Body Language of Forehead Rubbing
Cue: Forehead Rubbing
Synonym(s): Rubbing The Forehead, Forehead Massage, Forehead Hold, Massaging The Forehead, Temple Rub, Hand To Temple, Rubbing The Temples, Massaging The Temple.
Description: Rubbing the forehead with the hands.
In One Sentence: Rubbing the forehead is a demonstration of an internal struggle as one works toward a solution to a problem.
How To Use it: Rubbing and massaging the head can help activate the mind to come up with solutions. However, even if this is not effective at producing thought, it can be used to show others that one is working to solve a problem. This will be read by others as being mindful and may buy a person some extra time in coming up with a viable solution.
Context: General.
Verbal Translation: “I’m in distress and I figure if I massage my head long enough that my brain will be able to come to some sort of conclusion or solution.”
Variant: Rubbing the temples has a similar meaning.
Cue In Action: a) While studying for the test, she put her head down on her hands and massaged her forehead. b) With only a few minutes to decide, he rubbed his forehead. c) The stress was palpable. He massaged his temples vigorously to try to pacify himself.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Rubbing the forehead is an evaluative body language gesture, but it also signals an internal struggle where slight to severe discomfort is being experienced.
The forehead is prone to sweating while under stress so the forehead rub is likely a way the body fights the extra stimulation it receives due to extra heat and blood flow.
Cue Cluster: Other motivating cues can appear in cluster. For example, someone might tap a pencil against the mouth or teeth, the feet, hands or fingers might tap or bounce as someone tries to reach a decision.
Body Language Category: Pensive displays, Self-motivating gestures, Stressful body language.
Resources:
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.
Broome, Marion E.. Helping Parents Support Their Child In Pain. Pediatric Nursing. 2000. 26(3): 315.
Bornstein, Marc H. ; Tamis-Lemonda, Catherine S. Maternal responsiveness and infant mental abilities: Specific predictive relations. Infant Behavior and Development. 1997. 20(3): 283-296.
Buckley, V., & Semple, S. (2012). Evidence that displacement activities facilitate behavioural transitions in ring-tailed lemurs. Behavioural Processes, 90, 433–435.
Bernal, Gilda Rios ; Wortham, Suec. How to Calm Children through Massage. Childhood Education. 1997. 74(1): 9-14.
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.
Bouhuys, A.L. ; Beersma, Domien G.M. ; van den Hoofdakker, Rutger H. Observed behavior as a predictor of the response to sleep deprivation in depressed patients. Psychiatry Research. 1989. 28(1): 47-61.
Berridge CW,Mitton E, ClarkW, Roth RH. 1999. Engagement in a non-escape (displacement) behavior elicits a selective and lateralized suppression of frontal cortical dopaminergic utilization in stress. Synapse 32:187–197.
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.
Caplovitz Barrett, Karen. The origins of social emotions and self-regulation in toddlerhood: New evidence. Cognition & Emotion. 2005. 19(7): 953-979.
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.
Charles v. Ford, Lies! Lies! Lies!: The Psychology of Deceit (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, Inc., 1996), 200.
D’alessio, M. ; Zazzetta, A. Development of Self-Touching Behavior in Childhood. Perceptual and Motor Skills. 1986. 63(1): 243-253.
Dimond, Stuart ; Harries, Rashida. Face touching in monkeys, apes and man: Evolutionary origins and cerebral asymmetry. Neuropsychologia. 1984. 22(2): 227-233.
Ekman, Paul, and Wallace V. Friesen (1969). “Nonverbal Leakage and Clues to Deception.” In Psychiatry (Vol. 32), pp. 88-106.
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.
Harrigan, Jinni A. Self-touching as an indicator of underlying affect and language processes. Social Science & Medicine. 1985. 20(11): 1161-1168.
Harrigan, Jinni A.; Karen S. Lucic; Denise Kay; Anne McLaney and Robert Rosenthal. Effect of Expresser Role and Type of Self-Touching on Observers’ Perceptions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 1991. 21(7): 585-609.
Heaven, Laura ; Mcbrayer, Dan ; Prince, Bob. Role of sex in externally motivated self-touching gestures. Perceptual and motor skills. 2002. 95(1): 289-94.
Heaven, L ; Mcbrayer, D. External motivators of self-touching behavior. Perceptual and motor skills. 2000. 90(1): 338-42.
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.
Kenner, Andrew N. (1993). “A Cross-Cultural Study of Body-Focused Hand Movement.” In Journal of Nonverbal Behavior (Vol. 17, No. 4, Winter), pp. 263-79.
Kirschbaum C, Pirke K-M, Hellhammer DH. 1993. The ‘Trier Social Stress Test’: a tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. Neuropsychobiology 28: 76–81.
Moszkowski, Robin J. ; Stack, Dale M. ; Chiarella, Sabrina S. Infant touch with gaze and affective behaviors during mother–infant still-face interactions: Co-occurrence and functions of touch. Infant Behavior and Development. 2009. 32(4): 392-403.
Maestripieri D, Schino G, Aureli F, Troisi A. 1992. A modest proposal: displacement activities as an indicator of emotions in primates. Anim Behav 44:967–979.
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.
Mohiyeddini, C., & Semple, S. (2013). Displacement behaviour regulates the experience of stress in men. Stress, 16, 163–171.
Morris, Desmond (1994). Bodytalk: The Meaning of Human Gestures (New York: Crown Publishers).
McGrew, W. C. (1972). “Aspects of Social Development in Nursery School Children with Emphasis on Introduction to the Group.” In N. G. Blurton Jones, ed., Ethological Studies of Child Behaviour (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 129-56.
Navarro, Joe. 2008. What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People. William Morrow Paperbacks.
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.
Pecora, Giulia ; Addessi, Elsa ; Schino, Gabriele ; Bellagamba, Francesca. Do displacement activities help preschool children to inhibit a forbidden action? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2014. 126: 80-90.
Pugh, George E. (1977). The Biological Origin of Human Values (New York: Basic Books).
Rosenfeld, Howard (1973). “Nonverbal Reciprocation of Approval: An Experimental Analysis.” In Argyle *, pp. 163-72.
Sommer, Robert (1969). Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall).
Schino G, Perretta G, Taglioni AM, Monaco V, Troisi A. 1996. Primate displacement activities as an ethopharmacological model of anxiety. Anxiety 2:186–191.
Supplee, Lauren H ; Skuban, Emily Moye ; Shaw, Daniel S ; Prout, Joanna. Emotion regulation strategies and later externalizing behavior among European American and African American children. Development and Psychopathology. 2009. 21(2): 393-415.
Troisi A, Moles A (1999) Gender differences in depression: an ethological study
of nonverbal behaviour during interviews. J Psychiatr Res 33: 243–250.
Troisi A. 1999. Ethological research in clinical psychiatry: the study of nonverbal behaviour during interviews. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 23:905–913.
Troisi A. 2002. Displacement activities as a behavioral measure of stress in nonhuman primates and human subjects. Stress 5: 47–54.
Tamres L, Janicki D, Helgeson VS (2002) Sex differences in coping behaviour: a
meta-analytic review. Personal Soc Psychol Rev 6: 2–30.
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.