Category: Hostile body language

Body Language of Whining Voice or Whine

Body Language of Whining Voice or Whine

No picCue: Whining Voice or Whine

Synonym(s): Nagging.

Description: Nagging can be sign-song-like, high pitched, grating, continuous, and meant to annoy.

In One Sentence: A whining voice is a form of punishment used to manipulate other people into doing something they’d rather not do.

How To Use it: Whining can only be used effectively when there is a sympathetic listener. Therefore, the cue is generally reserved for women and children. While men can sometimes use whining, it is likely to result in a poor reflection of him and also yield poor results overall. That is not to say that women and children do not receive negative judgment when whining, however, the negative impression is usually short-lived and the pay-out in terms of results, therefore, worth it. Whining works as a “negative reinforcement” as the whiner promises to eliminate her whine once she has received her currency.

Context: a) General b) Dating.

Verbal Translation: “I’m incapable of solving my own problems so I punish people around me with a shrill, continuous, and annoying voice, in hopes that someone else will pick up the slack for me and serve my needs.”

Variant: See Voice Pitch.

Cue In Action: a) She whined incessantly – through the entire car ride. She wanted mom and dad to stop for ice-cream. Finally, dad had enough, pulled the car over at the nearest chain restaurant and bought her a cone just to make it stop. b) She whined incessantly – daily. She wanted a diamond ring and she wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer. Finally he broke down, pulled her into the ring store and bought her a ring just to make it stop.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Whining is a childlike voice trait aimed specifically at manipulating other people without using forceful words. Whining is a form of punishment to those who hear it. The whiner assumes that their annoying speaking patterns will motivation someone to action on their behalf, with the reward being whine cessation. In other words, the whine pushes those around him or her into action “just to make the whining stop.” Often, this only encourages the whine to return in the future as whining has been rewarded. Whining is considered a passive aggressive form of non-physical violence.

Those who use whining voices are usually followers by nature and often prefer to complain rather than take action themselves. The whiner is hoping others will take care of them. When suggestions to take charge of their own fate are suggested they are quickly rejected, then the person will often withdraw and pout. Whiners often surround themselves with people who are sympathetic to their complaints and help them.

Those who whine are often infantile in their character traits when they aren’t actually infants themselves. Toddlers habitually manipulate adults through whining, but adults, frequently female, will maintain the trait in effort to coax men around them perform favours for them. When grown men whine, it is particularly off-putting.

Cue Cluster: Whining is often coupled with submissive postures and infantile or eratic behaviour such as flailing arms, pouting, downcast eyes, crying, holding the breath, kicking and screaming, flopping on the floor or self harm and breaking things.

Body Language Category: Amplifier, Aggressive body language, Audible signals, Disapproval cues, Hostile body language, Pseudo-infantile gestures.

Resources:

Bachorowski, J., & Owren, M. J. (1995). Vocal expression of emotion: Acoustic properties of speech are associated with emotional intensity and context. Psychological Science, 6, 219–224.

Chang, Rosemarie Sokol and Thompson, Nicholas S. Whines, cries, and motherese: Their relative power to distract. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology.2011. 5(2): 131-141.

Herold, Debora S. ; Nygaard, Lynne C. ; Namy, Laura L. Say It like You Mean It: Mothers’ Use of Prosody to Convey Word Meaning. Language and Speech. 2012. 55(3): 423-436.

Kowalski, Robin M. Whining, griping, and complaining: Positivity in the negativity. Journal of Clinical Psychology. 2002. 58(9): 1023-1035.

Nygaard, L. C., & Queen, J. S. (2008). Communicating emotion: Linking affective prosody and word meaning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 34, 1017–1030.

Scherer, K., Banse, R., Wallbott, H., & Goldbeck, T. (1991). Vocal cues in emotion encoding and decoding. Motivation and Emotion, 15, 123–148.

Singh, L., Morgan, J. L., & Best, C. T. (2002). Infants’ listening preferences: Baby talk or happy talk? Infancy, 3, 365–394.

Scherer, Klaus R. Personality inference from voice quality: The loud voice of extroversion. European Journal of Social Psychology. 1978 8(4): 467-487.

Trainor, L. J., Austin, C. M., & Desjardins, R. N. (2000). Is infant-directed speech prosody a result of the vocal expression of emotion? Psychological Science, 11, 188–195.

Siegman, Aron Wolfe ; Boyle and Stephen Mineka. Voices of Fear and Anxiety and Sadness and Depression: The Effects of Speech Rate and Loudness on Fear and Anxiety and Sadness and Depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 1993. 102(3): 430-437.

Sokol, Rosemarie I. ; Webster, Karen L. ; Thompson, Nicholas S. ; Stevens, David A. Whining as mother‐directed speech. Infant and Child Development. 2005. 14(5): 478-490.

Walker-Andrews, A., & Grolnick, W. (1983). Discrimination of vocal expressions by young infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 6, 491–498.

Body Language of Tongue Jutting or Pushing The Tongue Through Compressed Lips

Body Language of Tongue Jutting or Pushing The Tongue Through Compressed Lips

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Tongue Jutting or Pushing The Tongue Through Compressed Lips 2 BodyLanguageProjectCom - Tongue Jutting or Pushing The Tongue Through Compressed Lips 3Cue: Tongue Jutting or Pushing The Tongue Through Compressed Lips.

Synonym(s): Pushing The Tongue Through Compressed Lips.

Description: When the tongue is pushed through compressed lips.

In One Sentence: Sticking out the tongue through compressed lips signals that one has gotten away with something.

How To Use it: Sticking out the tongue can show that we’re joking a not to be taken seriously. This can produce a bonding effect by sharing in a joke.

However, if we’re not careful, we may stick our tongue out to admit our failure in being good spirited and have been caught in a misdeed.

Finally, the tongue jut is a way to show others that we disagree and are “rejecting” them or their ideas.

Context: a) General b) Dating.

Verbal Translation: “I’m sticking out my tongue through my lips because I’ve gotten away with this”, “I’m telling a cheeky joke or making a cheeky statement”, “I’ve made a mistake” or “I’ve been caught trying to pull a fast one.”

Variant: See Tongue Protrusion or Tongue Rejection.

Cue In Action: a) The friend spiked his buddy’s drink. As he grew more inebriated and began to stumble, his budding confronted him. He admitted to adding a bit extra to the drink. He followed his statement up by sticking his tongue out which he quickly clamped shut – he enjoyed watching his reaction. b) She wasn’t into him – her first reaction was to jut her tongue out showing her distaste.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Tongue jutting or tongue through compressed lips is used to signal a cheeky attitude when done amongst friends, but has a more sinister connotation in competitive situations since it indicates that a person has gotten away with something. “Tongue-jutting” is an indication that people figure they have gotten away with something, or have been caught doing something they shouldn’t have. However, in this case, the tongue is usually pushed through the teeth and doesn’t touch the lips.

The tongue jut gesture will be seen at the conclusion of an event such as signing a contract or winning a hand at poker by bluffing. Most of the time tongue protrusion happens when people feel they haven’t been caught, but sometimes it’s actually because they’ve been caught. Tongue through the lips or teeth can happen any place at anytime but signals the same thing almost every time, and that is that a person is doing something that is pushing the envelope of acceptability or has gotten caught doing something that is unacceptable.

If we notice this “tongue language” we should review what has been said. We may begin be assuming that we have been fooled, cheated or that we or someone around us has been made the butt of a joke. Lastly, we may surmise that tongue protruder, themselves, have made a mistake and it has come to their attention.

Cue Cluster: Watch for a goofy grin or smirk. When it spells rejection watch for head turned away, eyes averted or sneering nose.

Body Language Category: Automatic gesture, Dislike (nonverbal), Doubt or disbelief body language, Hostile body language, Inborn behaviours, Indicators of disinterest (IOD), Leaked or involuntary body language, Microgestures, Negative body language, Rejection 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

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.

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

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.

Cassell, J., & Thórisson, K. R. (1999). The power of a nod and a glance: Envelope vs. emotional feedback in animated conversational agents. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 13, 519–538.

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/

Curtis V, Aunger R, Rabie T (2004) Evidence that disgust evolved to protect from risk of disease. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 271: S131–S133. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2003.0144. PubMed: 15252963.

Curtis, V., & Biran, A. (2001). Dirt, disgust, and disease: Is hygiene in our genes? Perspectives in biology and medicine, 44(1), 17–31.

Carroll JM, Russell JA (1996) Do facial expressions signal specific emotions? Judging emotion from the face in context. J Pers Soc Psychol 70: 205–218. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.70.2.205. PubMed: 8636880.

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.

Dolgin, K.G. and J. Sabini. Experimental manipulation of a human non-verbal display: The tongue-show affects an observer’s willingness to interact. Animal Behavior. 30(3): 935- 936.

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

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

Gagnon, Mathieu ; Gosselin, Pierre ; Hudon-ven der Buhs, Isabelle ; Larocque, Karine ; Milliard, Karine. Children’s Recognition and Discrimination of Fear and Disgust Facial Expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2010. 34(1): 27-42.

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.

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

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.

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.

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).

Inbar, Y., & Pizarro, D. Disgust, politics, and responses to threat [commentary]. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2014. 37: 315-316.

Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., Iyer, R., & Haidt, J. (2012). Disgust sensitivity, political conservatism, and voting. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2012. 3: 537-544.

Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., & Bloom Disgusting smells cause decreased liking of gay men. Emotion. 2012. 12: 23-27.

Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., & Bloom, P. Conservatives are more easily disgusted than liberals. Cognition and Emotion. 2009. 23, 714-725.

Jones, N ; Kearins, J ; Watson, J. The human tongue show and observers’ willingness to interact: replication and extensions. Psychological reports. 1987. 60(3 Pt 1): 759-64.
http://www.amsciepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pr0.1987.60.3.759

Kunz, Miriam ; Peter, Jessica ; Huster, Sonja ; Lautenbacher, Stefan Gray, Marcus (Editor). Pain and Disgust: The Facial Signaling of Two Aversive Bodily Experiences (Comparing Facial Expressions of Pain and Disgust). 2013. 8(12): p.e83277

Kim, K. J. (1985). Development of the concept of truth-functional negation. Developmental Psychology, 21, 462–472. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.21.3.462

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/

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.

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

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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.

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http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/read-kids-dislike-food-facial-expressions-accurate-detecting-dislike-not-like-children/

Body Language of Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture

Body Language of Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture 3 BodyLanguageProjectCom - Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture 4 BodyLanguageProjectCom - Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture 5 BodyLanguageProjectCom - Thumb Displays or Thumbs Up Posture 2Cue: 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:

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.

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/

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.

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

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

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.

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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.

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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.

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Body Language of Stiff Arm and Thrust Forward Handshake

Body Language of Stiff Arm and Thrust Forward Handshake

No picCue: Stiff Arm and Thrust Forward Handshake

Synonym(s): N/A

Description: The stiff arm thrust forward happens when someone grabs your hand then pushes you backwards putting you off balance.

In One Sentence: The stiff arm thrust forward handshake is usually done by a person who wants to maintain their personal space and is not afraid to say so.

How To Use it: Use the stiff arm thrust forward handshake when you want to keep a person out of your personal space. The signal will help you express your desire for more space and to show them not to encroach on you. This sort of handshake is mostly suited to those who desire more than average level of personal space such as those living in the country.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I need more space than you do and I’m not afraid to move you out of my personal space bubble by pushing you away.”

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: It was rare for the two salesman to be in the same office together as it was the busy season and both were aggressively campaigning to grow into new sectors. When they shook hands it was clear that one of them didn’t condone the others aggressive tactics. He made a point of going over and saying his peace. When he shook hands – he squeezed firmly and pushed him back and away, making it clear that he was overstepping his boundaries.

Meaning and/or Motivation: It’s a common occurrence for those trying to maintain their distance. Take for example a “city slicker” and a “country farmer” who meet for the first time. The farmer might accept the handshake even though a wave would be more appropriate for their comfort and to keep his space will push his arm forward shoving the city slicker back.

This sort of handshake can happen anytime a person requires more space than their partner and this isn’t always people from the country.

Cue Cluster: Expect the stiff arm handshake to be coupled with authoritative or aggressive body language such as arms akimbo or the cowboy stance, expressionless or stern facial expressions, moving to quieter locations out of the way and a reserved demeanor unless provoked.

Body Language Category: Aggressive body language, Authoritative body language, Defensive , Dislike (nonverbal), Distancing or moving away, Dominant body language, Escape movements, Guiding body language, Hostile body language, Power play, Space invasion, Stubborn or stubbornness, Social touching, Threat displays.

Resources:

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

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

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Gueguen, Nicolas. Handshaking and Compliance With a Request – A Door-to-door Setting. Social Behavior and Personality. 2013. 41(10): 1585-1588.
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Pease, Barbara and Allan Pease. 2006. The Definitive Book of Body Language Hardcover. Bantam.

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.

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Body Language of Standing Square

Body Language of Standing Square

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Standing Square 1Cue: Standing Square.

Synonym(s): Face-To-Face Standing Position, Head-On Standing Position, Competitive Head-To-Head Standing Position.

Description: When people who are speaking to each other stand or sit facing each other directly head-on.

In One Sentence: Standing square or face-to-face signals direct competition or high intimacy.

How To Use it: Stand square when you are prepared to be isolated from other people while being totally engrossed in the person who compliments your position.

This works well in dating to create intimacy, but also in battle when one squares off against an opponent. Men should avoid standing square with women unless they believe that romance is probable. In most cases, it is best to permit the women to show signs that a squared off stance is permitted. A man may chance a squared posture to see how a woman reacts. This will give him an idea about his current relationship status.

In confrontation, standing square is the highest order of aggression. It pits one person directly against another. Therefore, save this stance for when you feel that you can win the argument and you will not have to make a quick escape.

Context: a) General b) Business c) Dating.

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m sitting facing you head-to-head because we are in direct competition.” b) “We’re at odds with one another at opposing ends of the spectrum which is why we are facing off against one another.” c) “We are in love and stare blissfully into each others eyes.”

Variant: Standing At Forty-Five Degrees or Casual Corner Sitting Position, Angular Distance.

Cue In Action: a) Dave approached Mark directly, got right in his face and told him in no uncertain terms, “Don’t go near my girlfriend again.” b) The law firms were squared off, one team on the left, and the other team on the right.” c) The lovers looked each other deeply in the eyes before kissing.

Meaning and/or Motivation: It is either a confrontational orientation similar to those nearing, or in physical conflict or an intimate sitting and standing posture. Most people would state that standing square, face-to-face was the most honest and trustworthy position people orient themselves in while speaking with someone, but they would only be half right. In fact, most Americans stand at forty-five degrees or at oblique angles to one another.

Facing someone dead on, is how boxers square off to one another in the pre-show weigh-in or when two men near physical contact at a bar. The head on orientation is reserved for confrontation with just one exception; that is when two people are really comfortable with each other and are intimate.

Legal television dramas popularize this head-to-head seating position. Here each party faces directly across from the other person usually with their allies to their left and right solidifying their flanks. Another word for this position is the “closed” seating arrangement because it isolates people with the use of the desk. In the “open” arrangement a desk is pushed up against a wall and presents no barrier to visitors since they can access every part of a person when meeting with them. Closed positions convey formality, distance and authority, defensiveness and even divisiveness whereas open orientations convey interest and comfort.

Obviously this position should be avoided when cooperation and affiliation formation is desired as it has the reverse effect. The head-to-head position, when it is not expected, creates hostility and shows indifference.

When orienting at oblique angles it sends the message that we aren’t trying to corner each other. However, when we do sit or stand face-to-face it’s a demonstration of extreme comfort and trust. Other cultures don’t feel this way. Arabic cultures, for example, will speak with one another with their faces nearly touching and this often happens during normal conversation. Women in American cultures tolerate such closeness only from another woman. Men who do this to women will be perceived as sexually interested and be seen to be making a sexual come-on. If not welcomed, closeness will be a threat and turn-off, and in an office situation, should definitely be avoided.

Cue Cluster: Many times, the cue defines the context. For example, sitting head-on when sitting side-by-side is perfectly possible, tells the other group that we wish not to be cooperative. We might look to other cues and verbal dialogue to measure level of desire to cooperate or be competitive.

Body Language Category: Amplifier, Aggressive body language, Body pointing, Comfort body language, Courtship display, Hostile body language, Liking, Seated body pointing, Threat displays, Tie signals.

Resources:

Argyle, M., & Dean, I. Eye contact, distance and affiliation. Sociometry, 1965, 28, 289-304.

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Broth, Mathias and Lorenza Mondada. Walking Away: The Embodied Achievement of Activity Closings in Mobile Interaction. Journal of Pragmatics. 2013. 47: 41-58.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbally-negotiate-conversation-walking-away/

Bania, Amanda E. ; Stromberg, Erin E. Call, Joseph (editor). The Effect of Body Orientation on Judgments of Human Visual Attention in Western Lowland Gorillas.
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Belhiah, Hassan. Tutoring as an embodied activity: How speech, gaze and body orientation are coordinated to conduct ESL tutorial business. Journal of Pragmatics. 2009. 41(4): 829-841.

Broth, Mathias and Lorenza Mondada. Walking Away: The Embodied Achievement of Activity Closings in Mobile Interaction. Journal of Pragmatics. 2013. 47: 41-58.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbally-negotiate-conversation-walking-away/

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

Clack, B., Dixon, J., & Tredoux, C. (2005). Eating together apart: Patterns of segregation in a multi-ethnic cafeteria. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 15, 1-16. doi:10.1002/casp.787

Castelli, Luigi ; Carraro, Luciana ; Pavan, Giulia ; Murelli, Elisa ; Carraro, Alessia. The Power of the Unsaid: The Influence of Nonverbal Cues on Implicit Attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 2012 42(6): 1376-1393.

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

Chance RMA (1962) An interpretation of some agonistic postures: the role of “cut-off” acts and postures. Symp Zool Soc Lond 8: 71–89.

Danielle Jackson, Erika Engstrom and Tara Emmers-Sommer. 2007. Think Leader, Think Male and Female: Sex vs. Seating Arrangement as Leadership Cues. Sex Roles. 57 (9/10): 713-723.

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/

Felipe, N. Connotations of seating arrangements. Cornell Journal of Social Relations, 1967, 2, 37-44.

Gifford, Robert ; O’Connor, Brian. Nonverbal intimacy: Clarifying the role of seating distance and orientation. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1986 10(4): 207-214.

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Greenberg, J. 1976. The role of seating position in group interaction: a review, with applications for group trainers. Group & Organization Management 1 (3): 310-327.

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

Howells, L. T. and S. W. Becker. 1962. Seating arrangement and leadership emergence.
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Body Language of the Sneering

Body Language of the Sneering

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Sneering 1Cue: Sneering

Synonym(s): N/A

Description: Sneering happens quickly, often in a split second, when the muscles between the eyes just above the nose contract forcing the skin around the nose to wrinkle and the brows to furrow. Sneers activate the buccinator muscles located on the sides of the face to draw the corners of the lips to twist sideways toward the ears.

In One Sentence: Sneering signals a negative thought.

How To Use it: Sneering can be used as a microexpression to signal disagreement so can operate just under conscious awareness. You may use the signal to show disapproval of a person or idea by flashing it upon their presence or just as they complete a thought.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I don’t like what I’m seeing or hearing and my nose is wrinkling. It is as if I have experienced a bad odor.”

Variant: See Eye Rolling or Eye Shrug.

Cue In Action: The final card was dealt and Dave needed another 8 to complete his full house. It came in as a 6 of diamonds, not what he wanted. His nose crinkled momentarily as he stifled his disappointment.

Meaning and/or Motivation: This is an expression that usually happens in just seconds, it is not held for any length of time, and usually falls out of our direct control. For this reason, it is considered an honest expression, and loaded with hidden meaning. It signals a negative attitude and arrogance to views or persons to which it accompanies. Sneering, much like eye rolling, signifies dislike, contempt, arrogance, disapproval, disrespect, disgust or displeasure all over the world.

To visualize this cue imagine smelling something off-putting, the nose crinkles or wrinkles up, then relaxes. Sneering says, “I don’t care what you think, and I don’t respect you.” Because sneers happen as microexpressions, they often immediately follow a stimulus. This makes it very easy to link the negative expression with its cause.

Couples who sneer when listening to each other indicate that they lack respect and it has been shown that it is a good predictor for breaking up. Sneering can be done by employees who think they know more than their bosses, but whom resist speaking up because of fear of being fired, and by children who lack respect for authority. Wherever sneering rears its ugly face, it is due to distain.

Cue Cluster: Watch for other indicators of negative thoughts such as head shaking, yawning, finger pointing, overall tensing of the body or extreme body loosening to ready for fighting, tightening of the jaw and lips, quivering in the lips, frowning, furrowing, or lowering the eyebrows, dilated pupils, squinting of the eyes, crotch displays such as legs open, or flared nostrils.

Body Language Category: Aggressive body language, Anger body language, Dislike (nonverbal), Emotional body language, Hostile body language, Indicators of disinterest (IOD), Leaked or involuntary body language, Microexpressions, Negative body language, Rejection body language, Universal facial expressions.

Resources:

Aranguren, Martin. “Nonverbal interaction patterns in the Delhi Metro: interrogative looks and play-faces in the management of interpersonal distance.” Interaction Studies. 2016. 16(1) forthcoming.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/seriously-stop-touching-use-nonverbal-signaling-manage-unwanted-touching-busy-public-areas/

Aranguren, Martin and Stephane Tonnelat. Emotional Transactions in the Paris Subway: Combining Naturalistic Videotaping, Objective Facial Coding and Sequential Analysis in the Study of Nonverbal Emotional Behavior. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2014. 38:495–521. DOI 10.1007/s10919-014-0193-1

Carroll E. 1994. Innate and universal facial expressions: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research Izard, Psychological Bulletin. 115(2): 288-299.

Curtis V, Aunger R, Rabie T (2004) Evidence that disgust evolved to protect from risk of disease. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 271: S131–S133. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2003.0144. PubMed: 15252963.

Curtis, V., & Biran, A. (2001). Dirt, disgust, and disease: Is hygiene in our genes? Perspectives in biology and medicine, 44(1), 17–31.

Carroll JM, Russell JA (1996) Do facial expressions signal specific emotions? Judging emotion from the face in context. J Pers Soc Psychol 70: 205–218. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.70.2.205. PubMed: 8636880.

Daniel H. Lee, Reza Mirza, John G. Flanagan and Adam K. Anderson. Optical Origins of Opposing Facial Expression Actions. Psychological Science published online 24 January 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0956797613514451
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/eyes-and-facial-expressions-may-be-biologically-controlled-serve-a-real-non-emotional-purpose-says-research/

Ekman, Paul. 1994. Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions: A reply to Russell’s mistaken critique Psychological Bulletin. 115(2): 268-287.

Ekman, Paul. 1986. A new pan-cultural facial expression of emotion. Source: Motivation and Emotion Ekman. 10(2): 159-168.

Ekman, Paul and Friesen, W. V. 1987. Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 53(4): 712-717.

Ekman, Paul; Friesen, Wallace V. 1971. Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 17(2): 124-129.

Ekman, Paul. 1972. Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In J. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1971. 19: 207-282. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Ekman, P. & O’Sullivan, M. (1991). Who can catch a liar? American Psychologist. 46, 913-920.

Fulcher, J. S. “Voluntary” facial expression in blind and seeing children. Archives of Psychology, 1942. 38: 272.

Friesen, W. V. 1972. Cultural differences in facial expressions in a social situation: An experimental test of the concept of display rules. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Francisco.

Gagnon, Mathieu ; Gosselin, Pierre ; Hudon-ven der Buhs, Isabelle ; Larocque, Karine ; Milliard, Karine. Children’s Recognition and Discrimination of Fear and Disgust Facial Expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2010. 34(1): 27-42.

Inbar, Y., & Pizarro, D. Disgust, politics, and responses to threat [commentary]. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2014. 37: 315-316.

Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., Iyer, R., and Haidt, J. (2012). Disgust sensitivity, political conservatism, and voting. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2012. 3: 537-544.

Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., and Bloom Disgusting smells cause decreased liking of gay men. Emotion. 2012. 12: 23-27.

Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., & Bloom, P. Conservatives are more easily disgusted than liberals. Cognition and Emotion. 2009. 23, 714-725.

James A. Russell, Naoto Suzuki and Noriko Ishida. 1993. Canadian, Greek, and Japanese freely produced emotion labels for facial expressions. Motivation and Emotion. 17(4): 337 -351

Kunz, Miriam ; Peter, Jessica ; Huster, Sonja ; Lautenbacher, Stefan Gray, Marcus (Editor). Pain and Disgust: The Facial Signaling of Two Aversive Bodily Experiences (Comparing Facial Expressions of Pain and Disgust). 2013. 8(12): p.e83277.

McClure, Erin B 2000. A meta-analytic review of sex differences in facial expression processing and their development in infants, children, and adolescents
Psychological Bulletin. 126(3): 424-453.

Mead, M. 1975. Review of “Darwin and facial expression.” Journal of Communication, 25: 209-213.

Pizarro, D.A., Inbar, Y., and Helion, C.. On disgust and moral judgment. Emotion Revie2. 2011. 3: 267–268.

David Pizarro (video) talk about the possible evolution of the disgust facial expression: http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/evolution-politics-disgust-ted-talk-david-pizarro/

Russell, James A. 1995. Facial Expressions of Emotion: What Lies Beyond Minimal Universality? Psychological bulletin. 118(3): 379-391.

Russell, James A. 1994. Is There Universal Recognition of Emotion From Facial Expression? A Review of the Cross-Cultural Studies. Psychological Bulletin. 115(1): 102-141.

Susskind, Joshua M and Adam K Anderson. Facial Expression Form and Function. Communicative Integrative Biology. 2008. 1(2): 148–149. PMCID: PMC2686004
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/emotional-facial-expressions-evolve/

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., & Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1096–1109. doi:10.1177/0146167208317771.

Underwood, M. K.. Glares of Contempt, Eye Rolls of Disgust and Turning Away to Exclude: Non-Verbal Forms of Social Aggression among Girls. Feminism & Psychology. 2004 14(3): 371-375

Wen-Jing Yan; Qi Wu; Jing Liang; Yu-Hsin Chen and Xiaolan Fu. How Fast Are The Leaked Facial Expressions: The Duration of Micro-Expressions. Journal Nonverbal Behavior. 2013; 37:217–230 DOI 10.1007/s10919-013-0159-8
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/just-fast-leaked-micro-expressions/

Wolf K, Mass R, Ingenbleek T, Kiefer F, Naber D et al. (2005) The facial pattern of disgust, appetence, excited joy and relaxed joy: an improved facial EMG study. Scand J Psychol 46: 403-409. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2005.00471.x. PubMed: 16179022.

Body Language of Short Grabber Handshake or Finger Grabber Handshake

Body Language of Short Grabber Handshake or Finger Grabber Handshake

No picCue: Short Grabber Handshake.

Synonym(s): Finger Grabber Handshake.

Description: A handshake whereby only the fingers make it into the hand. Because the grip ends up short, the fingers are usually sandwiched together painfully.

In One Sentence: The finger grabber aims to cause pain and inflict dominance and aggression over others.

How To Use it: Use this handshake when you wish to intimidate other people. This can be useful in threatening competitors. This can be useful to set people straight when they are causing you problems or are encroaching on your territory. The handshake is best served to those you feel are not prepared to back up their stake of dominance over you.

Context: Business.

Verbal Translation: “I’m so insecure, but pretending to be dominant, that I’m going to put you through the ringer by grabbing your finger tips and squishing up your fingers to cause you pain.”

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: James was a routine pranker. The family reunion was no exception. It was widely known that one should avoid shaking hands with him as he frequently caused his cousins and nephews to squeal in pain by crushing their finger tips.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Someone that grabs your fingers rather than your entire hand is trying to keep you at a distance and also put you in your place. Short grabbers are usually insecure but often try to hide this by coming off as dominant through the infliction of pain and the denial of proper, though measured, intimacy which the handshake is designed to create. If they add a crushing action in addition to the finger tip grab they are trying to send and even stronger message by displaying their physical power over you.

Crushing is used to put a bit of fear into their partners so as to dismiss the likelihood of any future challenge against them. In other words, the short grabber is messing around with the handshake on purpose and trying to put another person through the ringer, so to speak.

When the handshake comes up short by accident, rather than on purpose, the other person will let up and apply less pressure or readjust so as to do a proper handshake rather than cause undo pain.

If by chance, you accidentally grab the fingers of someone else, which can happen when men shake hands with women, you can vocally suggest doing the handshake over again. A simple “sorry, that didn’t quite work, let’s give it another go” will suffice. This will show that you are concerned about starting off on the right foot and truly wish to set the proper tone for the relationship.

Cue Cluster: The finger tip grabber is usually insecure, but tries to come off as cocky and arrogant. He will be boisterous and overstep personal space boundaries. He will touch when it’s inappropriate, slap a shoulder or ruffle hair. He is often a practical joker and tries to put people through their steps doing anything to make them feel uncomfortable.

Body Language Category: Anger body language, Arrogance or arrogant body language, Aggressive body language, Dominant body language, Hostile body language, Low confidence body language, Low confidence hand displays, Masked body language, Negative body language, 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.

Crusco, A. and C. Wetzel. 1984. The midas touch: the effects of interpersonal touch on restaurant tipping, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 10: 512–517.

Debrot, Anik ; Schoebi, Dominik ; Perrez, Meinrad ; Horn, Andrea B. Touch as an interpersonal emotion regulation process in couples’ daily lives: the mediating role of psychological intimacy. Personality & social psychology bulletin. 2013. 9(10): 1373-85.

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.

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
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05154.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/shake-hands-share-human-scent-curious-case-hand-sniffing-body-language/

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

Ghareeb, P.A. ; Bourlai, T. ; Dutton, W. ; McClellan, W.T. Reducing pathogen transmission in a hospital setting. Handshake verses fist bump: a pilot study. Journal of Hospital Infection. 2013. 85(4): 321-323.

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; Sebastien Meineri and Virginie Charles-Sire. Improving Medication Adherence by Using Practitioner Nonverbal Techniques: A Field Experiment on the Effect of Touch. Journal of Behavioral Medice. 2010. 33:466–473
DOI 10.1007/s10865-010-9277-5
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/touching-boosts-compliance-improving-medical-compliance-using-nonverbal-communication/

Guéguen, N. (2001a). Toucher et soumission a` une requeˆte: Re´plications expe´rimentales en situation naturelle et e´valuation de l’impact du statut. Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale. 2001(a). 14(3):113-158.

Guéguen, N. (2001b). L’effet d’influence du toucher sur le comportement du consommateur: 2 illustrations expe´rimentales en exte´rieur. Direction et Gestion: La Revue des Sciences de Gestion. 2001(b). 190–191, 123–132.

Guéguen, N and C. Jacob 2006, Touch and consumer behavior: A new experimental evidence in a field setting, International Journal of Management 23: 24–33.

Guéguen, N., & Jacob, C. The effect of touch on tipping: An evaluation in a French’s bar. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 2005. 24(2): 295-299.

Gueguen, Nicolas; Celine Jacob; Gaelle Boulbry. The Effect of Touch on Compliance With a Restaurant’s Employee Suggestion. Hospitality Management. 2007. 26: 1019-1023.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/touching-leads-compliance-study/

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/

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

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.

Hertenstein, Matthew J; Keltner, Dacher; App, Betsy; Bulleit, Brittany A; Jaskolka, Ariane R 2006. Touch Communicates Distinct Emotions. Emotion. 6(3): 528-533

Hareli, Shlomo; Noga Shomrat and Ursula Hess. Emotional Versus Neutral Expressions and Perceptions of Social Dominance and Submissiveness. Emotion. 2009 9(3): 378-384. DOI: 10.1037/a0015958
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/dominance-expression-conveyed-different-facial-expressions-men-women/

Jeffrey D. Fisher; Marvin Rytting; Richard Heslin. 1976. Hands Touching Hands: Affective and Evaluative Effects of an Interpersonal Touch. Sociometry, 39(4): 416-421.

Lynn et al., 1998 M. Lynn, J.M. Le and D. Sherwyn. 1998. Reach out and touch your customers, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quaterly 39: 60-65.

Lipsitz, Rebecca (2000). “A Gripping Start.” In Scientific American (September), p. 32.

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

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

Smith, D. E., Gier, J. A., & Willis, F. N. 1982. Interpersonal touch and compliance with a marketing request. Basic and Applied Social Psychology. 3: 35-38.

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/

Schubert, Thomas W. The Power In Your Hand: Gender Differences In Bodily Feedback
From Making a Fist. Society for Personality and Social Psychology. 2004. 30(6): 757-769. DOI: 10.1177/0146167204263780
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/men-view-power-body-language-different-women-bodily-feedback-making-fist/

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.

Thompson, Erin H. and James A. Hampton. The Effect of Relationship Status on Communicating Emotions Through Touch,. Cognition and Emotion. 2011. 25(2): 295-306. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2010.492957.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/using-touch-convey-emotion/

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

Body Language of Self-Harm

Body Language of Self-Harm

No picCue: Self-Harm.

Synonym(s): Pinching The Skin, Squeezing Pimples, Scratching The Skin, Cracking Knuckles, Plucking Hair, Hair Pulling (self), Pulling At The Skin, Cracking Knuckles.

Description: A particularly aggressive scratch, pinch, or clawing at the body during emotional stress.

In One Sentence: Self harm is a sign of emotional stress.

How To Use it: While self harming can produce feelings of control and emotional release, it only masks underlying emotional issues. If you are a self-harmer, find someone you trust and work through your problems in a more constructive way.

Even mild self harming such as self-pinching, jaw clenching, body gripping and wringing, and so forth, are not positive signals. By identifying these patterns and discover the cause it will help move you in a more constructive direction.

Simply eliminating the body language can, at times, and in mid cases, reduce negative emotions by eliminating the outer symptoms, however, they will not deal with the true root. Talk to someone you trust if you are a habitual self-harmer. Build the courage to vocalize the real issue.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m losing control of the situation and my emotions, and am using self pain to re-establish my ability to influence things that are happening to me.”

Variant: Self-harm can take many forms, but all forms are motivated by the need to control the source of emotional pain by taking it in one’s own hands. A person might pinch the skin, scratch the skin, squeeze pimples, crack the knuckles, pluck or pull hair and so forth. See Hand Clenching or Fist Clenching.

Cue In Action: a) As the teenager suffered, she cut herself on the wrist and abdomen. While it didn’t resolve her underlying emotional issues, it provided a way that she could control the pain she was experiencing. b) The stress caused him to pick and pull at his pimples. c) Running the fingers through her knotted hair felt nice as she dealt with the loss of her grandmother. d) He plucked nose hair while thinking of how his boss had refused a raise.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Self-harm is linked to clenching and gripping body language as both are ways people show that they harbour negative feelings and emotions. Pinching the skin, scratching and pulling are ways a person regains control over the root of their pain. When a person self-harms, they are showing others that they are insecure, have negative feelings, low self-esteem, or are in immediate distress.

We should be particularly attuned to self harm that happens suddenly as this can predict a change in emotional state. Also carefully watch for the amplitude, frequency and force behind the self harm to monitor the underlying emotional state.

Clenching and gripping can have many other forms as well, including clenching the jaws tight or even talking through the teeth, cracking knuckles, pulling the hair or even plucking it, pinching one’s self, and clenching the fists by turning them into a ball.

In my observations of other people, I have noticed some peculiar emotional behaviour that includes the grotesque such as squeezing pimples to plucking nose hairs to more damaging and extreme behaviours such as hitting the head and scratching called “self harm” but can include any other painful and repetitive behaviours serving to sooth emotional stress.

Cue Cluster: Watch for multiple cues of self-harm. We often see fidgeting, pacing, blushing or blanching, tug at their skin such as their ears, nose or hair.

Body Language Category: Auto contact or self touching, Aggressive body language, Clenching and gripping, Emotional body language, Energy Displacement, Hostile body language, Idiosyncratic body language, Low confidence body language, Negative body language, Stressful body language, Worry body language.

Resources:

Arsenio, W. F., Cooperman, S., & Lover, A. Affective Predictors of Preschooler’s Aggression and Peer Acceptance: Direct and Indirect Effects. Developmental Psychology. 2000. 36: 438-448.

Breau, Lynn M. ; Camfield, Carol S. ; Symons, Frank J. ; Bodfish, James W. ; MacKay, Alison ; Finley, G.Allen ; McGrath, Patrick J. Relation between pain and self-injurious behavior in nonverbal children with severe cognitive impairments. The Journal of Pediatrics. 2003 142(5): 498-503.

Croyle, Kristin L. ; Waltz, Jennifer. Subclinical Self-Harm: Range of Behaviors, Extent, and Associated Characteristics. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 2007. 77(2): 332-342.

De Jonghe-Rouleau, Adrienne P ; Pot, Anne Margriet ; De Jonghe, Jos F M. Self-injurious behaviour in nursing home residents with dementia. International journal of geriatric psychiatry. 2005. 20(7): 651-657.

Garnefski N 2004) Cognitive emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms: differences between males and female. Personal Indiv Diff 36: 267–76.

Huflejt-Łukasik M, Czarnota-Bojarska J (2006) Short Communication: Selffocused attention and self-monitoring influence on health and coping with stress. Stress Health 22: 153–59.

Harriss, Louise ; Hawton, Keith. Deliberate self-harm in rural and urban regions: A comparative study of prevalence and patient characteristics. Social Science & Medicine. 2011. 73(2): 274-281.

Jaquier, Véronique ; Hellmuth, Julianne C. ; Sullivan, Tami P.. Posttraumatic stress and depression symptoms as correlates of deliberate self-harm among community women experiencing intimate partnerviolence. Psychiatry Research. 2013. 206(1): 37-42.

Jacobson, Colleenm. ; Muehlenkamp, Jenniferj. ; Miller, Alecl. ; Turner, J. Blake. Psychiatric Impairment Among Adolescents Engaging in Different Types of Deliberate Self-Harm. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. 2008. 37(2): 363-375.

Johnson, Bret K. ; Kenkel, Mary Beth. Stress, coping, and adjustment in female adolescent incest victims. Child Abuse & Neglect. 1991. 15(3): 293-305.

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

Laye – Gindhu, Aviva ; Schonert – Reichl, Kimberly A.. Nonsuicidal Self-Harm among Community Adolescents: Understanding the “Whats” and “Whys” of Self-Harm. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 2005. 34(5): 447-457.

Mohiyeddini, Changiz ; Semple, Stuart. Displacement behaviour regulates the experience of stress in men. Stress. 2013. 16(2): 163-171.

Mohiyeddini, C., Bauer, S., & Semple, S. (2013a). Displacement behaviour is associated with reduced stress levels among men but not women. PLoS One, 8, e56355.

Mohiyeddini, C., Bauer, S., & Semple, S. (2013b). Public self-consciousness moderates the link between displacement behaviour and experience of stress in women. Stress, 16, 384–392.

Nolen-Hoeksema S, Aldao A (2011) Gender and age differences in emotion regulation strategies and their relationship to depressive symptoms. Personal Indiv Diff 51: 704–8.

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

Nock, Matthew K. Actions speak louder than words: An elaborated theoretical model of the social functions of self-injury and other harmful behaviors. Applied and Preventive Psychology. 2008. 12(4): 159-168.

Ross, Shana ; Heath, Nancy. A Study of the Frequency of Self-Mutilation in a Community Sample of Adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 2002. 31(1):.67-77.

Seekles, Wike ; van Straten, Annemieke ; Beekman, Aartjan ; van Marwijk, Harm ; Cuijpers, Pim. Effectiveness of guided self-help for depression and anxiety disorders in primary care: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial. Psychiatry Research. 2011. 187(1): 113-120.

Straker, Gillian. Signing with a Scar: Understanding Self-Harm. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 2006. 16(1): 93-112

Tamres L, Janicki D, Helgeson VS (2002) Sex differences in coping behaviour: a meta-analytic review. Personal Soc Psychol Rev 6: 2–30.

Troisi A (2002) Displacement activities as a behavioural measure of stress in nonhuman primates and human subjects. Stress 5: 47–54.

Troisi A (1999) Ethological research in clinical psychiatry: the study of nonverbal behaviour during interviews. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 23: 905–913.

Troisi A, Moles A (1999) Gender differences in depression: an ethological study of nonverbal behaviour during interviews. J Psychiatr Res 33: 243–250.

Tureck, Kim ; Matson, Johnny L. ; Beighley, Jennifer S. An investigation of self-injurious behaviors in adults with severe intellectual disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities. 2013. 34(9): 2469-2474.

von Hippel W, von Hippel C, Conway L, Preacher KJ, Schooler JW, et al. (2005) Coping with stereotype threat: denial as an impression management strategy. J Personal Soc Psychol 89: 22–35.

Yu, Yawen ; Bardy, Benoit G ; Stoffregen, Thomas A. Influences of head and torso movement before and during affordance perception. Journal of motor behavior. 2011. 43(1): 45-54.

Body Language of Scratching

Body Language of Scratching

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Scratching 1Cue: Scratching.

Synonym(s): Itching.

Description: The fingers are flexed and turned into a claw shape with the nails pointing to the skin. They move in a back and forth motion over a specific area in effort to provide comfort.

In One Sentence: Scratching can be due to negative emotions, or due to an actual itch, and therefore, have no meaning at all.

How To Use it: Scratching is not a cue that is beneficial in using necessarily, however, it can help resolve some of the discomfort due to negative thoughts. Scratching serves as a distraction to negative emotions and can help alleviate the sensation caused by stress. When scratching is done vigorously or, conversely, gently, it may reduce stress by releasing painkilling hormones or comforting hormones respectively. When stress due to lying or otherwise, is the cause of scratching, one should be careful to make it appear that one is simply using scratching to reduce normal skin discomfort. This will avoid being perceived in a negative light.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m nervous and stressed causing an increase in blood flow and sweating. I can comfort through scratching as a distraction to the underlying cause.” B) “Conversely, I’m scratching to alleviate a legitimate itch which has no emotional meaning at all.”

Variant: See Neck Scratching or Neck Massaging, Ear Grab, Hand Behind Head or Head Pacifying, Hand To Nose, Neck Rubbing (back of neck) or Holding The Back Of The Neck.

Cue In Action: The pressure was really getting to him, but he tried to remain calm. His palms began to perspire and his forehead began to bead with sweat. As the heat increased, his shirt chaffed against his skin. He scratched at his torso and pawed at his face. His partners knew he wouldn’t make the deadline.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Scratching the neck is a stress related behaviour aimed at pacifying because it diverts attention away from the true source of pain. Scratching when no itch is present is a way to displace some of the nervous energy created by the situation.

As blood flow increases to various parts of our body it stimulates nerves that in turn cause irritation and discomfort. It is the tingling sensation due to an increase in blood flow that gives clues to the underlying meaning. Thus, scratching can be due to high stress or anxiety.

In proper context itching indicates uncertainty and a lack of knowledge such as when being asked a question. The scratching behaviour is a pain inducer that causes painkilling hormones to be released to create relaxation in the face of emotional discomfort.

Scratching often has no meaning at all. In normal circumstances it is used to reduce discomfort as a result of tight or dry skin, clothing that causes tickling, or chafing and so forth. It is the motivation, method, and context that will help the body language reader decide its underlying meaning or lack thereof.

Cue Cluster: Coupled with stress scratching we might find pulling at the sleeves, blushing or flushing of the face, perspiration, touching or scratching of the face and cheeks, front and back of the neck and ear, eyebrows of grief combined with other close facial expressions such as lip pursing, squinted eyes and grimacing.

Body Language Category: Adaptors, Amplifier, Arousal, Auto contact or self touching, Comfort body language, Stroking body language, Frustration or frustrated body language, Hostile body language, Idiosyncratic body language, Low confidence body language, Lying or deceptive body language, Nervous body, Pacifying body language, Stressful body language.

Resources:

Arsenio, W. F., Cooperman, S., & Lover, A. Affective Predictors of Preschooler’s Aggression and Peer Acceptance: Direct and Indirect Effects. Developmental Psychology. 2000. 36: 438-448.

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Barroso, Felix ; Feld, Jason. Self-touching and attentional processes: The role of task difficulty, selection stage, and sex differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1986. 10(1): 51-64.

Butzen, Nathan David ; Bissonnette, Victor ; Mcbrayer, Dan. Effects of modeling and topic stimulus on self-referent touching. Perceptual and motor skills. 2005. 101(2): 413-20.

Bouhuys, A.L. ; Jansen, C.J. ; van den Hoofdakker, R.H. Analysis of observed behaviors displayed by depressed patients during a clinical interview: relationships between behavioral factors and clinical concepts of activation. Journal of Affective Disorders. 1991. 21(2): 79-88.

Bond, Michael H., and Hiroshi Komai (1976). “Targets of Gazing and Eye Contact During Interviews: Effects on Japanese Nonverbal Behavior.” In Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 34), pp. 1276-84.

Blakeslee, Sandra (1995). “In Brain’s Early Growth, Timetable Maybe Crucial.” In New York Times (“Science Times,” August 29), pp. C1, C3.

Castles, Duncan L. ; Whiten, Andrew ; Aureli, Filippo. Social anxiety, relationships and self-directed behaviour among wild female olive baboons. Animal Behaviour. 1999. 58(6): 1207-1215.

Croyle, Kristin L. ; Waltz, Jennifer. Subclinical Self-Harm: Range of Behaviors, Extent, and Associated Characteristics. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 2007. 77(2): 332-342.

Everly, Jr., G. S. & Lating, J. M. (2002). A clinical guide to the treatment of the human stress response (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers

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

Gregersen, Tammy S. Nonverbal Cues: Clues to the Detection of Foreign Language Anxiety. Foreign Language Annals. 2005. 38(3): 388-400
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Goldberg, Shelly ; Rosenthal, Robert. Self-touching behavior in the job interview: Antecedents and consequences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1986. 10(1): 65-80.

Goodall, Jane (1986). The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University).

Givens, David B. (1976). An Ethological Approach to the Study of Human Nonverbal Communication (University of Washington Ph.D. dissertation in Anthropology, Ann Arbor: University Microfilms).

Grand, Stanley (1977). “On Hand Movements During Speech: Studies of the Role of Self-Stimulation in Communication Under Conditions of Psychopathology, Sensory Deficit, and Bilingualism.” In Norbert Freedman and Stanley Grand, eds., Communicative Structures and Psychic Structures: A Psycholanalytic Interpretation of Communication (New York: Plenum Press), pp. 199-221.

Harrison, Lynda Law. The use of comforting touch and massage to reduce stress for preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews. 2001. 1(4): 235-241.

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Body Language of Scorn

Body Language of Scorn

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Scorn 1Cue: Scorn

Synonym(s): N/A

Description: Scorn is a combination of anger and disgust that happens by wrinkling of the nose, raising and tightening of the upper lip. To visualize this expression think of a bad smell. Scorn sometimes flashes as a microexpression.

In One Sentence: The scorn facial expression shows disdain and contempt.

How To Use it: Use scorn to show nonverbal disapproval in connection with a person or their idea. Scorn can also be used in a microexpression and flash very briefly, often only slightly visible to the naked eye. Sent this way, scorn is a semi-concealed signal perceived only semi-consciously. It still retains the same amount of power and signaling strength, only that it is not readily attributed back to the sender.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “I’m both angry and disgusted. I show this by wrinkling my nose and raising my upper lip. It is as if I have experienced a bad odor.”

Variant: See Fearful Facial Expression, Anger Facial Expression, Disgust Facial Expression, Happiness Facial Expression.

Cue In Action: It was as if there was a bad odor hanging in the air, but Dave had just offered a really poor suggestion. Debbie wrinkled her nose and raiser her upper lip in disgust and anger. Watch for scorn to appear as a microexpression that can flash over the face in a matter of seconds and quickly disappear.

Meaning and/or Motivation: The cue indicates disdain or contempt. Scorn is reflected through a visceral reaction. The facial expression is not unlike taking in a bad odor and plays on a similar visceral emotional reaction.

Scorn can be the result of a person, event, object or idea.

Cue Cluster: Scorn is a stand-alone cue and because it usually happens quickly as a microexpression it doesn’t rely on additional cues in a cluster. However, if scorn turns to anger, we should be watchful for violent outbursts such as loud voices and erratic arm or leg movements. In mild scorn, the body will angle away, the head will turn or shoot back, the nose my rise with the eyes downcast.

Body Language Category: Aggressive body language, Anger body language, Automatic gesture, Closed facial gestures, Dislike (nonverbal), Emotional body language, Hostile body language, Leaked or involuntary body language, Microexpressions, Negative body language.

Resources:

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