Category: High confidence body language

*No Photo, Aggressive body language, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Friendship touching or friendly touching, High confidence body language, High confidence hand displays, Leadership body language, Remotivating gesture, Social touching

Body Language of The Wrist Hold Handshake and The Upper Arm Grip Handshake

by Chris • October 30, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of The Wrist Hold Handshake and The Upper Arm Grip Handshake

Cue: Wrist Hold Handshake and Upper Arm Grip Handshake

Synonym(s): Upper Arm Grip Handshake, Handshake With Arm Clasp.

Description: a) The wrist of the other person is grasped with the left hand during an otherwise normal handshake. b) A political-type handshake that is normal except that the opposite hand reaches up to grasp the upper left arm just above the elbow or even the shoulder.

In One Sentence: The wrist hold handshake is a political handshake which aims to build strong bonds and alliances.

How To Use it: Use wrist hold handshake only if you are a high powered position on other high powered individuals. Others will be taken by surprise. When done properly, you can create a more intimate impression.

Context: Business.

Verbal Translation: “I’m shaking your hand while holding your wrist to show my desire for a close and more intimate connection with additional control in a business relationship.”

Variant: See Country Handshake (The), Cold Dead Wet Fish Handshake, Double Gripper Politician Handshake or Double Hander (The), Short Grabber/Finger Grabber Handshake, Oddball Handshake, Palm Up, Palm Down and Palm Even Handshakes, Stiff Arm And Thrust Forward Handshake, Death Grip Handshake, Wrench Forward Handshake, Undershaker Handshake, Wrist Hold Handshake, Wrist Hold Handshake and Upper Arm Grip Handshake, Limp Fish Handshake, Teacup Handshake, Arm Twister Handshake (The), Firm handshake, Fist Bumping.

Cue In Action: When the leader of two countries met, one president shook hands while grabbing the other’s wrist, and the other president grasped his shoulder. Each expressed a higher level of intimacy than just a handshake on its own.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Both the wrist hold handshake and the upper arm grip handshake is more common for politicians than ordinary people.

It is designed to build more intimacy and show desire to care, but also control. It is therefore much more powerful than an ordinary handshake. Its aim is to build strong bonds and build strategic alliances between high powered individuals.

In the wrong context, these handshakes will seem insincere and off-putting so they should only be used with extreme caution and in the right context.

Cue Cluster: Expect to see plenty of dominance cues such as arms akimbo, military man stance, chin up, palm displays, controlled gesticulation and facial expressions, dominant eye contact, upright postures and puffed out chests.

Body Language Category: Aggressive body language, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Friendship touching or friendly touching, High confidence body language, High confidence hand displays, Leadership body language, Remotivating gesture, Social touching.

Resources:

Aström, J ; Thorell, L H ; Holmlund, U ; D’Elia, G. Handshaking, personality, and psychopathology in psychiatric patients, a reliability and correlational study. Perceptual and motor skills 1993, Vol.77(3 Pt 2): 1171-86.

Bohm. 1997. Effects of interpersonal touch, degree of justification, and sex of participant on compliance with a request. The Journal of social psychology. 137: 460-469.

Chaplin William F.; Phillips Jeffrey B; Brown Jonathan D.; Clanton Nancy R.; Stein Jennifer L.; 2000. Handshaking, gender, personality, and first impressions Journal of personality and social psychology. 79(1): 110-117.

Fisher, J; Rytting, M and Heslin, R. 1976. Hands touching hands: affective and evaluative effects on interpersonal touch, Sociometry 39: 416–421.

Fromme, Donald ; Jaynes, William ; Taylor, Deborah ; Hanold, Elaine ; Daniell, Jennifer ; Rountree, J. ; Fromme, Marie. Nonverbal behavior and attitudes toward touch. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1989. 13(1): 3-14.

Floyd, Kory. All Touches are not Created Equal: Effects of Form and Duration on Observers’ Interpretations of an Embrace. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1999. 23(4): 283-299.

Fisher, J; Rytting, M and Heslin, R. 1976. Hands touching hands: affective and evaluative effects on interpersonal touch, Sociometry 39: 416–421.

Frumin, Idan; Ofer Perl; Yaara Endevelt-Shapira; Ami Eisen; Neetai Eshel; Iris Heller; Maya Shemesh; Aharon Ravia; Lee Sela; Anat Arzi and Noam Sobel. A Social Chemosignaling Function for Human Handshaking. eLife 2015. 4:e05154
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/shake-hands-share-human-scent-curious-case-hand-sniffing-body-language/

Gurevitch, Z. D. The Embrace: On the Element of Non-Distance in Human Relations. The Sociological Quarterly. 1990. 31(2): 187-201.

Dolcos, Sanda ; Sung, Keen ; Argo, Jennifer J ; Flor-Henry, Sophie ; Dolcos, Florin. The power of a handshake: neural correlates of evaluative judgments in observed social interactions. Journal of cognitive neuroscience. 2012 24(12): 2292-305.

Greenbaum, Paul ; Rosenfeld, Howard. Varieties of touching in greetings: Sequential structure and sex-related differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1980. 5(1): 13-25.

Guéguen, N. (2007). Courtship compliance: The effect of touch on women’s behavior. Social Influence, 2, 81-97.

Guéguen, Nicolas. Nonverbal encouragement of participation in a course: the effect of touching Social Psychology of Education. 2004. 7: 89–98.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/a-touching-way-to-encourage/

Gueguen, Nicolas. Handshaking and Compliance With a Request – A Door-to-door Setting. Social Behavior and Personality. 2013. 41(10): 1585-1588.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/handshakes-lead-compliance-study/

Hiemstra, Kathleen M. Shake My Hand: Making the Right First Impression in Business With Nonverbal Communications.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included). Business Communication Quarterly. 1999. 62(4): 71.

Larsen, Knuds. ; Leroux, Jeff. A study of same sex touching attitudes: Scale development and personality predictors. Journal of Sex Research. 1984. 20(3): 264-278.

Maclaren, Kym. Touching matters: Embodiments of intimacy. Emotion, Space and Society. 2014. 13: 95-102.

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.

Paulsell, Shari ; Goldman, Morton. The Effect of Touching Different Body Areas on Prosocial Behavior. The Journal of Social Psychology. 1984. 122(2): 269-273.

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

Remland, M. S. and T. S. Jones 1995. Interpersonal Distance, Body Orientation, and Touch: Effects of Culture, Gender, and Age. Journal of Social Psychology 135(3): 281-297.

Rabinowitz, Fredric E. The male-to-male embrace: breaking the touch taboo in a men’s therapy group. Journal of Counseling and Development. 1991. 69(6): 574(3).

Sanda Dolcos; Keen Sung; Jennifer J. Argo; Sophie Flor-Henry and Florin Dolcos. The Power of a Handshake: Neural Correlates of Evaluative Judgments in Observed Social Interactions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 24; 12: 2292–2305.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/handshake-open-body-language-powerful-nonverbal-effect-brain/

Stewart, Greg L. ; Dustin, Susan L. ; Barrick, Murray R. ; Darnold, Todd C. Zedeck, Sheldon (editor). Exploring the Handshake in Employment Interviews. Journal of Applied Psychology. 2008. 93(5): 1139-1146.

Spezialetti, Brian D. Do’s and don’ts for winning the job interview. (laboratory technicians). Medical Laboratory Observer. 1995. 27(7): 51-53.

Wesson, David A. The handshake as non-verbal communication in business. (marketing technique). Marketing Intelligence & Planning. 1992. 10(9): 61(6).

Willis, Frank N. , Jr. ; Dodds, Rebecca A. Age, relationship, and touch initiation. The Journal of Social Psychology. 1998. 138(1). 115(9).

Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, Gravity defying body language, High confidence body language, High confidence hand displays, Leadership body language, Open body language, Palm power, Up nonverbals

Body Language of Wide Arms

by Chris • October 30, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Wide Arms

Cue: Wide Arms

Synonym(s): Arms Apart, Catching The Applause.

Description: The arms are spread wide apart, palms even (neither up nor down) and eye contact is established with the target or targets.

In One Sentence: Wide arms is a long distance embrace-indicator.

How To Use it: Use the wide arms posture to collect adulation from other people at a distance. Presenters, politicians, entertainers, and so forth, should use the wide arm posture to connect and build bonds with many people at the same time.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m opening my arms wide, palms flashed to catch all your applause and adulation – I am your star.”

Variant: See Palm Up Displays or The Rogatory Posture, Arms Up Posture.

Cue In Action: The president approached the audience, flashed his palms out and circled the stage with wide arms held just above his head. He was soaking in the adulation like a rock star.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Wide arms are a long distance embrace-indicator. Entertainers frequently perform this gesture toward their audience after completing a routine in order to catch their applause and adulation. We also see politicians do the wide arms gesture to collect them all in one big long-distance hug.

The posture shows others that they have a positive attitude as it defies gravity, that they are dominant by taking up more space, and that they wish to be noticed.

Other times, the wide arms posture is used to calm an audience. This gesture appears more as a palm moving in an up and down movement.

Cue Cluster: Watch for a big smile, head held high, palm flashing, waving, a swagger, eye contact with the audience, blowing kisses, bowing, pointing to people that are recognized, shaking hands, kiss hello and hugging.

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

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

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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

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

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.

Balzarotti, Stefania ; Piccini, Luca ; Andreoni, Giuseppe ; Ciceri, Rita “I Know That You Know How I Feel”: Behavioral and Physiological Signals Demonstrate Emotional Attunement While Interacting with a Computer Simulating Emotional Intelligence. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2014. 38(3): 283-299.

Bernstein, Constance. Winning trials nonverbally: six ways to establish control in the courtroom. Trial. 1994. 30(1).61(5)

Brownell, Judi. Communicating with credibility: The gender gap. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. 1993. 34(2): 52-61.

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.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/benefits-power-posing-high-stakes-performance/

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.

Cuddy, Amy J.C. ; Glick, Peter ; Beninger, Anna. The dynamics of warmth and competence judgments, and their outcomes in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior. 2011. 31: 73-98.

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.

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.

Dick, A.S., Goldin-Meadow,S., Hasson,U.,Skipper, J.I., & Small, S.L. (2009). Co- speech gestures influence neural activity in brain regions associated with processing semantic information. Human Brain Mapping, 30, 3509–3526.

Desteno, David ; Breazeal, Cynthia ; Frank, Robert H ; Pizarro, David ; Baumann, Jolie ; Dickens, Leah ; Lee, Jin Joo. Detecting the Trustworthiness of Novel Partners in Economic Exchange. Psychological Science. 2012. 23(12): 1549-1556.

Edinger, Joyce A. ; Patterson, Miles L. Zeaman, David (editor). Nonverbal involvement and social control. Psychological Bulletin. 1983. 93(1): 30-56.

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.

Fatt, James P. T. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.(nonverbal communication). Communication World. 1999. 16(6): 37(4).

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/

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Koppensteiner, Markus ; Grammer, Karl. Body movements of male and female speakers and their influence on perceptions of personality. Personality and Individual Differences. 2011. 51(6): 743-747.

Koppensteiner, Markus ; Stephan, Pia ; Jäschke, Johannes Paul Michael. From body motion to cheers: Speakers’ body movements as predictors of applause. Personality and Individual Differences. 2015. 74: 182-185.

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

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/

Leigh, Thomas W. ; Summers, John O. An initial evaluation of industrial buyers’ impressions of salespersons’ nonverbal cues. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. 2002. 22(1): 41(13).

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.

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.

Mehrabian, Albert ; Williams, Martin Mcguire, William J. (editor). Nonverbal concomitants of perceived and intended persuasiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1969. 13(1): 37-58.

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.

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

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/

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/

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://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/03/30/0956797614553946.full.pdf
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/power-posing-no-effect-hormones-amy-cuddy-wrong/

Roll, William V. ; Schmidt, Lyle D. ; Kaul, Theodore J. Berdie, Ralph F. (editor). Perceived interviewer trustworthiness among black and white convicts. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 1972. 19(6): 537-541.

Ryan, Mary E. Good nonverbal communication skills can reduce stress. (Law Office Management). Trial. 1995. 31(1): 70(5).

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.

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/

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/

Sharpley, Christopher F ; Halat, Jennifer ; Rabinowicz, Tammy ; Weiland, Birgit ; Stafford, Jane. Standard posture, postural mirroring and client-perceived rapport. Counselling Psychology Quarterly. 2001. 14(4): 267-280.

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

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, 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.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/power-posing-no-effect-hormones-amy-cuddy-wrong/

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

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.

Yuksel, Atila. Nonverbal Service Behavior and Customer’s Affective Assessment. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism. 2008. 9(1): 57-77.

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/

Aggressive body language, Amplifier, Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, High confidence body language, Hostile body language, Up nonverbals

Body Language of Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture

by Chris • October 29, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture

Cue: Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture.

Synonym(s): Thumbing.

Description: a) The thumbs up gestures is done by placing all but the thumbs in the front pockets of a vest, or suite jacket, or by knuckling the vest and leaving the thumbs out. b) Where the thumb is raised upward with the remaining fingers clenched together. c) The fingers are placed in pants pockets with the thumbs left out. d) When gesticulating, the thumbs are kept up and out from the rest of the fingers e) The fingers are interlocked with the thumbs pointing upward. f) The hand forms a ball, fingers up, and thumb pointing to someone we wish to dismiss.

In One Sentence: Thumb displays indicate dominance, assertiveness, superiority and sometimes even aggression.

How To Use it: The thumbs up gesture is culturally specific so be careful with how you use it around the world.

However, in the West, one can use the thumbs up gesture to show others that you approve of them, or approve of an event that has taken place.
In other contexts, simple thumb displays can be used to show that you are confident. Putting the hands in the pockets and leaving the thumbs out, or likewise, holding the edge of the jacket with thumbs exposed shows people that you are assertive. This works well in business as well as general contexts.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m showing the world my thumbs because I’m confident and feeling superior.” “I’m gesturing to that guy over there with my thumb because his views are really off-base and I’m dismissing him.”

Variant: The Thumbs Up Gesture, does not have a universal meaning.

It indicates that all is well in North America and Europe, a sexual insult in parts of Africa, Australia, Southern Europe and the Middle East, the number 1 in Germany, and the number 5 in Japan.

Another variation altogether includes flaunting the thumbs by placing them under the arm while folded. This last posture is a closed, yet dominant cue cluster. The crossed arms tell others that they are closed off from communication while the exposed thumbs reveal superiority. See Thumb Hiding.

Cue In Action: a) The smug lawyer felt comfortable posing for his business card with an obvious display of confidence. He clasping his jacket and turned his thumbs up.

b) The presenter waved his hands thumbs-up as he emphasized how important it was to build alliances with others.

f) His wife disapproved of her husband’s drunken antics. She motioned sideways with her thumb, “That guy, over there – is my husband.”

Meaning and/or Motivation: We see the thumb display by royalty and also by lawyers who are trying to seem noble and important. Thumbs-out is a representation of ego, dominance, assertiveness, superiority and sometimes even aggressiveness. The root to “keeping you under my thumb” is due to the immense symbolic and practical power the thumbs carry. Without opposable thumbs, we’d have little ability to use tools. To openly flash this strength is to have confidence in our ability.

Thumbs up shows agreement and success. Thumbs hanging out of pockets shows dominance and self assurance. Thumbing toward another person indicates dismissiveness especially when waved coupled with a sneer. If a thumb is pointed outward with the fingers in a ball in a “that guy over there” it shows that we disagree with their entire point of view and is viewed as a rude gesture.

The thumbs up gesture, wherever it happens, is a form of “gravity defying’ body language. This means that it is related to positive emotions since it requires energy to carry out and people that are depressed aren’t interested in burning energy especially wastefully.

Cue Cluster: Be sure to watch for additional clues of superiority to fall alongside thumb displays including a dismissive tone, chin up, head held high, looking down the bridge of the nose, shoulders back and up, chest puffed out, legs apart, and fluid gesticulating. At times, high superiority can even lead to slouching and relaxed postures as one does not feel the need to hold proper posture.

Body Language Category: Amplifier, Arrogance or arrogant body language, Aggressive body language, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, High confidence body language, Hostile body languag, Up nonverbals.

Resources:

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.

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/

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

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.

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

Hummer, P., Wimmer, H., & Antes, G. (1993). On the origins of denial negation. Journal of Child Language, 20, 607– 618. doi:10.1017/S0305000900008503

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.

He, Yifei ; Gebhardt, Helge ; Steines, Miriam ; Sammer, Gebhard ; Kircher, Tilo ; Nagels, Arne ; Straube, Benjamin. The EEG and fMRI signatures of neural integration: An investigation of meaningful gestures and corresponding speech. Neuropsychologia. 2015. 72: 27-42.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Tam, C. W., & Stokes, S. F. (2001). Form and function of negation in early developmental Cantonese. Journal of Child Language, 28, 373–391. doi:10.1017/S0305000901004688

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.

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.

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

*No Photo, Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, Gravity defying body language, High confidence body language, Indicator Of Sexual Interest (IOsI), Leadership body language, Open body language, Threat displays, Up nonverbals

Body Language of Strutting

by Chris • October 28, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Strutting

Cue: Strutting.

Synonym(s): Swagger.

Description: A careless, slow, deliberate gait with shoulders back, chest out, head up, as if swimming through the air. The upper body moves back and forth confidently.

In One Sentence: Strutting is a type of gait displaying supreme confidence.

How To Use it: Use strutting or swagger to show others that good things happen to you and that you are able to control the results in your life. This works well in any context but if done too conspicuously will appear as smug. When using the cue, be sure that it can be backed up with other confident demeanor including a relaxed and slow speech pattern, proper gesticulation and so forth. President Obama is a great example of walking with swagger and he also backs it up with swagger in his speech and gesture. In dating, swagger is highly regarded as it is in business.

Context: a) Dating b) Business.

Verbal Translation: “I’m confident and in control. I walk with my head up, shoulders back, chest puffed out so that others take note of my dominance and show me respect and admiration.”

Variant: See Gait or Walking Styles.

Cue In Action: a) He walked by the girls in full strut, his chest puffed out trying to appear larger than he actually was. b) The boss was confident and this was easy to see. His gait was smooth, deliberate, and effortless. He walked with his head held high, back strait and arms moving smoothly with each stride.

Meaning and/or Motivation: High ranking officials such as presidents and high level business men habitually strut. A swagger occurs while walking and is a display of confidence, dominance and usually sex appeal. Men are said to strut when trying to appear masculine in the eye of women. Women can also strut, but it’s not as typical as it is for men.

If someone is going out of their way to strut, he is likely trying to impress others but might not have the gull to back it up. True strutting appears effortlessly and is backed by real life accomplishments.

Cue Cluster: The strut is a collection of cues in cluster. Head high, back straight but fluid, arms in motion and chest puffed out. Watch for additional cues to verify the honesty of the strut. Those with confidence will also carry open postures such as arms uncrossed and out of pockets, make and hold eye contact easily, touch people freely when appropriate, maintain open postures, gesticulate when appropriate and so forth.

Body Language Category: Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, Gravity defying body language, High confidence body language, Indicators of sexual interest (IOsI), Leadership body language, Open body language, Threat displays, Up nonverbals.

Resources:

Atkinson AP, Dittrich WH, Gemmell AJ, Young AW (2004) Emotion perception
from dynamic and static body expressions in point-light and full-light displays.
Perception 33: 717–746. doi: 10.1068/p5096.

Crane, Elizabeth ; Gross, M. Effort-Shape Characteristics of Emotion-Related Body Movement. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2013. 37(2): 91-105.

de Meijer M (1989) The contribution of general features of body movement to
the attribution of emotions. J Nonverbal Behav 13: 247–268. doi: 10.1007/
BF00990296.

Eisenberg, P. Expressive movements related to feelings of dominance. Archives of Psychology, 1937, No. 211. Ekman, P. Universals and cultural differences in facial expression of emotion. In J. K. Cole (Ed.),

Eisenberg, Philip ; Reichline, Philipb. Judging Expressive Movement: II. Judgments of Dominance-Feeling from Motion Pictures of Gait. The Journal of Social Psychology. 1939. 10(3): 345-357.

Eisenberg, Philip ; Reichline, Philipb. Judging Expressive Movement: II. Judgments of Dominance-Feeling from
Johnson, Kerri L ; Gill, Simone ; Reichman, Victoria ; Tassinary, Louis G. Swagger, sway, and sexuality: Judging sexual orientation from body motion and morphology. Journal of personality and social psychology. 2007. 93(3): 321-34.

Gross, M Melissa ; Crane, Elizabeth A ; Fredrickson, Barbara L. Effort-Shape and kinematic assessment of bodily expression of emotion during gait. Human movement science. 2012. 31(1): 202-21.

Janssen, Daniel ; Schöllhorn, Wolfgang ; Lubienetzki, Jessica ; Fölling, Karina ; Kokenge, Henrike ; Davids, Keith. Recognition of Emotions in Gait Patterns by Means of Artificial Neural Nets. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2008. 32(2): 79-92.

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/

Johnson, Kerri L ; Tassinary, Louis G. Perceiving sex directly and indirectly: meaning in motion and morphology. Psychological science. 2005. 16(11): 890-7.

Kito, Tomonori ; Yoneda, Tsugutake. Dominance of gait cycle duration in casual walking. Human Movement Science. 2006. 25(3): 383-392.

Montepare, Joann ; Zebrowitz, Leslie. A cross-cultural comparison of impressions created by age-related variations in gait. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1993. 17(1): 55-68.

Montepare, J. M., Goldstien, S. B., & Clausen, A. (1987). The identification of emotions from gait information. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 11, 33–42.

Mastow, A. H. The role of dominance in the social and sexual behavior of infra-human primates: I. Observations at Vilas Park Zoo. Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic” Psychology, 1936, 48, 261-277.

Maslow, A.H. Dominance-feeling, behavior, and status. Psychological Review, 1937, 44, 404-429.

Mehrabian, A. Influence of attitudes from the posture, orientation and distance of a communicator. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, t968, 32, 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.

Moore, Monica. Courtship Signaling and Adolescents: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Journal of Sex Research. 1995. 32(4): 319-328.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/girls-just-want-to-have-fun-the-origins-of-courtship-cues-in-girls-and-women/

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/

Montepare, Joann ; Zebrowitz, Leslie. A cross-cultural comparison of impressions created by age-related variations in gait. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1993. 17(1): 55-68.

Montepare, Joann ; Goldstein, Sabra ; Clausen, Annmarie. The identification of emotions from gait information. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1987. 11(1): 33-42.

Montepare, J. M., & Zebrowitz-McArthur, L. (1988). Impressions of people created by age-related qualities of their gaits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(4), 547–556. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ 0022-3514.55.4.547.

Prasad, S., & Shiffrar, M. (2009). Viewpoint and the recognition of people from their movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology – Human Perception and Performance, 35(1), 39–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/A0012728.

Roether, C. L., Omlor, L., Christensen, A., & Giese, M. A. (2009). Critical features for the perception of emotion from gait. Journal of Vision, 9(6), 1–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/9.6.15.

Schneider, Sabrina ; Christensen, Andrea ; Hau[sz]inger, Florian B. ; Fallgatter, Andreas J. ; Giese, Martin A. ; Ehlis, Ann – Christine. Show me how you walk and I tell you how you feel — A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study on emotion perception based on human gait. Neuroimage. 2014. 85: 380(11).

Van Der Zwan, Rick ; Herbert, Natasha. “I like the way you move”: how hormonal changes across the menstrual cycle affect female perceptions of gait.(Research article)(Report). BMC Research Notes. 2012. 5: 453.

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/

Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Courtship display, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, Leadership body language, Open body language, Territorial displays

Body Language of Splaying The Body or Taking Up Space

by Chris • October 28, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Splaying The Body or Taking Up Space

Cue: Splaying The Body or Taking Up More Space.

Synonym(s): Taking Up Space, Throwing The Arm Over The Chair, Expansive Body Language, Spreading The Body Out, Arm Spread Out Over The Chair.

Description: Splaying occurs when the arms or legs are spread apart. Usually the arm will find itself over the chair next to the one being sat in.

In One Sentence: Body splaying or expansive body language is one of the main and ubiquitous indicators of dominance.

How To Use it: Whenever you wish that others perceive you as dominant, use body expansion. This can be used in any context, but is particularly effective when leadership is requires such as in business and for men, in dating.

As you take on expansive postures, be conscious of how they make you feel. Should you feel awkward and over-exposed, it is likely that you are doing the posture correctly, but that you aren’t socially and psychologically prepared to deal with the emotions that come inherent with the posture. This will tell you that you’re faking dominance, but if you can stifle the emotion, you’re likely to gain the respect and leadership qualities you desire. In time, it has been said that you can fake nonverbal signals until you “make it.” Your results may vary, but certainly, taking on expansive postures, while working on the emotional repercussions is a proactive way of self-improvement. Be careful however, as dominance postures often invite dominance challenges. Be prepared.

Context: a) General b) Dating.

Verbal Translation: “I’m a dominant individual, be aware of my large presence and give me the space and respect I deserve.”

Variant: See Broadside Display or Chest Protrusion.

Cue In Action: a) The boss sat casually at the table with a figure four leg cross coupled with his arms over the back of the table next to him. b) He was a player and consciously sat splayed out with his legs open and his arm on the chair next to him. Presumably, he figured that it made him look more relaxed and in control.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Taking up space is part of dominant body language because it leaves the vital areas of the body open for attack. It also indicates high confidence. In the wrong context, it can show disrespect due to indifference. This is especially the case when around people who are even more dominant than the person doing the splaying.

Having the arms spread wide while on a sofa and the legs apart gives the impression that a person is relaxed and also larger than they actually are. A person might puff out the chest, place the hands on the hips and lean back. Many animals display similarly and nearly without exception; splaying or expansive movements are a signal to others to beware.

Cue Cluster: Usually, the leg is crossed in a figure four or European Leg Cross depending on the person and his status. Other times, the legs are spread wide open for a more dominant seated position. The head is usually held high, the face is relaxed and conversation is kept to that which is necessary.

Body Language Category: Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Courtship display, Confident body language, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language, Leadership body language, Open body language, Territorial displays.

Resources:

Adams, E.S., Mesterton-Gibbons, M., 1995. The cost of threat displays and the stability of deceptive communication. J. Theor. Biol. 175, 405–421.

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.

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., & Hoobler, G. (2002). Nonverbal signals. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (3rd ed., pp. 240–299). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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

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.

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

Blidstein, Gerald J. The Nonverbal Language of Prayer (review).Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 2007 25(2): 195-196.

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.

Coulson M. Attributing emotion to static body postures: recognition accuracy, confusions, and viewpoint dependence. J Nonverbal Behav 2004;28:117–39.

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

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.

Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. The myth of the aggression-free hunter and gatherer. In R. L. Holloway (Ed.), Primate aggression, territoriality, and xenophobia. New York: Academic Press, 1974.

Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. Ethology: The biology of behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston, 1975.

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.

Ginsburg, Harvey J. ; Pollman, Vicki A. ; Wauson, Mitzi S. Odom, Richard D. (editor). An ethological analysis of nonverbal inhibitors of aggressive behavior in male elementary school children. Developmental Psychology. 1977 13(4): 417-418.

Ginsburg, H. J. Playground as laboratory: Naturalistic studies of appeasement, altruism, and the omega child. In D. R. Omark, F. F. Strayer, & D. G. Freedman (Eds.), Dominance relations: An ethological view of human conflict and social interaction. New York: Garland, 1980.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/dominant-and-submissive-postures-affects-more-than-public-perception-it-also-affects-felt-pain-and-physical-strength/

Kret M, Pichon S, Grezes J, de Gelder B. Similarities and differences in perceiving threat from dynamic faces and bodies. An fMRI study. NeuroImage 2011;54:1755–62.

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/

Lee Ann Renninger, 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/

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.

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

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/

Maslow, A.H. Dominance-feeling, behavior, and status. Psychological Review, 1937, 44, 404-429.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

Pitterman, Hallee ; Nowicki Jr, Stephen. A Test of the Ability to Identify Emotion in Human Standing and Sitting Postures: The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-2 Posture Test (DANVA2-POS). Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs. 2004. 130(2): 146-162.

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/

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

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.

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, John H. Manis, Melvin (editor). They stoop to conquer: Guiding and self-regulatory functions of physical posture after success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1984 47(3): 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.

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.

Tracy, J. L., & Matsumoto, D. (2008). The spontaneous expression of pride and shame: Evidence for biologically innate nonverbal displays. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 105(33), 11655–11660.

Tracy, J. L., & Robins, R. W. (2007). The prototypical pride expression: Development of a nonverbal behavior coding system. Emotion, 7(4), 789–801.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

*No Photo, Amplifier, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, High confidence body language, Leadership body language

Body Language of Rolled Up Sleeves

by Chris • October 27, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Rolled Up Sleeves

Cue: Rolled Up Sleeves

Synonym(s): N/A

Description: When someone, usually a man, rolls up his sleeves when preparing for work.

In One Sentence: Rolling up the sleeves signals the desire to get to work.

How To Use it: Presidents and other politicians use this cue to good effect. By rolling up the sleeves you are showing others that you are ready to get your hands busy with work. Since rolling up the sleeves reminds us of moving them out of the way so we won’t dirty them, it caries a, ‘getting down to business’ metaphorical meaning.

In a confrontation, rolling up the sleeves can signal that aggression is immanent and signals to others that they should back off. Regardless of the context, when we role up our sleeves it will be read by others as a willingness to get things done in a proactive sense.

Men can use the cue in a dating context to show off their forearms. It is generally well received by women.

Context: a) General b) Business.

Verbal Translation: “I’m rolling up my sleeves to keep them from getting in the way of my productivity – let’s get down to business.”

Variant: N/A.

Cue In Action: a) The maid rolled up her sleeves before doing a scrub down on the toilet. b) Barack Obama habitually roles up his sleeves when he’s addressing the crowed. He wants them to know that he’s prepared and ready to take action and more importantly, get results.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Rolling up the sleeves gesture symbolizes a desire to get down to business in a less formal manner. Barack Obama can be seen doing this when speaking on change and action. Rolling up the sleeves body language is most powerful when done in a shirt and tie.

Women usually perceive this body language as masculine and sexy since it puts the forearms on display. The suit and tie also indicate alpha male power traits, which adds to the appeal.

When sleeves are rolled up in a general context, such as for cleaning, the cue indicates competence, but not necessarily prestige. It is the cue taken in a clean, authoritative, alpha context, by a perceived leader that provides the cue with its widespread positive appeal.

Cue Cluster: When performed in a general context, the cue simply means the desire to get to work and remove the sleeves from the potential chance of getting sullied. However, in the political or business context watch for additional confident cues such as head high, fluent speech, loose body, arms gesticulating and a good upright posture.

Body Language Category: Amplifier, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, High confidence body language, Leadership body language.

Resources:

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

*No Photo, Amplifier, Childlike playfulness, Confident body language, Enthusiasm (nonverbal), Excited body language, Gravity defying body language, Happiness body language, High confidence body language, Up nonverbals

Body Language of the Prance Gait

by Chris • October 27, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of the Prance Gait

Cue: Prance Gait (the).

Synonym(s): Prancing, Walking On Air, Walking With A Bounce In The Step, Bound In The Gait.

Description: A playful gait which is peppered with unnecessary leaps and bounces.

In One Sentence: The prance gait signals a high degree of femininity due to happiness and health.

How To Use it: Children can use the prance for best effect to show their good spirits. Women are also permitted by our culture to prance and when men prance, they can use it for comedic effect.

A more muted prance can work in both woman and men, however, and is useful in showing others your good health and good spirits. Rather than an exaggerated prance, a mute prance is simply a youthful gait which produces a slight leap in the steps as if floating on air.

Use the prance in any context in which health and virility will be seen as a positive trait. In dating, a bound in the step will show your partner that you have good character and good genetics. This is especially useful to women whom can show off their youth, and hence fertility, with a bound in their step.

Context: a) General b) Dating.

Verbal Translation: “I’m so happy and healthy and want everyone to notice. When I walk, I like to expend more energy than is practical or necessary.”

Variant: A woman may use the parade style of walking which exaggerates the motion of the hips, forcing them to cant from side-to-side. A playful prance intermixed with a parade style of walking shows a person in good spirit who has good childbearing hips. See Gait or Walking Styles.

Cue In Action: a) The girls and boys happily pranced around the playground while the parents ambled after them – barely keeping up. a) He just won the lottery and you could tell. His head was held high, it was as if he was walking on the clouds with a confident stride, buoyant, and youthful. b) Her youth was apparent. When she walked, she had a noticeable bound in her step indicating her health, vigor and good spirit. She advertised her sexuality with her prance.

Meaning and/or Motivation: The prance indicates good spirit and confidence usually associated with youth and thus health.

A bound in the gait indicates a persons ability and desire to fight the effects of gravity. When people win, they celebrate by thrusting their arms up in the air to draw attention to themselves. The same is true about our gait. It is often found in adults who feel that they have control over their lives and those who have enjoyed successes.

Conversely, those who lack confidence or who are depressed will hang their shoulders and saunter about instead. The prance is a type of gait that advertises to the world that a person is happy and content is worthy of our association.

The prancing gait also indicates the virility of a person when carried by those of sexual maturity. Prancing is a sign that they make a good sexual partner partially due to their optimism and good spirit, but also their youthfulness and health. This makes the prance a strong indicator of physical and mental fitness.

Cue Cluster: Watch for head held high with chin up, smiling face and a smooth stride with straight back.

Body Language Category: Amplifier, Confident body language, Childlike playfulness, Enthusiasm (nonverbal), Excited body language, Gravity defying body language, Happiness, High confidence body language, Up nonverbals.

Resources:

Angela Book, Kimberly Costello and Joseph A. Camilleri Psychopathy and Victim Selection: The Use of Gait as a Cue to Vulnerability. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2013. 28(11): 2368-2383. DOI: 10.1177/0886260512475315jiv.sagepub.com
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/dont-walk-like-youre-watched-avoid-victimization-nonverbal-behavior/

Atkinson AP, Dittrich WH, Gemmell AJ, Young AW (2004) Emotion perception from dynamic and static body expressions in point-light and full-light displays. Perception 33: 717–746. doi: 10.1068/p5096.

Boone RT, Cunningham JG (1998) Children’s decoding of emotion in expressive body movement: the development of cue attunement. Dev Psychol 34: 1007–1016. doi: 10.1037//0012-1649.34.5.1007.

Brownlow S, Dixon AR, Egbert CA, Radcliffe RD (1997) Perception of movement and dancer characteristics from point-light displays of dance. Psychol Rec 47: 411–421.

Camurri A, Lagerlo¨f I, Volpe G (2003) Recognizing emotion from dance movement: Comparison of spectator recognition and automated techniques. Int J Hum Comput Stud 59: 213–225. doi: 10.1016/S1071-5819(03)00050-8.

Crane, Elizabeth ; Gross, M. Effort-Shape Characteristics of Emotion-Related Body Movement. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2013. 37(2): 91-105.

de Meijer M (1989) The contribution of general features of body movement to the attribution of emotions. J Nonverbal Behav 13: 247–268. doi: 10.1007/BF00990296.

Dittrich WH, Troscianko T, Lea SEG, Morgan D (1996) Perception of emotion from dynamic point-light displays represented in dance. Perception 25: 727–738. doi: 10.1068/p250727.

Fink, Bernhard; Nadine Hugill and Benjamin P. Lange. Women’s Body Movements Are a Potential Cue to Ovulation. Personality and Individual Differences. 2012. 53: 759-763.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/women-use-sexier-body-language-indicate-ovulation-fertility-women-dance-walk-sexier/

Godøy R (2010) Gestural affordances of musical sound. In: Godøy R, Leman M, editors. Musical gestures: Sound, movement, and meaning. New York, NY: Routledge. 103–125.

Gunns, Rebekah E; Lucy Johnston; and Stephen M. Hudson. Victim Selection And Kinematics: A Point-Light Investigation Of Vulnerability To Attack. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2002. 26(3): 129-158.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/how-to-avoid-an-attack-just-by-changing-how-you-walk-study/

Guéguen N. Gait and menstrual cycle: ovulating women use sexier gaits and walk slowly ahead of men. Gait Posture. 2012; 35(4): 621-4.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/gait-as-bait-women-walk-sexy-during-high-sexual-receptivity/

Gross, M Melissa ; Crane, Elizabeth A ; Fredrickson, Barbara L. Effort-Shape and kinematic assessment of bodily expression of emotion during gait. Human movement science. 2012. 31(1): 202-21.

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.

Johnson, Kerri L.; Gill, Simone; Reichman, Victoria and Tassinary, Louis G. Swagger, Sway, and Sexuality: Judging Sexual Orientation from Body Motion and Morphology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2007. 93(3): 321-334. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.93.3.321
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/heterosexual-vs-homosexual-swagger-can-you-spot-the-difference/

Lagerlo¨f I, Djerf M (2000) Communicating emotions: Expressiveness in modern dance. Int J Psychol 35: 225–225.

Montepare, J. M., Goldstien, S. B., & Clausen, A. (1987). The identification of emotions from gait information. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 11, 33–42.

Miller, G., Tybur, J. M., & Jordan, B. D. Ovulatory cycle effects on tip earning by lap dancers: Economic evidence for human estrus. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2007. 28: 375-381. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.06.002.

Michalak, J., Rohde, K., Troje, N. F. How We Walk Affects What We Remember: Gait Modifications Through Biofeedback Change Negative Affective Memory Bias. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 2015. 46:121-125.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/walking-happy-leads-actual-happiness-game-emotions-body-language/

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. 2001. Flirting. In C. G. Waugh (Ed.) Let’s talk: A cognitive skills approach to interpersonal communication. Newark, Kendall-Hunt.

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

Montepare, Joann ; Zebrowitz, Leslie. A cross-cultural comparison of impressions created by age-related variations in gait. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1993. 17(1): 55-68.

Montepare, Joann ; Goldstein, Sabra ; Clausen, Annmarie. The identification of emotions from gait information. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1987. 11(1): 33-42.

Negriff, Sonya ; Noll, Jennie G ; Shenk, Chad E ; Putnam, Frank W ; Trickett, Penelope K. Associations between nonverbal behaviors and subsequent sexual attitudes and behaviors of sexually abused and comparison girls. Child maltreatment. 2010. 15(2): 180-9.

Roether, C. L., Omlor, L., Christensen, A., & Giese, M. A. (2009). Critical features for the perception of emotion from gait. Journal of Vision, 9(6), 1–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/9.6.15.

Risner D (2009) What we know about boys who dance: The limitations of contemporary masculinity & dance education. In: Shay A, Fisher J, editors. When men dance: Choreographing masculinities across borders. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Sawada, M., Suda, K., & Ishii, M. (2003a). Expression of emotions in dance: Relation between arm movement characteristics and emotion. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 97, 697–708.

Sawada, M., Suda, K., & Ishii, M. (2003b). Relationship between leg movement quality and emotional expression in dance. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, London, England.

Sakaguchi, Kikue and Toshikazu Hasegawa. Person Perception Through Gait Information And Target Choice For Sexual Advances: Comparison Of Likely Targets In Experiments And Real Life. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2006; 30:63-85. DOI 10.1007/s10919-006-0006-2
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/dont-walk-like-youre-asking-targets-sexual-approach-based-walking-style-personality-study/

Thoresen, John C.; Quoc C. Vuong and Anthony P. Atkinson. First Impressions: Gait Cues Drive Reliable Trait Judgements. Cognition. 2012. 261–271 Thoresen, John C.; Quoc C. Vuong and Anthony P. Atkinson. First Impressions: Gait Cues Drive Reliable Trait Judgements. Cognition. 2012. 261–271
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/walk-drives-first-impressions/

van der Zwan, Rick and Natasha Herbert. “I Like The Way You Move”: How Hormonal Changes Across The Menstrual Cycle Affect Female Perceptions of Gait. Research Notes. 2012; 5: 453.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/women-at-peak-fertility-rate-other-female-walkers-less-favorably/

Van Meel J, Verburgh H, de Meijer M (1993) Children’s interpretation of dance
expressions. Empirical Studies of the Arts 11: 117–133. doi: 10.2190/V69NVB0T-
A9Q3-TJ04.

Van Dyck, Edith ; Vansteenkiste, Pieter ; Lenoir, Matthieu ; Lesaffre, Micheline ; Leman, Marc Canal-bruland, Rouwen. Recognizing Induced Emotions of Happiness and Sadness from Dance Movement. PLoS ONE. 2014 9(2): e89773.

Van Dyck E, Maes P-J, Hargreaves J, Lesaffre M, Leman M (2013). Expressing induced emotions through free dance movement. J Nonverbal Behav 37: 175–190. doi: 10.1007/s10919-013-0153-1.

Aggressive body language, Amplifier, Authoritative body language, Closed body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, High confidence body language, Palm power, Power play

Body Language of Palm Down Displays or Palm Power

by Chris • October 27, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Palm Down Displays or Palm Power

Cue: Palm Down Displays

Synonym(s): Palm Power, Palm Down On Desk, Fingertips Spread Palm Down On A Desk, Hands On Desk Or Table, Downward Facing Palm, Planted Fingertips.

Description: Hands are palm down, sometimes on a table, while speaking on a topic or issue.

In One Sentence: Palm down is a signal of authority.

How To Use it: Palms have very powerful powers. To wield them, simply display them palm down rather than palm up. Use the palms down on a desk while leaning the body forward. This shows other people that you are to be taken seriously. Use the palm-on-desk-lean-forward posture in negotiations or when trying to intimate such as in an interrogation. Placing the palms up and then down as a gesticulation against the top of the table is a way to showcase authority and the certainty of your held opinions.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: a) “My palms are down with authority, there is no room for discussion here – just do as I say.” b) “What I say goes. I’m putting my palms down on the issue.”

Variant: See Palm Up Displays or The Rogatory Posture.

Cue In Action: a) The boss stood up, put his hands palm down on the boardroom desk, leaned in, and spoke slowly and deliberately. It was a message no one misunderstood for weakness, but rather high authority and dominance. b) To quiet the room, the speaker waved his hands at chest height, fingers slightly separated. He moved up and down to calm the audience as he prepared to speak.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Palms-up, palms-down and palms even all represent different things, from authority to submission.

The rule of thumb is that palms down “tell”, while palms up, “offer.”

Palm down shows dominance or superiority, palm up shows submissiveness and palm even equality. Palm down displays show emphatically that a position is held confidently.

When used with fingers closed, a palm down display is high authority – think of the Nazi salute.

Cue Cluster: Dominant cues are linked to palm down displays. Watch for palm down with fingertips spread to be accompanied by the body leaning in, head on, loud voice and slow dominant speech. Palm down is coupled with a loud, deep voice, arms spread apart, legs open or in the figure four, leaning back and showing confidence or leaning in with passion.

Body Language Category: Amplifier, Aggressive body language, Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Closed body language, Dominant body language, High confidence body language, Palm power, Power play.

Resources:

Blurton Jones, N. G. (1967). “An Ethological Study of Some Aspects of Social Behaviour of Children in Nursery School.” In Desmond Morris (Ed.), Primate Ethology (Chicago: Aldine), pp. 347-68.

Brannigan, Christopher, and David Humphries (1972). “Human Non-Verbal Behaviour, A Means of Communication.” In N. G. Blurton-Jones, ed., Ethological Studies of Child Behaviour (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 37-64.

Bass, Andrew & Boris P. Chagnaud. 2013. Shared developmental and evolutionary origins for neural basis of vocal–acoustic and pectoral–gestural signaling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Birdwhistell, Ray. 1952. An introduction to kinesics. Louisville: University of Louisville.

Birdwhistell, Ray. 1970. Kinesics and context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.

Chaikin, Alan L. ; Gillen, Barry ; Derlega, Valerian J. ; Heinen, James R. K. ; Wilson, Midge. Students’ reactions to teachers’ physical attractiveness and nonverbal behavior: Two exploratory studies. Psychology in the Schools. 1978. 15(4): 588-595.

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.

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.

Ekman, Paul & Wallace V. Friesen. 1972. Hand movements. Journal of Communication. Vol. 22, Dec. 1, pp. 353-374.

Engel, George. 1978. Clinical value of gestures, postures, and facial expressions. Public lecture. University of Washington. Seattle. December 5.

Ekman, Paul, and Wallace V. Friesen (1969). “Nonverbal Leakage and Clues to Deception.” In Psychiatry (Vol. 32), pp. 88-106.

Ferre, Gaelle. 2011. Functions of three open-palm hand gestures. Multimodal Communication, 2011, 1 (1), pp.5-20.
http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/66/60/25/PDF/Multimodal-com-Ferre_final_.pdf

Friesen, Wallace ; Ekman, Paul ; Wallbott, Harald. Measuring hand movements. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1979. 4(2): 97-112.

Fabrega, Horatio Jr. 1973. Begging in a southeastern Mexican city.” In Romney, A. K. & I. DeVore (eds.). You and others. Cambridge, Mass.: Winthrop, pp. 162-173.

Genthner, Robert W. ; Moughan, James Osipow, Samuel H. (editor). Introverts’ and extraverts’ responses to nonverbal attending behavior. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 1977. 24(2): 144-146.

Goffman, Erving. The Nature of Deference and Demeanor. American Anthropologist. 1956. 58(3): 473-502.

Givens, David B. (forthcoming). “Reading Palm-up Signs: Neurosemiotic Overview of a Common Hand Gesture” (Accepted for publication [March 4, 2015] in Semiotica).

Givens, David B. (1978A). “Social Expressivity During the First Year of Life.” In Sign Language Studies (20), pp. 251-274.

Givens, David B. (1978B). “Greeting a Stranger: Some Commonly Used Nonverbal Signals of Aversiveness.” In Semiotica (Vol. 22), pp. 351-67.

Givens, David B. 1977. Shoulder shrugging: A densely communicative expressive behavior. Semiotica. Vol. 19:1/2, pp. 13-28.

Givens, David B. 1982. An ethological approach to the study of human nonverbal communication. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms.

Givens, David B. 1986. The big and the small: Toward a paleontology of gesture. Sign Language Studies. No. 51. Summer, pp. 145-167.

Givens, David B. 2005. Love signals: A practical field guide to the body language of courtship. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Givens, David B. 2014A. Nonverbal neurology: How the brain encodes and decodes wordless signs, signals, and cues. In Kostic, Aleksandra & Derek Chadee (eds.). Social psychology of nonverbal communication. New York: Palgrave-MacMillan Press, pp. 9-30.

Givens, David B. 2014B. Measuring gestures. In Kostic, Aleksandra & Derek Chadee (eds.). Social psychology of nonverbal communication. New York: Palgrave-MacMillan Press, pp. 66-91.

Grant, Ewan (1969). “Human Facial Expressions.” In Man (Vol. 4), pp. 525-36.

Goffman, Erving. 1956. The nature of deference and demeanor. American Anthropologist. Vol. 58, No, 3, June, pp. 473-502.

Goodall, Jane. 1986. The chimpanzees of gombe: Patterns of behavior. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University.

Givens, David B. (1982). “From Here to Eternity: Communicating With the Distant Future.” In Et Cetera (Vol. 39, No. 2), pp. 159-79.

Givens, David B. (forthcoming). “Reading Palm-up Signs: Neurosemiotic Overview of a Common Hand Gesture” (Accepted for publication [March 4, 2015] in Semiotica).

Hall, Karl & Irven DeVore. 1972. Baboon social behavior. In Phyllis Dolhinow (ed.). Primate patterns. San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, pp. 125-180.

Hubbard, Amy, McNealy, K., Zeeland, A., Callan, D. & M. Dapretto. 2012. Altered integration of speech and gesture in children with autism spectrum disorders. Brain and Behavior. Vol. 2, No. 5, Sept. 2012, pp. 606-619.

Iacoboni, Marco. 2009. Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annual Review of Psychology. Vol. 60, pp. 653-670.

Koppensteiner, Markus ; Grammer, Karl. Body movements of male and female speakers and their influence on perceptions of personality. Personality and Individual Differences. 2011. 51(6): 743-747.

Leigh, Thomas W. ; Summers, John O. An initial evaluation of industrial buyers’ impressions of salespersons’ nonverbal cues. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. 2002. 22(1): 41(13).

Mehrabian, Albert ; Williams, Martin Mcguire, William J. (editor). Nonverbal concomitants of perceived and intended persuasiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1969. 13(1): 37-58.

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

Marler, Peter. 1965. Communication in monkeys and apes. In DeVore, I. (ed.), Primate behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, pp. 544-584.

McNeill, David. 1992. Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

McNeill, David. 2005. Gesture and thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Mittelberg, Irene. 2008. Peircean semiotics meets conceptual metaphor: Iconic modes in gestural representations of grammar. In Cienki, A. & C. Müller (eds.). Metaphor and gesture. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 115-154.

Montgomery, Kimberly J., Isenberg, Nancy & James V. Haxby. 2007. Communicative hand gestures and object-directed hand movements activated the mirror neuron system. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. Vol. 2, No. 2, June, pp. 114-122.

Muller, C. 2004. Forms and uses of the palm up open hand: A case of gesture family?” In Muller, C. & Ronald Posner (eds.). The semantics and pragmatics of everyday gestures. Berlin: Weidler, pp. 233-356.

Norton, R. (1983). Communicator Style: Theory, Applications, and Measures (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications).

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

St J. Neill, S.R. The Effects of Facial Expression and Posture on Children’s Reported Responses to Teacher Nonverbal Communication. British Educational Research Journal. 1989. 15(2): 195-204.

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

Trout, Deborah ; Rosenfeld, Howard. The effect of postural lean and body congruence on the judgment of psychotherapeutic rapport. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1980. 4(3): 176-190.

Wiener, Morton ; Devoe, Shannon ; Rubinow, Stuart ; Geller, Jesse Mandler, George (editor). Nonverbal behavior and nonverbal communication. Psychological Review. 1972. 79(3): 185-214.

Waal, Frans De (1982). Chimpanzee Politics (London: Jonathan Cape).

Xu, Jiang, Gannon, Patrick J., Emmorey, Karen, Smith, Jason F. & Allen R. Braun. 2009. Symbolic gestures and spoken language are processed by a common neural system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, High confidence body language, Open body language, Ventral displays

Body Language of Military Man or Regal Stance

by Chris • October 24, 2014 • 0 Comments

Body Language of Military Man or Regal Stance

Cue: Military Man or Regal Stance

Synonym(s): Arms Behind The Back Posture, Regal Stance.

Description: It is a standing posture that occurs by placing the hands, palm in palm behind the back.

In One Sentence: The military man stance is a way to demonstrate high authority and confidence.

How To Use it: The military man stance is reserved for high ranking individuals so needs to be used with care. High school principles, those actually in the military, royalty, bosses, presidents, and so forth can show that they lack fear of confrontation. Use the posture to demonstrate, not that you wish to gain power, but that you have already achieved it.

The cue is risky in lower ranking people as it may be viewed as a bluff and backfire inviting attack.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m exposing my chest and chin to attack by putting my hands behind my body where they can not serve me. However, in so doing, I warn you – don’t come near me, I’m important and I shouldn’t be touched!”

Variant: The hand gripping the wrist or upper arm in behind the back sends an emotional message of frustration and an attempt at self control, but forms no part of what is said by the military man. See Hand Gripping Upper Arm or Wrist Behind Back.

Cue In Action: The Queen of England and Prince Philip were noted to carry this body language due to their high rank and importance as they greeted large crowds.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Arms behind the back posture signifies a desire not to be touched and a haughty attitude. It is a posture normally held by dominant individuals and leaders who expect no challenge to their authority whatsoever. Royalty, those in the military, high school principals, lawyers, doctors, policemen, and those of high rank will be seen performing this stance.

Power is the main meaning delivered by the military man posture, as it exposes the full front of the body to possible attack and also says that a person is so powerful they aren’t to be touched or approached. Evolutionarily speaking, the military man is a strutting posture. By design, it preemptively avoids potentially harmful physical show-downs between rival men.

Other possible root origins stem from its concealment properties. In other words, a spear, knife or other makeshift sharp object might be cocked, ready to be sprung on unsuspecting challengers – you’d never know, so why risk it!

Cue Cluster: The military man posture is accompanied by holding the chin up and head held back. Usually the feet of the military man are splayed outward so as to take up more space and produce an aura of dominance. The opposite of which is “tibial torsion” when the toes point inward to signal submission.

Body Language Category: Authoritative body language, Confident body language, Dominant body language, High confidence body language, Open body language, Ventral displays.