BodyLingual

I’m often asked about the body language tells that signal deception, and my answer often disappoints. The problem is there’s no one thing done that gives a liar away, much of the things we think we know are wrong, and we are much better liars (and much worse at detecting a lie) than we think. This article will focus on how the words we use (and avoid), and how we say them, may indicate deception.  Before turning specifically to the verbal sounds of lying, I must note that body language is also important to consider, especially as liars are more likely to rehearse their words than their gestures, but I’ll save the tells for another day. Most people may be better off listening to liars and not looking at them if they want to detect deception, as what comes out of a liar’s mouth is often more important than their body language. When questioning a liar, it’s useful to first get a vocal baseline, asking safe questions and attending to responses. When hearing those responses, h...

When it comes to body language, portraits paint an interesting picture. Decisions are made, but by whom? Is it the artist that chooses each pose, picks the expression and choregraphs gestures, or the artist's sitter? And, if the latter, are these decisions made consciously or not? Whilst we don’t usually have the answers, we do know that these decisions reveal much about status and how it is projected. Art can tell us something about the body language of that time. It may be culturally interesting or shine a light on the era’s attitudes, and it’s likely to have been created to represent the sitter in a manner that they (or the artist) wants them to be seen, often this is as a person of high status. Having a quality portrait painted was usually the privilege of the upper classes and artists had ways of representing this position, using the subject’s nonverbals to tell a story. Dominant, high status people take up space, and this includes vertically through an erect posture, a...