BodyLingual

Looking out at an audience, do you see legs being stretched? (as the audience loses interest) or perhaps chins are being lightly stroked, heads titled? (signs of contemplation). Let’s look at how to decode an audience. In a normal conversation, the speaker hears audible back-channelling signals such as ‘uh-huh’, ‘yeah’ and ‘mmm’. When addressing an audience however there may be muted audible back-channelling, especially if the talk elicits no laughs, but the back-channels are being used, you just need to know what to look for.  First off, It is important to acknowledge that any audience is made up of a group of individuals, each with different interests, attention spans and moods. To that end, any one action, even an individual falling asleep, is a distraction best ignored by the speaker. Instead, they should be looking for patterns of behaviour that can help them understand the predominant feeling of the group, allowing for adaptation.  And, as with de...

G Gait A person's manner of walking. A person’s walking style reflects their mood, attitude and personality, and alters to reflect changing emotions, so it’s worth looking at changes in gait. Expect a livelier gait when in the presence of a sexually attractive person. When feeling confident and assertive strides have more purpose with a firm but relaxed gait. Swinging arms, especially that rotate across the body, shows youth, vigour and masculinity. Rolling hips show female sexuality. If a person is sad or worried you can almost see the weight on their shoulders. Even when speaking on the phone whilst walking, people tend to base their gait upon the tone and rhythm of the conversation.  Gaze behaviour High status people engage in more eye contact. In conversation, most people make more eye contact whilst listening (70% of the time) and less when talking (30%). We generally like eye contact, a show of attention, but making eye contact can be stressful so when taxed we ten...

Professor Michael Argyle (1925-2002) Back in 2002, a 77-year-old man died following a swimming accident that he never recovered from. His name is, was, John Argyle, though he was known by his middle name, Michael. He was born near the Goose Fair roundabout at the bottom of Sherwood Rise, just about as Nottingham-a-location as you can find. I recently visited the home he was born in and where he grew up. Michael’s not a member of my family and I never met him, but he is a hero of mine and, for my money, one of the all-time top ten experts on nonverbal communication. You could even say that he dedicated his life to helping people be the best they can be.  Michael’s father George, a schoolmaster, and his mother Phyllis, both died when he was just eleven years of age. It was around this time that he moved to ‘big school’, Nottingham Boys High, and became worried about a fellow pupil. This friend of his suffered from shyness and a poor ability to interact with oth...

F Face platter (the) Usually performed by women, this is when one hand is placed on top of the other, with the head sitting above, as if presenting the face for a suitor to admire. Face shield Protecting the face from a perceived threat, or cutting off a disliked visual stimulus, face shielding behaviour can range from covering the face with one’s hands to looking at an iPad. Facial denting The pressing of a finger, the finger ends, or knuckles against/into the cheek to help relieve stress.  Facial expressions Humans have more than 10,000 facial expressions, more than any other animal. These are selected for many different reasons. Facial touching In general, this is seen by observers as a negative display, of nervousness or the need for self-comfort. Touching the face can be a sign of deception. How and where  is the face being touched?  ACS Facial action coding system Introduced in 1978, Ekman and Friesen’s system measures and identifies a...