Some of the Pioneers and People of Body Language
As is typical with any branch of science or philosophy, most of the people that have contributed to our understanding of nonverbal behaviour and communication have done so on the shoulders of others. Below is a timeline of individuals that have all made a mark in the field of body language. Some are ground-breaking, others ground-swelling, all are worthy of note.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (b. 106 BC) - Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (b. 35 AD) - Francis Bacon (b. 1561) - John Bulwer (b. 1606) - Charles-Michel de l'Épée (b. 1712) - Gilbert Austin (b. 1753) - Andrea De Jorio (b. 1769) - Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (b. 1806) - Charles Darwin (b. 1809) - Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (b. 1832) - Edward Burnett Tylor (b. 1832) - Charles Spencer Chaplin (b. 1889) - MacDonald Critchley (b. 1900) - David Efron (b. 1904) - Silvan Solomon Tomkins (b. 1911) - Edward Twitchell Hall, Jr. (b. 1914) - Eckhard H Hess (b. 1916) - Ray Birthwhistell (b. 1918) - Julius Fast (b. 1919) - Albert E Scheflen (b. 1920) - Erving Goffman (b. 1922) - Ralph V Exline (b. 1922) - Carroll Ellis Izard (b. 1923) - Gerard Irwin Nierenberg (b. 1923) - Michael Argyle (b. 1925) - Robert Plutchik (b. 1927) - Desmond J Morris (b. 1928) - Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt (b. 1928) - Robert Sommer (b. 1929) - David McNeill (b. 1933) - Robert Rosenthal (b. 1933) - Paul Ekman (b. 1934) - Jane Goodall (b. 1934) - Adam Kendon (b. 1934) - William S Condon (b. 1934, unconfirmed) - Russell Dale Guthrie (b. 1936) - Emanuel Abraham Schegloff (b. 1937) - Mark Knapp (b. 1938) - Albert Mehrabian (b. 1939) - David B Givens (b. 1943 awaiting confirmation) - Chris L Kleinke (b. 1944) - Peter Collett (b. 1945) - Judee K Burgoon (b. 1948) - Geoffrey Beattie (b. 1952) - Joe Navarro (b. 1953) - Bella M. DePaulo (b. 1954) - David Matsumoto (b. 1959) - Nalini Ambady (b. 1959) - Aldert Vrij (b. 1960) - Allan Pease (b. 1962) - Alexander Todorov (b. 1968) - Mark Bowden (b. 1971) - Henrik Fexeus (b. 1971) Eric Goulard (b. 1973) - Patryk Wezowski (b. 1977) - Vanessa Van Edwards (b. 1985)
Marcus Tullius Cicero
b. 106 BC
The statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer on rhetoric and orations,
Cicero, was the greatest Roman orator. He wrote about sermo corporis ('language
of the body') making comments about how to dress and stand, and distinguishing
between 'a theatrical gesture’ which expresses single words, and ‘the
rhetorical gesture’ which explains the entire topic and meaning. Typically, Roman
orators either used a rich, florid, grandiose style or a direct simplicity of
movement. As a younger man Cicero had used a certain strain and tension through
his whole body but, under the guidance of Molon of Rhodes, he came to command a
variety of styles, selecting the rhythms best suited for each audience and
phrase. At this time, different actors took different systems, one producing
the gestures, the other delivering the speech. Cicero understood that the action
of the body expresses the sentiments and passions of the soul, and that every
emotion has a particular look, tone and bearing.
The statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer on rhetoric and orations,
Cicero, was the greatest Roman orator. He wrote about sermo corporis ('language
of the body') making comments about how to dress and stand, and distinguishing
between 'a theatrical gesture’ which expresses single words, and ‘the
rhetorical gesture’ which explains the entire topic and meaning. Typically, Roman
orators either used a rich, florid, grandiose style or a direct simplicity of
movement. As a younger man Cicero had used a certain strain and tension through
his whole body but, under the guidance of Molon of Rhodes, he came to command a
variety of styles, selecting the rhythms best suited for each audience and
phrase. At this time, different actors took different systems, one producing
the gestures, the other delivering the speech. Cicero understood that the action
of the body expresses the sentiments and passions of the soul, and that every
emotion has a particular look, tone and bearing. Marcus Fabius Quintilianus b. AD 35
Quintilian was a Roman teacher of public speaking who
analysed hand gestures and offered meticulously detailed explanations of them,
specifying the kinds of gestures to be used by orators, for best effect. He
illustrated how speakers could use gestures in addressing crowds and everyday conversation,
including their arms, hands, and fingers, to give their words impact. Gestures
that were damaging to the performance were also listed, and Quintilian focused
on other areas of nonverbal behaviour from the head to toe, including ‘toga
management’, posture and facial expressions. For Quintilian it was important
for an orator not to give the impression of acting or mimicry, instead their movement
should appear natural and authentic. Gesticulation obeys our mind, he wrote,
and argued that gestural language and performance should be clear expressions
of emotions. Also discussed in his twelve-volume textbook were how certain head
movements display emotions such as how shame, doubt, admiration, or indignation.
Read Institutio Oratoria (Institutes of Oratory) (95 CE)
Francis Bacon b. 1561
In his works the philosopher Francis Bacon argued the case for
scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and the careful
observation of events in nature. Concerned with understanding the human mind,
he introducing the empirical (scientific) method during the Scientific Revolution,
and was arguably the first person to consider body language from this empirical
perspective. Bacon suggested that gestures provide an indication of the state
of mind and will of the speaker, exploring them as a reflection or extension of
spoken communication: ‘As the tongue speaketh to the ear, so the gesture
speaketh to the eye.’ He saw nonverbal language as the most natural form of
communication, a form not dependent upon the country you came from. He also
believed that looking and listening was equally as important in understanding
conversation.  |
| Read Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human (1605) |
John Bulwer b. 1606
John Bulwer was an English physician and philosopher who
wrote five works exploring the body and human communication. He suggested that
much of our gesturing is intuitive and inherently natural to mankind, and he
record the vocabulary contained in over 100 hand gestures and bodily motions,
producing Chirologia, alongside a companion text which featured illustrated hand
and finger gestures that were intended for an orator to memorise and perform
whilst speaking, primarily from the pulpit. His described gestures included
wringing the hands to convey grief, and pretending to wash your hands as a way
to protest innocence. Bulwer’s theories had their roots in classical
civilisation, including the works of Aristotle b. 384BC. Bulwer’s Pathomyotomia
was the first substantial English language work on the muscular basis of
emotional expressions. Bulwer later became one of the first to propose
educating deaf people.  |
| Read Chirologia: The Natural History of the Hand (1644) |
Charles-Michel de
l'Épée b. 1712
Charles Michel de l' Épée founded the first public school
for the hearing-impaired in France, and created a systematic method of teaching
them. He has become known as the inventor of sign language but he initially
learned to sign from the deaf community of Paris. Acknowledging that they
already had a visual language expressing needs, desires, doubts, pains, and so
on, Épée looked for the shortest and easiest method of gesturing expression. At
a time of much prejudice against the hard of hearing Epee founded his school
and funded it with his modest inheritance, wishing to ‘make every effort to
bring about their release from these shadows.’ He devoted his life to
developing the world's first sign alphabet - based on the principle that ‘the
education of deaf mutes must teach them through the eye of what other people
acquire through the ear’ - and began a General Dictionary of Signs (Dictionnaire
général des signes), which was completed by his successor Abbé Sicard, whilst
one of his deaf pupils, Laurent Clerc, went on to co-found the first school for
the deaf in North America paving the way for modern American Sign Language, including
the signs of the ASL alphabet.  |
| Read La veritable maniere d'instruire les sourds et muets, confirmee par une longue experience (The True Method of Educating the Deaf, Confirmed by Much Experience) (1784) |
Gilbert Austin b.
1753
Irish educator, clergyman and author Gilbert Austin is best
known for his book Chironomia, or a
Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery, in which built on Cicero and Quintilian’s
words on the importance of voice and gesture to oration. Austin gave a detailed
consideration of gestures and their effect on an audience, producing an
instruction book to allow the practice of good habits, such as the role of gesture
in accompany words for more effective speech-making. After tracing the study of
delivery, from the classical world to the 18th century, he offered training
with illustrations depicting positions of the feet, body and hands (he saw
gestures as the action and position of all body parts). Austin was concerned
with marrying well-conceived, appropriate delivery with words, and avoiding natural/unconceived
gesture.
Andrea De Jorio
b. 1769
 |
| Read La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano (‘The mime of the Ancients investigated through Neapolitan gesture’) (1832) |
Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne b. 1806
Duchenne De Boulogne was a French physician who initiated
pioneering studies on electrical stimulation of muscles, and the first person
to identify microexpressions. Duchenne used electricity as a physiological
investigation tool to study the anatomy of the living body. Duchenne's
iconographic work stands at the crossroads of three major discoveries of the
19th century: electricity, physiology and photography. This is best exemplified
by his investigation of the mechanisms of human physiognomy in which he used
localized faradic stimulation to reproduce various forms of human facial
expression. Duchenne remarked that a person in trying to remember something
raises his eyebrows, as if to see it, and wrote of joy being expressed with two
muscles (zygomaticus major muscle and the orbucularis oculi) contracting to
produce a true smile. The ‘Duchenne smile’ is one that engages these muscles.
Charles Darwin and Paul Ekman built on Duchenne’s work. |
| Read The mechanism of human facial expression or an electrophysiological analysis of the expression of the emotions. (1990) (original work 1862) |
Charles Darwin b.
1809
English naturalist, geologist and biologist Charles Darwin
specifically described the facial expressions of six basic emotions and how these
expressions of emotion evolved from functional, survival actions of the facial
muscles. He believed that these had common origin, and fundamental properties that
are shared with other animals, and his detailed study of the muscular actions
involved in emotion were underpinned by three principles. Darwin thought that
there was a universality of human emotions with universal expressions for
sadness, happiness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust. He also saw the
antitheses signal as telling (ie a tail wagging for happy or tucked and rigid
in fear). Darwin questioned why each expression is best suited for the
emotion it represents raising - and attempting to answer - the question of why one expression, rather than
another? He noticed that we may shut our eyes momentarily and firmly, or shake our
heads, if we see something disagreeable, and how muscles in the face, such as
his ‘grief muscle’ can line the forehead. |
Read The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
(1872) John Murray
|
Wilhelm Maximilian
Wundt b. 1832
Wilhelm Wundt was a German physician, physiologist,
philosopher, and professor, and the first person to call himself a
psychologist. Separating psychology from philosophy he looked at the mind in a
structured way, albeit an introspective one, and founded the first psychology
lab in 1879. Considered the father of experimental psychology he focused on
three areas of mental functioning; thoughts, images and feelings. Aware that
gestures had been much overlooked since ancient times Wundt produced work which
concerned their use in conversation, including various communities in his
studies. Concerned with link between gesture and thought, he concluded that
gestural communication faithfully mirrors the emotions and inner world of the
speaker, and that humans share a number of expressive gestures with other
animals. Gestures are described as pictorial scripts, non-preserved sketches in
the air. While some of them replace specific properties others are associated
with the abstract. Edward Burnett Tylor b. 1832
A father of contemporary social and cultural anthropology
and the first professor of anthropology in Britain, E B Tylor’s works helped to
build interest in the discipline. The gifted writer and tireless researcher had
a keen interest in the development and evolution of language, suggesting that
gesture probably preceded spoken language. His theory on the origin of
language, explained in Researches into
the Early History of Mankind influenced by Charles Darwin. Tylor’s
“Gesture-Language” also considered cultural differences in gesture and he
focused on what this said about the characteristics of the human mind,
concluding that, with gesture-language, the uncultured minds work in much the same way
as the cultured, at all times, everywhere. Tylor also discussed the powerful relationship
between objects and names/ideas. |
| Read Anthropology an introduction to the study of man and civilization (1881) Macmillan and Co. |
Charles Spencer
Chaplin b. 1889
As one of the finest exponents of nonverbal communication,
Charlie Chaplin represents the stars of stage and screen that have mastered the
ability to communicate emotions and messages without using words. From child
star of the music halls and vaudeville acts, Chaplin became an icon of the
early days of Hollywood and its silent film era. He developed the persona, The
Little Tramp, and 1919 co-founded the distribution company United Artists
giving him complete control over his films. Chaplin’s image as the little man
with the moustache, bowler hat, cane, and recognisable gait, helped grow a
universal fan base. His nonverbal skills could make any audience laugh and cry.
Every move was choreographed to perfection, demonstrating the power of
conscious body language. |
| Read My Autobiography 1964 Penguin |
MacDonald Critchley b.
1900
MacDonald Critchley used his observations of a deaf mute’s inability
to understand (or produce) speech, to write about the nature and language of
gestures. Critchley noticed that there were similarities between the systems of
gestures used by the deaf mute, with the hand signing of some aboriginal
communities. Dividing gestures into two main areas - those of obvious
interpretation, and those which have a specific or artificial meaning - he saw
gesture as being full of eloquence to the judging onlooker who holds the key to
its interpretation knowing how and what to observe. The Language of Gesture’s
publication coincided with the outbreak of WW2, rendering it largely ignored,
so he updated his theories in a second book on gestures, Silent Language (1975).
Critchley thought of gesture as the precursor to speech with them then
co-developing. Our instinctive gestures, he described, were more primitive than
the symbolic gestures.
Read The Language of Gesture (1939) Edward Arnold &
Co.
David Efron b.
1904
A pioneer in the study of gestures, David Efron studied the
behaviour of groups of individuals, and of their descendants, in markedly
different environments. Efron analysed everyday social behaviour using film
recordings and a gesture coding system. A student of Franz Boas b. 1858, Efron conducted his gesture study to examine differences in the gestural
repertoire of different neighbouring immigrant communities demonstrating the
cultural basis of gestural style and challenging Nazi claims that gestural
style was racially inherited. Efron grew up in an orthodox Jewish home and
adopted “tense, jerky, and confined” gestures, but, when he spoke Spanish, he
gestured with “the effervescence and fluidity of those of a good many
Argentinians.” He coined the term 'emblem' for
movements that have a precise meaning known by all members of an ethnic group,
sub-culture, or culture.
Read Gesture and Environment (1941) New York: King Crown
Press
Silvan Solomon Tomkins b. 1911
Silvan Tomkins was a psychologist who developed theory and
script theory. During his work at Princeton he began to mentor Paul Ekman and
Carroll Izard. Tomkins’ role in the emergence of research on the face inspired Ekman
to undertake his research on the universality of certain facial expressions.
According to Tomkins, humans have an enormous amount of information to process
so that it can determine, “What do I want, and what do I need to avoid?”, so it
needs a system for responding to information, storing it, classifying it,
retrieving it and ranking its importance. As we move we learn, adapt, predict
and decide. The Affect System evolved so that we can experience what is
important (what things are urgent), maximising positive affect and minimising
the negative. It’s the pattern of scripts (facial and body displays) that a
person uses to modulate affect that make up a personality.  |
| Read Affect Imagery Consciousness, Volume I (other volumes followed) (1962) Springer Publishing |
Edward Twitchell Hall, Jr. b, 1914
Edward T Hall was an American anthropologist, author and
cross-cultural researcher, best known for developing his concept of ‘proxemics’
(from proximity) and exploring cultural and social cohesion. Hall described how
people behave, interpret and react in different types of culturally defined
personal space (proxemics). He explained that we have five zones around us, different
distances and what we are comfortable experiencing within them, and referenced
the idea of context is imperative for interpreting nonverbal cues. For example,
the more self-assured, advantaged socioeconomically or hierarchically, the more
territory we demand and take up. Cultural roles and social situations vary and
thus impact differently on the amount of personal space we require to feel
comfortable. Hall showed us how cultural and biological rules determine how you use
space and communicate emotions. |
| Read The Silent Language (1959) Garden City, NY: Doubleday. |
Eckhard H Hess b.
1916
Eckhard Hess was a professor of behavioural science and a
leading authority on imprinting, a psychological phenomenon by which an
animal's early experience permanently determines its subsequent behaviour, and
a pioneer in pupillometrics, a field of psychology based on thoughts and
emotions as revealed through the eye. The pupil, according to Hess, is the
body's natural lie detector and a type of window to the brain. He found that
changes in attitude can be detected by measuring changes in pupil size, and that
the enlarged or constricted pupils can also affect the attitude and responses
of the person who observes them.
 |
| Read The Tell-tale Eye: How Your Eyes Reveal Hidden Thoughts and Emotions (1975) Van Nostrand Reinhold. |
Ray Birthwhistell b. 1918
Ray L Birthwhistell coined the terms kinesics (meaning ‘the
study of body‐motion as related to the non‐verbal aspects of interpersonal
communication’) and kine (the smallest observable unit of body movement). He
saw that a small number of movement types combined to form larger structural
units. Birthwhistell established kinesics as a field of enquiry and research to
which he contributed for 20 years analysing people talking and examined how
their gestures were used to emphasise and illustrate. His in depth observation led
to him proposing a set of categories that characterised movements witnessed
(kinesics) making identifiable social actions. He believed body‐motion communication
to be systemic, socially learned and communicative behaviours unless proven
otherwise, and argued that human communication needs and uses all the senses.
Birthwhistell estimated that no more than about a third of the social meaning
of a conversation (or interaction) is carried by the words. He proposed that
gestures and movements convey information that is coded and patterned
differently in various cultures; and that people’s preferred or typical
postures reflected their past.  |
| Read Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body motion communication. (1970) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. |
Julius Fast b.
1919
An American author of both fiction and non-fiction, Julian
Fast helped to popularise the term body language and brought the subject to a
broad audience with his bestselling book Body Language, so well received it
spawned several sequels, including The Body Language of Sex, Power and
Aggression, Body Politics, The Body Book, and Talking Between the Lines: How We
Mean More Than We Say, which he co-wrote with his wife Barbara Sher. Fast
analysed the unconscious messages sent out by the human body, emphasising the
use of nonverbal communication as a way of finding out hidden things about
others. For many readers, it was Fast that introduced kinesics and the science
of decoding unconscious human behaviour to reveal our hidden thoughts.  |
| Read Body Language (1970) Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. |
Albert E Scheflen b.
1920
The psychiatrist Albert Scheflen explored the concepts of
speech, meaning, kinesics, posture, interaction, setting and culture. His work
on human communication, especially nonverbal, is based upon lower and earlier primate
development as well as culturally learned behaviour. He writes well on the
nature of our behaviour in its relation to space and time and explores the
unconscious rules that govern much of our individual and group behaviour.
Scheflen embraced new holistic perspective on human interaction, describing how
our physiological state changes when we meet someone. Incorporating his knowledge
of nonhuman primate communication, and the similarities in their social world
and interactive processes, he came across commonly recognisable, standard
configurations, with rules that determine when and where they occur. For
example, we habitually use certain sequences of actions and also mirror who
become comfortable with. This postural congruence, being affected by peers,
naturally varies, like dialect, between communities. His observations of conversations are equally
revealing, such as the shifting of head posture to mark the completion of a
point made.
 |
| Read: Body Language and the Social Order: Communication As Behavioral Control (1972) Prentice Hall Direct. |
Erving Goffman b.
1922
The sociologist, social psychologist, and writer Erving
Goffman made significant contributions to our understanding of humans through
his detailed studies of face-to-face interaction and social customs in many
regions. Concerned with everyday behaviour or ‘interaction order’, he added to
the concepts of framing, game theory, interactions and linguistics. Within the
discipline of communication Goffman has influenced research into language and
social interaction. His work on ‘impression management’ fits well into the
nonverbal communication cannon, and he highlighted the importance for people to
see themselves as others see them. He saw language, posture, gaze and gesture
as a holistic arrangement but also discovered subtle ways in which we present
acceptable images by concealing certain information considered unsuitable for a
particular context.  |
| Read The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) Anchor |
Ralph V Exline b.
1922
Ralph Exline was known for his work on nonverbal
communication. He and his colleagues demonstrated that nonverbal cues operate
by signalling and maintaining dominance and power, and showed that sex
differences could be explained by power–dominance relationships that were
communicated nonverbally. His work on visual behaviour as an aspect of power
included studies of presidential debates in which he built on his work linking
gestures and speech. Exline argued that people who fail to show fluid body
movements are perceived as being less competent; he defined visual dominance as
looking while speaking as opposed to listening; showed how staring can be a
threat gesture; and that we often avert our gaze when told bad news or are
experiencing cognitive difficulty. Exline also explored the visual basis for
judgments of competence in a stressful situation.
Read Exline, R V (1971) Visual interaction: the glances of
power and preference. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 163-206.
Carroll Ellis Izard b. 1923
Carroll Izard conducted developmental and cross-cultural
research on the activation, expression, experience, and function of emotion.
The relevance of emotions to our daily lives was Izard’s focus and he argued
that if you had an emotion, on some level you produced its expression. Izard
studied infants tested his Emotions Course for Young Children, stating that,
from 10 weeks of age, infants are capable of several basic emotions of
interest. He also undertook empirical studies into the facial feedback
hypothesis according to which emotions which have different functions also
cause facial expressions which in turn provide us with cues about what emotion
a person is feeling.  |
| Read The Face of Emotion (1971) New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. |
Gerard Irwin
Nierenberg b. 1923
Gerard Nierenberg was an American lawyer, author, and expert
in negotiation and communication strategy. He founded the Negotiation
Institute, and wrote twenty-three books on the subjects of negotiation,
communication and effective sales techniques. Amongst his titles was a
bestselling work on body language written with Henry Calero. Nierenberg’s
proven techniques for gaining control of negotiations and detecting lies are
presented in an accessible manner together with a guide to recognising signals
of affection and sexual attraction, and advice on gaining command of business
and social situations. Nierenberg believed that we often ignore the information
available from others’ gestures, feedback that should lead us to act in order
to bring about a desired change in results.  |
| Read How to read a person like a book (1971) written with Henry H Calero. New York: Pocket Books. |
Michael Argyle b.
1925
Professor Michael Argyle was a pioneer in the experimental
study of nonverbal behaviour and helped define the scope of social psychology
in academic departments. He made modifications to Charles Berner’s communication cycle, involving six steps: someone
decides to communicate an idea, encodes it, and sends it; someone else receives
it, decodes it and understands it. Argyle’s studies into gaze and mutual gaze
behaviour included cultural differences, gaze duration, and its role in
conversation regulation. He also identified the ways in which conscious touch
takes place, and how feedback demonstrates understanding. Among his many
conclusions were that a greater importance is placed on nonverbal behaviour
over what’s actually spoken when it comes to attitude assumptions (NV 12.5x more
powerful) and the handling of immediate social relationships; that increased
eye contact increases liking and helps ensure the smooth flow of conversation;
and that the amount of eye contact decreases if a speaker stands closer to the
listener than would normally be comfortable. |
| Read Bodily Communication (1975) New York, NY: Methuen |
Robert Plutchik
b. 1927
The professor, psychologist and author Robert Plutchik’s research
interests included the study of emotions, the study of suicide and violence,
and the study of the psychotherapy process. Plutchik’s prototype model Wheel of
Emotions (1980) takes into account various forms and definitions of emotion and
related theories, proposing an all-encompassing theory. His eight basic
coloured emotions were sorrow, dislike, anger, fear, anticipation, pleasure,
acceptance and surprise, and with his graph, new colours could be created with
emotions combined, to create new ones, e.g. fear and surprise = alarm. His 2D
wheel and conical 3D model of emotions have helped people understand his
psychoevolutionary theory of emotion and how emotions are related. Plutchik’s eight
primary emotions were coordinated in pairs of opposites, such as anticipation with
surprise. Plutchik proposed the view that the study of emotion is a subject in
its own right. |
| Read Emotions and Life (2002) American Psychological Association. |
Desmond J Morris
b. 1928
Desmond Morris is a zoologist turned ethologist whose
observations of humans made the pages of many a bestselling work including The
Naked Ape (1967). Morris covered so much ground that it’s difficult to do
justice to his influence on the study of body language and nonverbal
communication. He studied humans as he had once studied animals, stepping back
and removing prejudices to examine us as subjects of enquiry. Amongst his more
interesting theories are our ‘genetic suggestion’ via anatomy; whilst his
categorising of gestures and actions created terminology that remains in use
today. A true master who has done more than anyone to bring the study of our evolved actions into the public domain. |
| Read Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behaviour (1977) London: Jonathan Cope. |
Irenäus
Eibl-Eibesfeldt b. 1928
 |
| Read Ethology: The Biology of Behaviour (1975) New York, NY: Holt, Renehart and Winston. |
Robert Sommer b.
1929
The Environmental Psychologist and author Robert Sommer’s
writing includes research in mental hospitals, libraries, classrooms, and
living spaces. He is best known for his work on the influence of the
environment on human activities and has consulted on the design of bicycle
paths, residence halls, geriatric housing, airports, offices, prisons, farmers’
markets, and other facilities. Realising that patients preferred to keep
certain distances between themselves and others, Sommer came to coin the term
‘person space’ distinguishing between this and territory - notably that
personal space is carried around while territory is relatively stationary. We
mark the boundaries of our territory, whilst our personal boundaries are invisible.
Like animals, humans are primed to respond if our space or territory is
intruded upon uninvited.  |
| Read Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design (1969) (Spectrum Books) |
David McNeill b.
1933
David McNeill is a psychologist, psycholinguist and writer,
specialising in the relationship of language to thought, and the gestures that
accompany discourse. McNeill studied videos of stimulus stories being retold
"together with their co-occurring spontaneous gestures" by speakers
of different languages, ages and abilities. McNeill found that body gestures,
rather than being unrelated to spoken content, worked together with words to
convey true meaning. Gestures can replace speech but should therefore be
typically considered jointly as integral components of communication,
emphasising and supporting each other. He hypothesised that the brain circuits
used in language could not have evolved without gestures, and that there
remains a thought-language-hand link, with many of our hand movements being
spontaneous accompaniments to informal speech. His conclusions included that
speech and gesture may present different pictures but jointly give clearer
insight; that gestures can help us discover what’s highlighted (relevant and
not); gestures can present an image of the invisible or abstract; and that they
can be symbolic. McNeill also produced a Gesture-Space Diagram.  |
| Read Gesture and Thought (2005) Chicago: University of Chicago Press. |
Robert Rosenthal b.
1933
Much of Professor Robert Rosenthal’s work has focused on
nonverbal communication, particularly its influence on expectations: for
example, in doctor-patient, student-teacher or manager-employee situations. His
interests include self-fulfilling prophecies, which he explored in a well-known
study of the Pygmalion Effect: the effect of teachers' expectations on students.
Using different approaches to nonverbal measurement, Rosenthal found that a
teacher’s expectations about a child’s behaviour has a firm influence on how
they actually behave; he studied doctors’ sensitivity to nonverbal behaviours;
discovered delay tactics in deception; and his demonstrations of thin slicing
made for some classic studies. In his study of rapport at different stages of
an interpersonal relationship, he examined coordination, matching and
synchrony, something he found with mother-infant interactions.  |
| Read Skill in Nonverbal Communication: Individual Differences (1979) Rosenthal, R (ed.). Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Ham |
Paul Ekman b.
1934
Paul Ekman is a renowned expert in emotions research and
nonverbal communication, specialising in emotions, facial expressions and
deception. In the 1960s he travelled to Papua New Guinea to study the nonverbal
behaviour of the Fore people, an isolated group, and provided strong research
that Darwin was correct in writing that there are universal facial expressions
for the six basic emotions. Much of Ekman’s focus has been on why and when we
become emotional and what happens when we do. His ground-breaking inquiry into
lying and the methods for uncovering lies has helped people understand why it’s
so difficult to spot a lie. In 1978, along with Wallace V Friesen, Ekman
developed the Facial Action Coding System, a tool for objectively measuring
facial movement. He also made an important contribution in the area of hand
gestures, defining the terms illustrators (hand movement emphasizing speech
rhythm), affective displays ( movements with facial gestures that displaying
specific emotions), regulators (that control, adjust, and sustain the flow of a
conversation), adapters (adjustments that make the person more comfortable) and
emblems (a symbolic hand movement with a verbal meaning known to a particular
group). There are training courses on his website www.paulekman.com  |
| Read Emotions Revealed (2003) Henry Holt and Co. |
Jane Goodall b.
1934
World-renowned primatologist, conservationist, and
humanitarian Jane Goodall studied our cousins, chimpanzees, for forty years
becoming one of the world's most honoured scientists. Goodall was a young
secretarial school graduate when the legendary Louis Leakey chose her to
undertake a landmark study of chimpanzees in the wild. She has provided an
absorbing account of her early years at Gombe Stream Reserve, telling us of the
remarkable discoveries she made as she got to know the chimps and they got to
know her. In the Shadow of Man tells the story of one of the world's greatest
scientific adventures. Equipped with little more than a notebook, binoculars,
and her fascination with wildlife, Goodall braved a realm of unknowns to give
the world a remarkable window into humankind’s closest living relatives. |
| Read In the Shadow of Man (1971) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
Adam Kendon b.
1934
Adam Kendon, zoologist and experimental psychology, worked
on face-to-face interaction, sign languages, and gesture becoming an authority
on the subjects and the history of their study. His observed how these
nonverbal signals relate to spoken language, his focus including work on
Australian Aboriginal sign languages. In developing a general framework for
understanding gestures he was able to apply the same rigorous semiotic analysis
that had previously been applied to spoken language. According to Kendon
gestures are as important as speech as a representative of meaning and has a
place in the theories of language origin. He developed a Gesture Continuum
defining five different kinds of gestures. In his analysis of everyday
conversations he demonstrated the varied role of gestures and how they vary
according to cultural and language differences. Kendon’s analysis of
conversation also showed how eye movements affect the flow of conversation
signalling turn-taking, including that people look nearly twice as much when
listening than speaking.  |
| Read Visible Action as Utterance (2004) Cambridge University Press |
William S Condon
b. 1934, unconfirmed
W. S. Condon began his research in human communication in
1964 using a frame-by-frame video recording (1/25th of a second) to
analyse people talking (and listening) in conversation, an area that maintained
his interest for decades of future research. Through his pioneering research Condon
noticed ‘self-synchrony’, that the speaker’s interlocking systems worked
rhythmically; and that there were movements that seemed to co-occur between
those of the listener and the speaker, called ‘interactional synchrony’. In his
quest to help define gesture, Condon’s video observations could extend beyond
those noticed by the naked eye, including micro movements. He recorded segments
of body movement, and this microanalysis allowed for the two apparently
disparate systems to be studied in terms of how they integrate (co-occur)
during speech and organizations of change in movement (correlated with
articulatory changes), as well as movement during pauses and silences.
Read Speech and Body Motion Synchrony of the Speaker-Hearer (1971) In D. L. Horton and J. J. Jenkins (Eds.), Perception of Language,
Columbus, Ohio: Merrill, 150–173.Condon, W. S.
Russell Dale Guthrie b. 1936
The zoologist, professor and writer R Dale Guthrie writes
well on the ways humans (and other animals) establish status and attract mates.
Our physical signals and behaviours originating in childhood are discussed in
insightful ways. Guthrie has written extensively on prehistoric life, his
opinions informed by such sources as animal remains and cave paintings. Guthrie
believed himself to be working in a new discipline he called 'Human Social
Anatomy' blending paleontology and anthropology, human ethology and human
evolution with social psychology. He wrote of our ‘body hot spots’, features
that have evolved to improve an individual's chances of producing offspring
that survive to breed a third generation. He examines how visual status and
‘organs’ can help with threat displays, copulatory lures and the facilitation
of cooperation, and how the antithesis of these can also be advantageous.
Read Body Hot Spots (1976) Van Nostrand Reinhold
Emanuel Abraham Schegloff b. 1937
Emanuel Schegloff was a professor of Sociology who, along
with Harvey Sacks and Gail Jefferson, is regarded as the creator of the field
of Conversation Analysis. The research, which used audio and video recordings
of naturally occurring conversations, enabled Schegloff to discover new areas
for social science inquiry. Through his detailed naturalistic study of
interaction and people’s experience of it, he went on to write over 100
publications, covering a broad range of topics. Schegloff observed that hand
gesturing is a speaker’s phenomenon, and that listeners rarely gesture with
their hands. His work included all manners of turn-taking including the
negotiating of traffic but it was his discussions on the turn-taking system
used for conversation that holds the most interest. He described this
turn-taking system (for conversation) in terms of two components and a set of
rules.  |
| Read Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in Conversation Analysis (2007) Cambridge University Press. |
Mark Knapp b.
1938
Professor Mark Knapp is internationally known for his
research and writing on nonverbal communication and human relationships. A
professor, consultant, lecturer, trainer and author, Knapp has helped many
individuals, businesses and groups with their nonverbal communication,
something he classifies as being almost all human communication, except the
spoken or written word. His work includes studies into touch (one of our earliest and most basic
forms of communication), hand gestures (which must be consistent and
synchronised with our words), honesty (which we emphasise through our hands),
lying and deception. His published research also included greeting and parting
behaviours, conversational starting, turn-taking and end signalling, and play
behaviour. Among his findings are that the congenitally blind still cover their eyes when hearing bad news.  |
| Read Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction (1972) New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. |
Albert Mehrabian
b. 1939
Engineer turned psychology professor Albert Mehrabian is
best known for the research in the role of non-verbal communication which led
to his 7-38-55 rule. This idea, that the words account for 7%, tone of voice for
38%, and body language accounts for 55% of liking, has been widely
misunderstood and cited. He has served as consulting editor to Sociometry,
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
and Journal of Psychology, and has authored or co-authored 20 books.
Mehrabian’s experiments have helped identify nonverbal and subtle ways in which
one conveys like-dislike, power and leadership, discomfort and insecurity,
social attractiveness, or persuasiveness. His contributions include a
three-dimensional mathematical model for the precise and general description
and measurement of emotions and individual differences. Mehrabian is of much
more value than his famous rule, finding much of interest such as that liars
talk less and more slowly; and that people are more relaxed in the presence of
someone of inferior status, and more most tense if their company has a
perceived superior status.  |
| Read Nonverbal Communication (1972) Chicago, IL: Aldine-Atherton. |
David B Givens b.
1943 (awaiting confirmation)
Anthropologist David Givens is the director of the Centre
for Nonverbal Studies in Spokane, Washington. He has been a consultant for
Pfizer, Epson, Wendy’s, Dell, Unilever, and Best Buy, and teaches Communication
and Leadership in the graduate program of the School of Professional Studies at
Gonzaga University. In his books, which include Crime Signals, Love Signals and
The Nonverbal Dictionary of gestures, signs and body language cues, Givens
looks at how and why we behave as we do, as animals do, such as our metalis
muscle, which covers the chin and causes the skin to quiver, being a muscle
that reflects emotion. Our primal behaviours and influences are discussed,
applying greed, trust and deception to contemporary, practical settings.  |
| Read Your Body at Work: A guide to sight-reading the body language of business, bosses, and boardrooms. (2010) NY: St Martin’s Press |
Chris L Kleinke b. 1944
The psychology professor Chris Kleinke has conducted a
number of key experiments into nonverbal behaviour. He found that people engaging in positive
facial expressions increased positive moods and likewise with negative facial
expressions and decreased mood, effects that were enhanced when participants
viewed themselves in a mirror. Mutual gaze and touch also provided interesting
ground for research especially concerning romantic attraction and likability
ratings. His work into the effects of cultural context and proxemics on eye
gaze, touch and compliance are important contributions, as is how honesty is
affected by unconsciously felt touch.
Read Gaze and eye contact: A research
review. (1986) Psychological Bulletin, 100, 78-100.
Peter Collett b. 1945
Dr Peter Collett is a psychologist was a member of staff at the
Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, where he taught and
did research. Collett was one of the authors behind the book Gestures: Their
Origins and Distribution, which not only looked at gestures in details, but
studies their cultural differences. Building on this collection, Collett wrote
his own book on tells, those actions that can provide insight into what someone
is thinking, even if that person doesn’t know it themselves. A widely
acknowledged expert on body language, he often writes articles or produces
videos which attend to famous people’s state of minds, deciphered from their
actions. In the style of Desmond Morris, whom he has worked with, Collett not
only shows how tells work but attempts to explain their origin. |
| Read The Book of Tells: How To Read People’s Minds From Their Actions (2003) Bantam |
Judee K Burgoon b.1948
Professor Judee Burgoon has worked in different aspects of
interpersonal and nonverbal communication and deception. She has authored (or
edited) 13 books and published nearly 300 articles, chapters and reviews. The
communication theories with which she is most notably linked are: interpersonal
adaptation theory (which focuses on how pairs of communicators coordinate their
communication), expectancy violations theory (building upon Hall's work on
proxemics and personal space, the theory shows that unexpected behaviour causes
arousal and uncertainty in people, and people then look to explain the
violation in order to better predict another's behaviour) and interpersonal
deception theory (when liars attempt to manipulate messages, which may cause
them apprehension about being detected). Burgoon was aware of the importance of
nonverbal messages and discussed how expressing emotions can affect our
popularity, relationships, and physical and mental health. She linked eye contact
with perceived competence, and investigated gaze’s effect on attraction, liking
and credibility. |
| Read The Unspoken Dialogue (1978) Houghton Mifflin School |
Geoffrey Beattie
b. 1952
Professor of Psychology Geoff Beattie is one of the leading
international figures on nonverbal communication and has written (or
contributed to) many excellent books and studies. His academic publications
have appeared in a wide variety of international journals. Beattie argues that
gestures reflect aspects of our thinking but in a different way to verbal
language, and that spontaneous hand movements often communicate a good deal
more than they intend to. These unconscious movements can give us real insight
into people's underlying implicit attitudes, with gestures rationed to the most
important information. With research into phone and face-to-face conversations,
to the beach, Beattie has lots to say about mirroring, the use of gestures to
aid memory, attraction, and lots more. Building on the work of McNeill he has made a vital contribution to the role of our hands in communication.  |
| Read Rethinking Body Language: How Hand Movements Reveal Hidden Thoughts (2016) Routledge. |
Joe Navarro b.
1953
Joe Navarro worked for the FBI as both as an agent and
supervisor in the areas of counterintelligence and counterterrorism. Through
his work he was able to study, refine and apply the science of non-verbal
communications, on which and he’s become one of the world’s foremost authorities
writing articles and books for the past 30 years. Navarro is particularly strong on the warning signs of dangerous
personalities, the honesty of the feet (as intention/interest signals), our
first fear (freeze) response, the significance of the ventral region, and
perception management. Navarro is also a trainer via online courses at
www.jnforensics.com. |
| Read Louder Than Words (2010) Joe Navarro |
Bella M. DePaulo b. 1954
Professor Bella DePaulo is an expert on the psychology of
lying and detecting lies. Spanning more than three decades, DePaulo’s studies
and research on deception have resulted in dozens of published papers and
chapters and several books. With so-called professional “lie detectors”
(police, customs officials…) being no more accurate at detecting deception than
laypersons, DePaulo helps us understand why we are so bad at detecting
deception (and so good at lying, showing what science has to say about
deception; people’s beliefs and stereotypes, sex differences, big liars and
everyday lies. Her work on the visual channels involved is an important
contribution to the field, as is her writing on our unconscious gut-level
detection. In more recent years DePaulo has turned her attention to single life
and and how we live now.  |
| Read The Psychology of Lying and Detecting Lies (2018) Amazon Digital Services LLC |
David Matsumoto
b. 1959
Dr. David Matsumoto, is a renowned expert in the field of
microexpressions, gesture, nonverbal behaviour, culture and emotion. The
Professor of Psychology has published over 400+ articles, manuscripts, book
chapters and books on these subjects. Matsumoto is an Editorial Board Member
for Personality and Social Psychology Review, Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour,
Motivation and Emotion, Cognition and Emotion, and Human Communication. His
many studies include recent work on microexpressions (expressions that last
less than ½ a second), deception, gesture frequency, ethnic and cultural
differences. Matsumoto promotes the use of active listening and the value in
looking at clusters, and not just observing through one channel. He is the director of Humintell.com, a
company that provides training to individuals and organizations in these
fields, and Detectdecpetion.com. |
| Read Nonverbal Communication: Science and Applications (2012) Sage Publications. |
Nalini Ambady b.
1959
Read Ambady, N., Hallahan, M and Conner, B (1999) Accuracy
of judgements of sexual orientation from thin slices of behaviour. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 538-47
Aldert Vrij b. 1960
A Senior Lecturer turned Professor of Applied Social
Psychology, Aldert Vrij is a member of the International Centre for Research in
Forensic Psychology (ICRFP) within the Department of Psychology. His research
includes the nonverbal and verbal cues to deception, and lie detection, and he
has published more than 500 articles on these subjects. Vrij has written a
comprehensive text about deception and lie detection in which he describes the
lie detection tools used to date and discusses the problems related to these
tools, in addition to providing guidelines on how to improve lie detection.
Vrij found that the assumption people have about liars having shifty eyes are wrong, with liars actually looking straight at the receiver, perhaps
making sure they are being believed.  |
| Read Detecting Lies and Deceit: Pitfalls and Opportunities. (2008) Chichester: Wiley |
Allan Pease b.
1962
The motivational speaker Allan Pease has no education in
psychology, neuroscience, or psychiatry, but has managed to establish himself
as an expert on relationships and body language. He is the author of 18
bestselling books, many of them co-written with his wife Barbara, and he
teaches simple, field-tested skills and techniques that show how to decode
other people's behaviour. Pease is particularly strong in the area of handshakes, business
encounters, sex differences and the body language of attraction and love. The
Peases have conducted their own experiments such as the effect of furniture
arrangements on responsiveness. Together
with Barbara he runs Pease International and they produce videos, training
courses and seminars for business and governments worldwide.  |
| Read The Definitive Book of Body Language (2004) Bantam. |
Alexander Todorov b.
1968
A professor of psychology, Alexander Todorov’s research in
the areas of social cognition and person perception have often focused on first
impressions. With a particular emphasis on the social dimensions of face
perception, he has used multiple methods: from behavioural and fMRI experiments
investigating evaluative processes to building of computational models
identifying the perceptual properties of objects and faces evoking specific
evaluations. Todorov describes how we have evolved these using a network of
brain regions dedicated to the processing of faces, suggesting that the impressions
we draw from faces reveal a map of our own biases and stereotypes. His work
includes examining how we use snap judgments of faces to predict, and what
implications this has. |
| Read Face Value (2017) Princeton University Press |
Mark Bowden b.
1971
Mark Bowden is a world renowned author, trainer and engaging
keynote speaker on human communication, body language and behaviour in
business. He is the creator of TRUTHPLANE™, a communication training company
and unique methodology for anyone who has to communicate to an audience with
impact. Bowden has a background in theatre and anthropology, both of which feed
nicely into his work. His advice for public speakers is particularly strong: if
you’ve ever wondered what to do with your hands, Bowden’s your man. With an
emphasis on the limbic system (reptilian brain), Bowden successfully applies
our ancient instincts (evolved responses) to everyday life.  |
| Read Winning Body Language for Sales Professionals (2012) McGraw-Hill Education |
Henrik Fexeus b.
1971
A Swedish mentalist and author of ten books on practical
psychology and influence, Henrik Fexeus has worked as psychological illusionist
and mind reader, and hosting his own TV-show for Sweden’s largest broadcaster.
With a focus on body language, Fexeus has trained police and custom officials.
His understanding of communication techniques and mental skills has given new
practical meaning to the phrase “mind reading”. He writes about how to decipher
the hidden thoughts and feelings of others and how to influence others. Using
new concept mind reading – some rooted in magic/illusion/mentalism – he teaches
practical applications for everyday life, such as interviews, dates and
business deals. |
| Read The Art of Reading Minds (2012) Stockholm Text |
Eric Goulard b.
1973
Eric Goulard is a consultant and trainer in communication,
customer relations, and management.
Based in Lille, France, he’s an expert in behavioural communication, he
is specialized in the detection of lies and in techniques of persuasion.
Goulard has written several books and published many writings, including on
www.nonverbal.expert. Passionate about cognitive and behavioural sciences for
over 25 years he teaches people how to decrypt the attitudes and intentions of
others through their demeanour, gestures and voice for better business
situations and private lives. He had written several books and the subject and
offers online education and resources in the field of non-verbal communication
through his blog: www.non-verbal.info. |
| Read Body Language Secrets Revealed (2013) CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |
Patryk Wezowski b.
1977
Married couple Patryk and Kasia Wezowski have developed many
non-verbal communication training programs tailored for sales, recruitment,
leadership, branding and negotiations. They are bestselling authors of books on
micro expressions and body language and are working a new film IMPACT, a cinematic
documentary about body language. Patryk Wezowski is the founder of the Center
for Body Language, where their various programs can be accessed. Wezoski puts a
strong focus on the reading – and importance - of micro expressions, but many
other areas of nonverbal research have been put to good use in explaining what
behaviours contribute to positive and negative body language. Wezowski also
developed the BLINK Conversation Technique .
 |
| Read Without Saying A Word: Master The Science Of Body Language And Maximize Your Success (2018) |
Vanessa Van Edwards
b. 1985
Vanessa Van Edwards is the Lead Investigator at
ScienceofPeople.com, the founder of People School, a bestselling author, and
Body Language trainer (and trainer of trainers). Her website and media appearances
(and YouTube videos) are highly accessible, presenting cutting-edge scientific
research in public-friendly ways. Van Edwards’ science-based framework helps
people improve their EQ, charisma, and communication skills. With her lab and
dedicated team in Portland, Van Edwards collates and produces research that aim
to support the application of people skills or hacks.  |
| Read Captivate (2017) Portfolio |