Category: Submissive body language

*No Photo, Body size reduction, Defensive body language, Emotional body language, Escape movements, Frustration or frustrated body language, Protective reflexes, Submissive body language

Body Language of The Bow and Body Bend

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Body Language of The Bow and Body Bend

No picCue Bow and Body Bend

Synonym(s): Kowtow (Chinese), b) Standing Fetal Position (when due to pain), Prostration.

Description: a) The bow is a gesture done by bending at the waist toward the ground. b) A standing fetal position where the body bends at the waist.

In One Sentence: Bowing is a form of appeasement and also submission which is used to show respect.

How To Use it: Use the bow to show others respect or admiration. This can be done by titling the head down slightly which comes across as shame, or by lowering the eyes. When both cues are done simultaneously, this signals a desire to placate a higher authority. Lowering the body by bending at the waist can also be used to show that one is not in full spirits. This is read as cowering. When done in the face of authority, this may produce feelings of sympathy rather than aggression. In turn, they may offer care and assistance to try to ‘lift your spirits.’

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: a) “I respect you enough to trust you won’t hit me on the top of my head while I lower my eyes toward the ground.” b) “I’ve been emotionally hurt (in the guts) and feel like I need to crouch over in pain.”

Variant: See Crouching.

Cue In Action: a) When addressing the King, Sir Charles bent at the waist and bowed to show his admiration. b) After missing a crucial putt, Tiger bend over in emotional agony.

Meaning and/or Motivation: a) It is a form of supplication as it lowers the body. It is usually done in front of an audience or high ranking official as a way to accept their gratitude or adulation. The body bend shows others that they respect the authority figure and that they are ready to submit to them and their will.

b) A standing fetal position meant is meant to protect or comfort during emotional stress. The body takes on a smaller position and hunches up in exasperation. When the body bends in this way, it’s trying to appear submissive and create a smaller target preventing a more dominant individual from attacking. We see this type of posture when people are hurt emotionally and it is especially prominent while in a seated position. The body will lean to the side and the arms will fold over the stomach as if the guts were cramped up in pain.

Cue Cluster: b) Normally accompanied by hands coming up to the head and clasping or sometimes cut short as if swatting the air away in disgust.

Body Language Category: Body size reduction, Defensive, Escape movements, Frustration or frustrated body language, Protective reflexes, Emotional body language, Submissive body language.

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.

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/

Bartholomewn, Morgan E.; Sheri L. Johnson. Nonverbal Dominance Behavior Among Individuals at Risk for Mania. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2014. 159: 133-138.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/failure-to-use-submissive-body-language-linked-to-bipolar-and-mania-study/

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

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.

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.

Cunha, U. ; Leduc, M. ; Nayak, U.S.L. ; Isaacs, B.. Why do old people stoop?
Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. 1987 6(4): 363-369.

Dunn, Cynthia Dickel. Speaking politely, kindly, and beautifully: ideologies of politeness in Japanese business etiquette training. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. 2013. 32(2): 225(21).

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.

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.

Kimbrell, G. Relationship of the upright agonistic posture in the foot shock situation to dominance-submission in male C57BL/6 mice. Psychonomic Science. 1969. 16(3): 167-168.

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

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/

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

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

Matsumoto, 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.

Malatynska, E.,Knapp,R.J.,2005.Dominant-Submissive Behavior as Models of Mania and Depression. NeuroScience and.Biobehavior .Rev.29(4–5): 715–737, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.03.014.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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/

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.

Richards, Lynne ; Mcalister, Laurie. Female Submissiveness, Nonverbal Behavior, and Body Boundary Definition. The Journal of Psychology. 1994 128(4): 419-424.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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/

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.

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

Appease, Defensive body language, Fearful body language, Low confidence body language, Nonthreatening body language, Readiness to submit postures, Submissive body language

The Body Language of Body Lowering or Body Shrinking

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The Body Language of Body Lowering or Body Shrinking

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Body Lowering 2Cue: Body Lowering

Synonym(s): Body Shrinking, Lowering The Body, Shrinking The Body,

Description: A technique whereby a person takes a lower position relative to another which can include the overall body and posture, the head shrunk into the shoulders, sitting down from a standing position and so forth.

In One Sentence: Body lowering signals a desire to shrink the body’s overall size to appear more submissive.

How To Use it: Use body lowering to signal that one is willing to relinquish dominance to another person. In a dating context, a man might lower himself so that he can match his female partner’s eye level and build intimacy rather than tower over and dominant her. A boss might lower himself to the level of an employee to build trust. A server might crouch down at the edge of the table while taking orders. This can help build trust between him and his patrons giving him a shot at a higher tip. As body lowering also shrinks the size of the overall profile it can reduce punishment by appearing more submissive. It can also allow a person to fly under the radar when avoiding being called on such as in a classroom situation. Use body lowering when you want to build trust, show submission, and hide in plain sight.

Context: a) Social, b) Dating, c) Business

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m lowering my body, cowering, so that you don’t see me as a threat and won’t punish me so severely.” b) “I’m lowering my body so that you don’t see me as a threat and protect me, care for me, or give something to me” c) “I don’t want to be called upon so I’m going to slink down in my chair, head down – I don’t know the answer to this question.”

Variant: See Body Raising, Bow and Body Bend, Sinking In The Chair. The curtsey, bow and body bend are examples of body lowering that shows a willingness to submit to the audience and accept their adulation. Some churches also accept a curtsey went entering a pew.

Cue In Action: a) When pulled over by the cops, Jake shrunk down in his shoulders, propped himself against his car with his legs bent at the knee, head drooping. b) Deborah was beginning to like Jeff and whenever she and he were standing next to him, she shrunk her body and melted into his by placing her head down against his chest.

Meaning and/or Motivation: A technique whereby a person takes on a lower position relative to another. This implies that a person wishes to take on a lesser role by submitting and receive care and authority passively from another (this person is more dominant).

Status and dominance are closely related to the relative height of a person which is why people are naturally seen as needing protection when shorter and conversely, naturally as leaders when they are taller.

Height can be artificially reduced by sitting, standing at the bottom of a staircase, slouching, drooping the head and so forth.

Tall men and women might find their posture suffers because they tend to slink down to fit in with the rest of the crowd rather than standing tall. All techniques indicate the desire to reduce overall size so as not to appear threatening.

Cue Cluster: Body lowering is usually associated with other submissive cues such as head lowered and eye contact avoidance. However, in dating, women may couple eye contact with body lowering so as to take a submissive role to appease and flirt with men.

Body Language Category: Appease, Defensive, Fearful body language, Low confidence body language, Nonthreatening body language, Readiness to submit postures, Submissive body language.

Resources:

Aviezer, Hillel; Ran R. Hassin; Jennifer Ryan; Cheryl Grady; Josh Susskind; Adam Anderson; Morris Moscovitch and Shlomo Bentin. Angry, Disgusted, or Afraid? Studies on the Malleability of Emotion Perception. Psychological Science. 2008. 19(7): 724-732.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/emotions-read-context-study/

Aggarwal, Pankaj and Min Zhao. Seeing the Big Picture: The Effect of Height on the Level of Construal. Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming; 2014
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/height-embodies-thinking-height-marketing/

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.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/dominant-and-submissive-postures-affects-more-than-public-perception-it-also-affects-felt-pain-and-physical-strength/

Brin, Pablo and Oli Richard. Body Posture Effects On Self-Evaluation: A self-Validation Approach. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2009; 39: 1053–1064.

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.

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

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

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

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

Kimbrell, G. Relationship of the upright agonistic posture in the foot shock situation to dominance-submission in male C57BL/6 mice. Psychonomic Science. 1969. 16(3): 167-168.

Kret, M. E. and B. de Gelder. When a Smile Becomes a Fist: The Perception of Facial and Bodily Expressions of Emotion in Violent Offenders. Exp Brain Res. 2013. 228: 399-410. DOI 10.1007/s00221-013-3557-6.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/reading-bodily-postures-facial-expressions-incorrectly-can-disastrous-just-ask-violent-offenders/

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

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/

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

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/

Marsh, Abigail A; Karina S. Blair; Matthew M. Jones; Niveen Soliman, and R. J. R. Blair. Dominance and Submission: The Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Responses to Status Cues Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2009. 21:4, pp. 713–724.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Matsumoto, 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.

Nelson, Nicole L. and James A. Russell. Preschoolers’ Use of Dynamic Facial, Bodily, and Vocal Cues to Emotion. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2011; 110: 52-61.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/children-read-body-language-study/

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

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

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.

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

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/

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

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

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

Richards, Lynne ; Mcalister, Laurie. Female Submissiveness, Nonverbal Behavior, and Body Boundary Definition. The Journal of Psychology. 1994 128(4): 419-424.

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.

Sturman, Edward D. Involuntary 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/

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

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., & 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. (2004). Show your pride: Evidence for a discrete emotion expression. Psychological Science, 15, 194–197.

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

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

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

Courtship display, Indicator Of Sexual Interest (IOsI), Readiness to submit postures, Submissive body language, Tie signals

Body Language Of Bent Over Posture Or Rump Presentation

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Body Language Of Bent Over Posture Or Rump Presentation

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Bent Over Posture Or Rump PresentationCue: Bent Over Posture

Synonym(s): Rump Presentation, Grinding Against Another Person.

Description: A primarily female posture done by bending forward at the waist facing away from a person (the body language reader or recipient of the cue) such that the rump is presented teasingly.

In One Sentence: Presenting the rump to another person is a sure sign that they are willing to sexually submit.

How To Use it: Women can use the rump presentation to arouse and excite potential male suitors. It is particularly effective in a dance bar type situation. Women should show and grind their rump into men they find interesting to send a clear sexual invitation. Rumps can also allure by bending at the waist in plain view of men women wish to attract. This can be done by bending over to pick up dropped materials, over a photocopy machine and so forth. At times, a subtle rump presentation with a slight bend at the waist is all that is needed.

Presenting the rump can also be accomplished by wearing tight fitting clothing as it puts the rump on full display to potential suitors. When women choose tight fitting leggings, even if they do not completely understand their motives, are displaying their best features in plain view of the world. Therefore, be it conscious or otherwise, they desire and should expect, sexual attention. It is important for motives to be understood such that one can control outcomes as desired.

Women may also use the rump presentation to tease and control men. As the signal is nonverbal it’s meaning can be ambiguous, or, rather, be sent out in a “broadcast fashion” to many men. Thus, it can serve to solicit, and then reject men – a power play.

Context: a) Dating.

Verbal Translation: “I’m presenting my rump, it’s a sexual invitation.” “I am offering myself in a passive female role.” “I’m going to wear these tight leggings to show off my sexual virility through a rump display.”

Variant: A bent over posture can be adopted while working or when getting things done that are out of reach such as tying a shoe or picking up something that has fallen which has no sexual meaning at all due to its absence of eye contact as an anchor of intent. See Courtship Displays (Category).

Cue In Action: a) While dancing, Julie rubbed up against him in a sexual manner. It almost became a habit, every day, she’d purposely drop things on the floor near his desk and suggestively bend at the waste to pick them up – she was trying to get his sexual attention. a) She decided to wear tight fitting pants to show off her tight rump.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Bending over is a submissive appeasement posture when done facing away with the rump toward the recipient. It is an overt sexual invitation as it is a nonverbal request to “be mounted.” Young girls might be seen doing this while dancing in nightclubs as they grind on men teasingly. The bow has origins in the same submissive bent over posture, however it is usually, but not always, is done facing the person who is more dominate and has no sexual meaning.

Bending over might be thought of as an overt posture, but it often happens quite inconspicuously and quite subconsciously. It is commonplace for movies to use the overt rump over presentation coupled with over the shoulder eye contact, but this is rare in real life. Women who are receptive commonly act teasingly without even knowing it, as they emit nonverbal invitations to pursue on a purely emotional level. Women have also been shown to display sexually as broadcast signals where sexual message are sent out at random hoping to achieve the attention of worthy mates.

Cue Cluster: Rump presentation is usually accompanied with other sexually suggestive cues such as hair tossing, neck displays, licking the lips, eye contact while looking over the shoulder and so forth.

Body Language Category: Courtship display, Indicators of sexual interest (IOsI), Readiness to submit postures, Submissive body language, Tie signals.

Resources:

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Emotional body language, Nervous Body Language, Power play, Shy nonverbal, Submissive body language

The Body Language Meaning Of Becoming Quiet or Whispering

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The Body Language Meaning Of Becoming Quiet or Whispering

BodyLanguageProjectCom - Becoming Quiet or Whispering 2Cue: Becoming Quiet or Whispering.

Synonym(s): Soft Voice, Quiet Voice, Whispering, Hushed Voice.

Description: A sudden or sustained decrease in the volume of the voice making the voice barely audible or audible only to selected individuals rather than to a wider audience.

In One Sentence: A soft voice is a voice that is timid and does not want to be noticed or wants to bring people closer together and isolate them with secrete shared information.

How To Use it: Use a soft voice in dating to draw your date in closer to create an intimate interaction. A soft voice can also be used to demonstrate a caring and gentle personality. You may also use a soft voice to bring the level of intensity down in an interaction. This is particularly effective when the conversation volume has intensified to the point where screaming is in order just to be heard. When interacting with a scream toddler, for example, a soft voice forces them to struggle to listen, and as they do so, will tend to mirror your voice volume in return. This has the effect of creating a more peaceful dialogue. Finally, a soft voice can also force other people to struggle to listen to you. When done on purpose, a soft voice is a power play and can be used to control a situation. In this case, power is achieved by the omission of volume.

Context: a) General b) Dating.

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m talking below the normal range of voice volume so people don’t pay attention to me or notice me.” a) “I’m speaking quietly because I’m embarrassed.” b) “I’m using a quiet voice to draw you in to my intimate space.”

Variant: Becoming Loud.

Cue In Action: a) When the spotlight turned to Linda, she became quiet and was barely audible – she didn’t want people to know she hadn’t done her research. b) The bar was really loud, but rather than try to speak over the music, he leaned in and whispered into her ear.

Meaning and/or Motivation: Becoming quiet is an attempt to go unnoticed due to shyness, timidity, embarrassment, or uncertainty. Becoming quiet can be due to a variety of reasons including trying to keep secrets and remain private, to create intimacy, to inhibit drawing attention to the self, to power play people into drawing them into personal space and forcing them to listen hard. Whispering can create intimacy also as it requires that a person move into the personal space zone of another. It can therefore be a tactic used in dating and attraction.

Other times a soft voice implies a quiet confidence from a person who lacks a desire to control a conversation. Other meanings of soft voice includes a withdrawal from a conversation due to confrontation, discomfort or nervousness, grief or sorrow, that a person is lying. It may also forcing a person to move closer (power play), to limit what is being heard, tiredness or illness.

Using a soft voice is sometimes used to manipulate others who strain to hear what is being said or mean that the speaker lacks confidence and assertiveness. This is considered a nonverbal power play as it uses tactics that are barely noticeable by others to influence their behaviours and perceptions.

Cue Cluster: Becoming quiet is usually accompanied with other meek body language such as eye aversion, chin tucked in, slumped shoulders and arm freezing.

Body Language Category: Shy nonverbal, Nervous Body Language, Submissive body language, Emotional body language, Power play.

Resources:

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