I got this email from a subscriber to my newsletter: How do I tell if a guy likes me? I have a feeling you’ll tell me what I already know, that he’ll sit closer to me or look directly at me or something but I’m curious as to if there’re other signs. I’m overweight and often down […]
Archive | Body Language
A Little Romance
Considering how many college campuses I appear at, it’s hardly surprising that one of the questions I get asked most frequently is “How can I tell if he or she is interested in me?” Somepeople do seem to have an innate gift for reading the non-verbal cues that signal romantic interest. Alas, most of the rest of […]
I Get Questioned By The Police
It’s not what you’re thinking. After last night’s show a man approached me with a question I actually get pretty often. He wanted to know if I trained law enforcement professionals how to read and interpret body language. The event I was entertaining for was an annual meeting of an association of telecommunications cooperatives, so the […]
A Good Handshake Brings In The Money
Dan Ariely is a behavioral economist. As I understand it, he studies the psychological and behavioral elements of how we make our economic choices. Recently, he described a fascinating experiment the illustrates the incredible power of body language. In brief, he took a scruffy college student, dressed him like a bum, and set him to panhandling on […]
What the Eyes Reveal: Myth vs. Fact
What the Eyes Reveal: Myth Vs. Fact. It happened again yesterday. I was discussing how body language help you tell when somebody is lying, when the person I was talking to said, “I’ve heard that when a person is lying his eyes look up and to the left.” “Where did you learn this,” I asked. […]
It’s Not Just Humans Who Express Through Body Language
Actually body language is even more important for animals, since they can’t express through language. But the photos in this story are particularly striking. The baby gorilla was rescued from poachers, and you can see from its body language how it starts off being terrified, but eventually becomes comfortable with its rescuers, and then eventually forms […]
Virtual Body Language
We’ve known for a long time that it’s harder to convey the full range of meaning online, due to the impossibility of viewing body language. A new study digs deeper into the problem. Put simply, they examined the ways people communicate via animated avatars. The money quote: The researchers found that the best performance was […]
Does It Mean Anything?
One interesting exchange I had while on my recent tour went like this: Man: “I love watching people, and I’ve noticed some interesting things.” Me: “Such as?” Man: “I’ve noticed that people who talk without moving their upper lips are usually dishonest.” Me: “Uh…..Ok. I recommend you never visit England.” If you read me even occasionally, […]
More on TSA Behavioral Analysis
A while back I posted about the TSA’s plan to train agents to read body language. Apparently they’ve already begun to implement this in Boston’s Logan Airport. This recent story on NPR talks about it: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=139643652&m=139666500 Pay special attention to commentary by Paul Ekman, the brain behind the training. Also note a brief appearance by […]
A Reader’s Question
Recently a reader sent me a question. I deleted the original email, but here’s the paraphrase: He said his sister always insists upon having her photograph taken with her legs tucked under her and her head tilted. He wanted to know what that said about her. It’s an interesting question because it says more about […]
