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Secrets of Body Language
Secrets of Body Language
of Body
Language
Your Guide to Reading
People’s Nonverbal
Behavior And Mastering
Your Own
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Please visit the ScienceofPeople.org for free
video and article guides in addition to this
PDF.
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Table of Contents
Introduction:
...........................................................
8
Who Is This Book For?
............................................
8
What to Expect
..........................................................
8
About Me:
...................................................................
9
Part I: The Foundations of Body Language
.
12
Part II: Microexpressions and the Face
.........
14
Microexpressions:
..................................................
15
Part III: Body Language
...................................
28
Nervous Defensive Body Language
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30
Power Body Language
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31
Positive Body Language
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31
Rapport Building Body Language
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Suspicious Body Language
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33
Part IV: Human Lie Detection and Body
Language
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46
Most Common Lying Gestures
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Conclusion:
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Citations
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Introduction:
Learning how to decode and interpret nonverbal
behavior such as facial expressions, gestures,
physical movements and vocal tone is an integral
part of communication. As much as 93% of
interpersonal communication is nonverbal, yet we
often base all of our interactions on verbal content
alone.
What to Expect
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Learning to decode human behavior will
completely change the way you interact and listen
to others. If you choose to use the principles in
this course you will start to notice nuances to
communication and aspects of people you did not
see before.
About Me:
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In my columns for Forbes, CNN and the
Huffington Post I often apply groundbreaking
studies to modern day business and social trends.
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Part I: The Foundations of Body
Language
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Part II: Microexpressions and the
Face
Most of us look at our conversation partner’s face
far more than any other part of the body. The face
is a veritable map of human emotions—if you
know how to read it.
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Participants were able to accurately predict
leadership abilities and profits just by looking at
someone’s face.
Microexpressions:
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These universal expressions are: disgust, anger,
fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, and contempt.
Dr. Ekman realized everyone from remote tribes
in Papa New Guinea to Japanese businessmen to
American teenagers make these seven same facial
expressions while experiencing corresponding
emotions.
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what emotions surface within me. This is a very
simple way of literally feeling as your subject
feels.
1) Surprise:
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-There can be horizontal wrinkles across
the forehead
2) Fear:
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-Wrinkles in the forehead are in the center
between the brows, not across
3) Disgust:
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-Nose is wrinkled
4) Anger:
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-The brows are lowered and drawn
together
5) Happiness:
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activated on the outside corners of the eye (crows
feet).
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-Lower lid may show wrinkles or be tense
6) Sadness:
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7) Contempt or Hatred:
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question, “Did you know that Jim
cheated on Laura?” A look of
surprise on your significant other’s
face would mean something much
different than fear. Surprise would
be an appropriate reaction to
finding out about someone
cheating. Fear might cause you to
ask some additional questions
about your significant other’s
knowledge or behavior. The easiest
way to tell the difference is by
watching the eyebrows—surprise
has upside down U’s and fear
usually has eyebrows in a flat line.
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office rule and they don’t show
surprise they probably knew they
did something wrong and are
afraid of getting caught. If you tell
a friend some good news and they
do not show genuine happiness
they might be covering up feelings
of jealousy.
A.
B.
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Answer: B. This is the real smile
because you can see the muscles
along the sides of the eye are
activated (crows feet).
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Part III: Body Language
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happens when someone is trying to
calm themselves down or self-soothe.
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-Squeezing or pinching skin on hands or arms.
-Tapping fingers.
-Picking cuticles.
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When people are nervous or defensive it often
shows in their body. Here are a few things people
do when they are nervous:
1. Wringing Hands
2. Take up as little physical space as possible
3. Cross their arms
4. Touch their forehead in shame
5. Purse their lips
6. Their hands get cold
7. Touch or rub their mouth, neck,
suprasternal notch.
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1. Rubbing the Chin- The universal
gesture for contemplation.
2. Licking the lips- Someone is excited to
begin or start a project.
3. Rubbing the Hands Together- This is a
gesture of excitement or getting ready
to begin.
4. Open Palms- When someone shows
you their palms it usually means they
aren’t hiding anything.
5. Runners Stance- This is what people
do when they are getting ready to
make a move—both mentally and
physically.
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Suspicious Body Language
These
body
language
cues
are
suspicious,
you
should
look
out
for
them
in
the
people
you
are
observing
and
try
not
to
use
them
yourself.
1. Pointing
2. Hiding
your
hands
3. Lying
4. Crossing
your
arms
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Touching the suprasternal notch is comforting for
both men and women (men tend to touch their tie
which lies directly over the suprasternal notch).
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Starters stance means someone is
ready to bolt.
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spread wide as adrenaline pumps through their
bloodstream.
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Crossed arms protects our vital organs.
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our arms on our chest we are usually reacting to
some external threat, and subconsciously protect
ourselves. We often cross our arms when we hear
something threatening, confrontational or when
we feel vulnerable.
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The opposing behavior to crossed arms occurs
when we swing and move our arms freely. For
example, children are more mentally free and tend
to have freer range of motion with their arms.
Typically, the more arm use you see the happier
and more confident the person is.
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Steepling: Steepling occurs when someone brings
their hands up towards their chest or face and
presses the tips of their fingers together. This is a
gesture of confidence, self-assuredness and even
superiority. This can easily be done to inspire
confidence in yourself and others during a
meeting or interview. This is of particular benefit
for females as it is seen as an assertive gesture,
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not aggressive. Putting hands in the prayer
position, a slight variation of the steeple, is a less
confident gesture.
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the receiving party. Doing this regularly can breed
long-term mistrust.
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We stroke our chin when trying to make a
decision or while figuring something out.
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cadence, tone or seating position is a delicate way
of showing them you are on the same page and
can be very effective and building a deeper
relationship.
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Part IV: Human Lie Detection and
Body Language
Human Lie Detection is a deep science and I have
entire courses on that topic, but you can learn a lot
about deception detection from body language.
The most important things to remember:
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-Try to control their body during the lie
Frozen Bodies:
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typically feel fearful and their limbic brain tells
their body to freeze so as not to attract attention.
Odd Smiles:
Nodding:
Eye Blocking:
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Conclusion:
Interpreting body language is an art based in
science. Research tells us what our bodies do
when we feel certain emotions. We have to
interpret and act upon that knowledge in our own
way.
Business
Entrepreneurs
Sales
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Female Body Language
Actors
ScienceofPeople.org
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Citations
Navarro, Joe, and Marvin Karlins. What Every
BODY Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to
Speed-reading People. New York, NY: Collins
Living, 2008.
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K. Fiedler and I. Walka, “Training Lie Detectors
to Use Nonverbal Cues Instead of Global
Heuristics,” Human Communication Research 20
(December 1993): 199-223.
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http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-
90099018.html. Ernst & Young LLP,
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Dishonest Self-Reports,” Harvard Business
School (working paper no. 11-117, 2011).
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M. Bennett, “Who’s Lying?” University of
California First Annual Compliance and Audit
Symposium, San Francisco, February 2009.
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Study of Bus Operator Applicants,” Applied
H.R.M Research 12 (2010): 59-74.
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S. Robbins. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1988, 66, 123-128.
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