{"id":794,"date":"2014-10-24T19:13:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T19:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bodylanguageproject.com\/nonverbal-dictionary\/?p=794"},"modified":"2015-06-05T23:32:03","modified_gmt":"2015-06-05T23:32:03","slug":"body-language-of-neck-rubbing-back-of-neck-or-holding-the-back-of-the-neck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bodylanguageproject.com\/nonverbal-dictionary\/body-language-of-neck-rubbing-back-of-neck-or-holding-the-back-of-the-neck\/","title":{"rendered":"Body Language of Neck Rubbing (back of neck) or Holding The Back Of The Neck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Body Language of Neck Rubbing (back of neck) or Holding The Back Of The Neck<\/p>\n

\"BodyLanguageProjectCom<\/a>Cue<\/strong>: Neck Rubbing (back of neck) or Holding The Back Of The Neck<\/p>\n

Synonym(s)<\/strong>: Hand To The Back Of The Neck, Neck Hold, Pain In The Neck Posture.<\/p>\n

Description<\/strong>: The hand goes to the back of the neck and is held there, either still, as if covering, massaging or scratching.<\/p>\n

In One Sentence<\/strong>: Rubbing the back of the neck is a negative thought indicator.<\/p>\n

How To Use it<\/strong>: Massaging the back of the neck while working to solve a problem shows others that you are having a hard time coming up with a solution, but that you are otherwise, actively thinking.<\/p>\n

In extreme contexts, you can show your held aggression with the posture. This will tell other people to back off which will give you more space to contemplate your situation.<\/p>\n

Context<\/strong>: General.<\/p>\n

Verbal Translation<\/strong>: \u201cI\u2019m wild, angry and carrying negative feelings, so I\u2019m holding myself back, by the scruff of my neck, so I won\u2019t speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Variant<\/strong>: See Collar Pull (the)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cue In Action<\/strong>: His boss was furious over the TPS reports as they were improperly filled out once again – this, even after having a lengthy meeting last week to go over the procedure. He paced back and forth across the room holding the back of his neck trying to prevent himself from acting out at his employees.<\/p>\n

Meaning and\/or Motivation<\/strong>: The neck hold, scratch or rub is a response to negative feelings and is a restraint posture as in \u201cholding one\u2019s self back\u201d as one might do to a wily cat or dog by grabbing them by the scruff of the neck. Only in this case, it is done to one\u2019s self. Grabbing the back of the neck shows that a person doesn\u2019t like what is being proposed so they feel it\u2019s necessary to bottle up their thoughts so they avoid confrontation or aggression.<\/p>\n

Touching the back of the neck is not the same as touching any other part of the neck such as the side, which can be used as a filler gesture to pause for thought, or the front which can be used to show sexual interest in a dating context.<\/p>\n

Scratching the back of the neck, rather, is a primitive gesture, that is a response to erector pili muscles in the scruff that our body uses to make our hair stand on end. The erector pili are microscopic bands of muscle tissue that connect hair follicles to the skin. When stimulated, the muscles contract and cause the hair to turn upward and perpendicular to the skin surface, or stand on end. While the purpose of the muscles in humans is vestigial, meaning they are an evolutionary throwaway, they were once used to trap air next to the skin to help keep the body warm. Other uses are for display and competition to make the body appear larger and more threatening. You have probably seen a domestic cat put its hair up when challenged by another cat. In porcupines, the muscles contract to bring the quills up as a defense.<\/p>\n

As a defense, and for heat retention for people, the purpose of the arrector pili is laughable at best, but our bodies still react to cold and fear, even aggression by stimulating the muscles. A cold chill down the spine and \u201cgoose bumps\u201d or \u201cgoose pimples\u201d is a reference to the same thing. When we reach for our scruff, we are showing an evolutionary throwaway to a time when our hair would have stood on end!<\/p>\n

Cue Cluster<\/strong>: Hand to the back of the neck is usually accompanied by the head down, pacing to burn off negative energy, worried or angry facial expression, eyes wincing, narrowed, blank, or staring intently in a rage. A person might alternate between the neck hold and massaging their entire face with their palms, clenching the fists, erratic movements and gestures and so forth.<\/p>\n

Body Language Category<\/strong>: Adaptors, Auto contact or self touching, Clenching and gripping, Closed body language, Disengagement, Dislike (nonverbal), Emotional body language, Frustration or frustrated body language, Negative body language, Stressful body language.<\/p>\n

Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Broome, Marion E.. Helping Parents Support Their Child In Pain. Pediatric Nursing. 2000. 26(3): 315.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Buckley, V., & Semple, S. (2012). Evidence that displacement activities facilitate behavioural transitions in ring-tailed lemurs. Behavioural Processes, 90, 433\u2013435.<\/p>\n

Bernal, Gilda Rios ; Wortham, Suec. How to Calm Children through Massage. Childhood Education. 1997. 74(1): 9-14.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Bouras, N. ; Dykens, E. M. ; Smith, A. C. M. Distinctiveness and correlates of maladaptive behaviour in children and adolescents with Smith\u2013Magenis syndrome
\nJournal of Intellectual Disability Research. 1998. 42(6): 481-489.<\/p>\n

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\u2013197.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

Caplovitz Barrett, Karen. The origins of social emotions and self-regulation in toddlerhood: New evidence. Cognition & Emotion. 2005. 19(7): 953-979.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

D\u2019alessio, M. ; Zazzetta, A. Development of Self-Touching Behavior in Childhood. Perceptual and Motor Skills. 1986. 63(1): 243-253.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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

Goodall, Jane (1986). The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University).<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Gregersen, Tammy S. Nonverbal Cues: Clues to the Detection of Foreign Language Anxiety. Foreign Language Annals. 2005. 38(3): 388-400<\/p>\n

What Anxious Learners Can Tell Us About Anxious Body Language\u2013 How To Read Nonverbal Behavior<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n