Sure, You’re Making Eye Contact, But Is It The Right Kind?
Everyone knows how important it is to make eye contact with the people you’re talking to, but not all eye contact is the same. If you’re doing it right, you’re communicating to your conversation partner that you’re likeable, trustworthy, attentive. If you do it wrong, you could be communicating that you’re intense, aloof, domineering, or disinterested. Here
Read MoreUsing Body Language To Spot Terrorists
Can airport security personnel be trained to spot the bad guys from behavioral clues? The science journal, Nature, casts a skeptical eye. Of particular interest to me is this passage: Most credibility-assessment researchers agree that humans are demonstrably poor at face-to-face lie detection. SPOT traces its intellectual roots to the small group of researchers who
Read MoreMy Three Favorite Books on Body Language (For Regular People)
I always have a hard time when people ask me to recommend books on body language or people-reading. Sadly, most of the books written for the general public are junk. Either they’re based on out-of-date research, or they’re filled with content that’s simply made up. It’s true! Some authors recognize that you don’t have the knowledge
Read MoreIs it what you say or how you say it?
I’ve had a lot of occasion lately to give tips on presentation techniques, and I’ve noticed that at first concentrating on your own body language can make you feel very self-conscious. This problem makes me thing of the old question, “which is more important, what you say or how you say it?” Which will it be, style
Read MoreA Magic Touch? cont.
Another interesting article on the power of touch. As a bit of trivia, mentalists performing in the late 19th century used touch almost exclusively as a method for receiving the thoughts of their volunteers.
Read MoreA Magic Touch?
Recent research is verifying something that mentalists have known for decades: touching somebody in a gentle yet firm way can greatly increase the chances they will comply with your wishes. Depending on context, the odds that they will do what you ask them to can nearly double. As a technique for influencing people, touching can
Read MoreA Peek Into the Wierd World of People Reading
It’s only right for my first post that I give you a little glimpse into some of the arcana of reading people. Cracked.com has compiled a very funny list of some of the things you can tell about people just by looking at them: http://www.cracked.com/article_19194_6-intimate-details-you-can-tell-just-by-looking-at-someone.html (Beware! The article might not be considered safe for work.
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