Mind Sciences



Decoding Body Language

Decoding Body Language
Published On: 28-Apr-2022
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Article by

WIRED


What is it with the guys that sit down and just spread their legs like they own the place? All that can be said is this:

 Their mothers and fathers didn’t have a conversation with them. 

Universally, you hear about them, common yet peeves that have to do with body language.

 Staring

What staring is called in the United States may not be considered staring in other cultures. For instance, in New York city, people are allowed to stare at each other for about 1.28 sec. That’s been measured; it's been well studied but in the Middle East that may be extended to anywhere from 4 to 6 seconds. And so, what you have to realize is culture is very much dominant in how long we can look at each other, and where we can look at each other. We say that in a business setting, you should be looking at the little triangle between the eyes down to the mouth, and in a social setting that you descend all the way down to below the chin, but certainly in a business setting, you are not permitted to go as low as the breast area.

  Pacing

Some people are pacers, waiting for the baby to be born, or they are waiting for the next flight, and they are moving back and forth. What happens is the fluid inside our ears, as we move, those little hairs that are inside are sensitive to the movement of that fluid. And this is why we rock a baby to sleep. That rocking motion is then transferred as adults into walking behaviors, and under stress that helps us to calm down. One of the things that happens when we pace is that we compel the feet to touch a surface over and over again. That in and of itself creates a form of novelty. The gastrocnemius muscle of the legs, the calf muscle, is also known as the second heart. When it squeezes, it's forcing blood up. This is beneficial for thinking because now you have both the real heart and the secondary heart both working together to force that blood upward. So, there are actually some benefits to this, and a lot of creativity to force that blood upward. People find themselves pacing because it contributes to that process.

 The Bad Handshake

The weak one, the wet one, the one where the person pulls you forward then pushes you back, the one where they feel they need to twist your hand jiu jitsu style so their hand is on the top because they read this somewhere.

 

Hold your hands!

Why do humans even shake hands? We shake hands because we are primates. All primates approach each other and touch each other first by reaching out and touching their fingers together. There is a saying of someone,

Oh, we shake hands because we want to demonstrate that we don’t have a weapon. 

Weapons were so big back then you could see it over the horizon. That’s not the reason. We are primates. 

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