., Green,A., Bromberger,B., & Kircher, T. (2011).The differentiation of iconic and metaphoric gestures: Common and unique integration processes. Human Brain Mapping, 32, 520–533.

Tamir, M., Robinson, M. D., Clore, G. L., Martin, L. L., & Whitaker, D. J. (2004). Are we puppets on a string? The contextual meaning of unconscious expressive cues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 237–249.

Villarreal, M., Fridman,E.A., Amengual,A., Falasco,G., Gerscovich,E.R., Ulloa,E.R., et al. (2008). The neural substrate of gesture recognition. Neuropsychologia, 46, 2371–2382.

Vaidyanathan, R. (1991). Development of forms and functions of negation in the early. tages of language acquisition: A study in Tamil. Journal of Child Language, 18, 51–66. doi:10.1017/S0305000900013295

Willems, R.M., Ozyurek,A., & Hagoort,P.(2007).When language meets action:The neural integration of gesture and speech. CerebralCortex, 17, 2322–2333.

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

Confident body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, Hostile body language, Ready posture, Threat displays

Body Language of Arms Akimbo

by Chris • October 17, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Arms Akimbo

Cue: Arms Akimbo

Synonym(s): Hands Akimbo, Hands On Hips, Fists On Haunches, Pot With Two Handles, “Captain Morgan stance” (The), Straddle Stance, Super Man Stance, Wonder Women Stance, Amy Cuddy Pose (The).

Description: The hands are placed on each hip making the elbows flair out.

In One Sentence: Arms akimbo is an expansive posture used to make the body appear larger and taking up more space thereby creating dominance.

How To Use it: Use this posture to boost your confidence before an important presentation. Research has found that expansive postures such as this one helps boost testosterone and simultaneously lowers the stress hormone cortisol. Likewise, the posture makes the body appear larger and therefore, increases the perception of dominance. Arms akimbo also shows an eagerness to get down to business as it is classified as a “ready posture.” Dominant postures are important when you want to take a leadership role and are prepared to accept the responsibility which comes with authority.

Context: a) Social b) Dating

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m much bigger than I appear, so you must respect me when I puff out like this.” “There are issues here”, “Things are not right”, “I’m standing my ground” or b) “I’m a virile male so check me out!”

Variant: The “Captain Morgan stance” was made popular by a widespread media advertising campaign depicting regular people in the posture. It includes one leg propped up, opening the legs and “exposing the genitals,” with one hand place on the thigh, and the other hand left lose or placed on the hips. This is a dominant, full peacock gesture, as it exposes the genital area for all to view and puffs out the chest, head held high. The aim of the posture is to claim the right to space and soak in the admiration of others.

Alternatively, one hand might be placed on the hips with the other hand gesturing. The thumbs might also be tucked into the belt or into belt loops serving to “frame the genitals.” Women usually aim their fingers backwards to point to their backside rather than their crotch.

Another variant, the straddle stance, is a stable standing position where the legs are straight, and set at, or slightly wider than shoulder width. The weight is bore by both feet evenly. It is normal for men rather than women to hold this stance. It is a display of dominance and confidence, and that a person is “standing their ground.”

Cue In Action: a) Mom is in a good mood until her 6 year old is caught eating sweets from the cupboard. Mom strides to her child, puts her hands on her hips, then begins ecturing him about the harms of junk food. Mom went over to junior, put her hands on her hips, then began lecturing him with a lesson about junk food. b) To make Dave stand out on a dating show, he put his arms on his hips when he stood next to the other contestants.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Having the hands on the hips has roots in evolution. It makes the body take up more space, just like a peacock, and hence appear larger which can be attractive to other men who seek leadership or to women seeking a healthy mate. While in the stance, all the fingers also curl inward so that they point toward the crotch. This draws attention toward the genitals, which punctuates the point even further.

Women will also hold the arms akimbo posture, although more rarely, as it can be seen as assertive (as it draws attention to the genital area by pointing). When women do hold the posture, they usually hold their hands on their hips and point their fingers to their buttocks. Pointing therefore, puts emphasis on our best assets as we state our case! Having the fingers pointed backwards, as women do, is also a more inquisitive, rather than authoritarian, posture. It says, “We have issues.”

The hands-on-hips is also a ready posture when it does not accompany more dominant cues in the cluster. In this case, it appears like a runner at the gate prepared to jump at an opportunity.

Cue Cluster: The cue cluster accompanying the hands-on-hips also includes an upright posture, chin up, chest out and the legs at slightly wider than shoulder width. We may see other dominant gesture such as “batoning” (see Batoning) and finger pointing.

Body Language Category: Ready posture, Confident, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, Threat displays, Hostile body language.

Resources:

Arnette, S. L., & Pettijohn, T. F., II. (2012). The effects of posture on self-perceived leadership. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3, 8–13.

Briñol, P., Petty, R. E., & Wagner, B. (2009). Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1053–1064.

Bartholomewn, Morgan E.; Sheri L. Johnson. Nonverbal Dominance Behavior Among Individuals at Risk for Mania. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2014. 159: 133-138.
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/

Cesario, J., & McDonald, M. M. (2013). Bodies in context: Power poses as a computation of action possibility. Social Cognition, 31, 260–274.

Cuddy, A. J. C., Wilmuth, C., Yap, A. J., & Carney, D. R. (in press). Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview performance. Journal of Applied Psychology.

Cuddy, Amy J.C., Caroline A. Wilmuth, and Dana R. Carney. The Benefit of Power Posing Before a High-Stakes Social Evaluation. Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-027, September 2012.

Cashdan, Elizabeth. Smiles, Speech, and Body Posture: How Women and Men Display Sociometric Status and Power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1998. 22(4): 209-228.

Hewes, Gordon (1957). “The Anthropology of Posture.” In Scientific American (Vol. 196), pp. 122-32.

James, W. (1950). The Principles of Psychology. New York, NY: Dover. (Original work published 1890)

Johnson, Richard R. and Aaron, Jasmine L. Adults’ beliefs regarding nonverbal cues predictive of violence. Criminal Justice and Behavior. 2013. 40(8): 881-894.

Knapp, Mark L. (1972). Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston).

Laird, J. D., & Lacasse, K. (2014). Bodily influences on emotional feelings: Accumulating evidence and extensions of William James’s theory of emotion. Emotion Review, 6, 27–34.

Lee, E. H., & Schnall, S. (2014). The influence of social power on weight perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1719–1725.

Mehrabian, Albert (1969). “Significance of Posture and Position in the Communication of Attitude and Status Relationships.” In Psychological Bulletin (Vol. 71), pp. 359-72.

Mehrabian, Albert Holzberg, Jules D. (editor). Inference of Attitudes From the Posture, Orientation and Distance of a Communicator. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1968. 32(3): 296-308.

Mehrabian, Albert Deese, James (editor). Significance of posture and position in the communication of attitude and status relationships. Psychological Bulletin. 1969. 71(5): 359-372

Matsumoto, David and Hwang, Hyi Sung. Evidence for a nonverbal expression of triumph. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2012. 33(5): 520-529.

Matsumoto, D., & Willingham, B. (2006). The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat: Spontaneous expressions of medal winners of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(3), 568–581.

Mouterde, S. C., Duganzich, D. M., Molles, L. E., Helps, S., Helps, R., & Waas, J. R. (2012). Triumph displays inform eavesdropping little blue penguins of new dominance asymmetries. Animal Behaviour, 83, 605–611.

Morris, Desmond (1994). Bodytalk: The Meaning of Human Gestures (New York: Crown Publishers).