Allan Pease - Body Language

BODY LANGUAGE

How to read others’ thoughts by their gestures


ALLAN PEASE is the managing director of a
management consultancy company based in
Sydney, Australia. He produces books, films, and
cassettes that are used by numerous organisa-
tions around the world to train personnel in
communication skills. He did ten years’ study,
interviewing and research before writing BODY
LANGUAGE.

Overcoming Common Problems

BODY
LANGUAGE

How to read others’ thoughts by their gestures



Allan Pease

First published 1981 by Camel Publishing Company,
Box 1612, North Sydney, 2060, Australia

Copyright © Allan Pease 1981

First published March 1984 by Sheldon Press,
SPCK Building, Marylebone Road, London
NWl 4DU

Tenth impression 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher.








British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Pease, Allan
Body language. – (Overcoming common problems)
1. Nonverbal communication
I. Title II. Series
001.56 P99.5

ISBN 0-85969-406-2

Printed in Great Britain
at the University Printing House, Oxford

Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Framework for Understanding
Territories and Zones
Palm Gestures
Hand and Arm Gestures
Hand-to-Face Gestures
Arm Barriers
Leg Barriers
Other Popular Gestures and Actions
Eye Signals
Courtship Gestures and Signals
Cigars, Cigarettes, Pipes and Glasses
Territorial and Ownership Gestures
Carbon Copies and Mirror Images
Body Lowering and Status
Pointers
Desks, Tables and Seating Arrangements
Power Plays
Putting It All Together
References

Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the following people who have directly and indirectly contributed to
this book: Noel Bishop, Raoul Boielle, Ty Boyd, Sue Brannigan, Matthew Braund,
Doug Constable, John Cooke, Sharon Cooper, Chris Corck, Brett Davies, Dr Andre
Davril, George Deveraux, Rob Edmonds, Iv en Frangi, Rex Gamble, Dave Goodwin,
Jan Goodwin, Paul Gresham, Gerry Hatton, J ohn Hepworth, Bob Heussler, Gay Huber,
Professor Phillip Hunsaker, Dianne Joss, J acqueline Kent, Ian McKillop, Delia Mills,
Desmond Morris, Virginia Moss, Wayne Mugridge, John Nevin, Peter Opie, Diana
O’Sullivan, Richard Otton, Ray Pease, Da vid Plenderleith, David Rose, Richard
Salisbury, Kim Sheumack, Jan Smith, Tom Stratton, Ron Tacchi, Steve Tokoly, Keith
Weber, Alan White, Rob Winch and the Australian Jaycees.

Introduction
When I first heard about ‘body language’ at a seminar in 1971, I became so excited
about it that I wanted to learn more. The sp eaker told us about some of the research
done by Professor Ray Birdwhistell at the Un iversity of Louisville, which had shown
that more human communication took place by the use of gestures, postures, position
and distances than by any other method. At th at time I had been a commission salesman
for several years and had undergone many long, intensive courses on selling techniques,
but none of these courses had ever mentione d anything about the non-verbal aspects or
implications of face-to-face encounters.
My own investigations showed that little useful information was available on body
language and, although libraries and universitie s had records of the studies done on it,
most of this information consisted of closely set manuscripts and theoretical
assumptions compiled in an objective manner by people who had little or no practical
experience in dealing with other human beings . This does not mean that their work was
not important; simply that most of it was too technical to have any practical application
or use by a layman like myself.
In writing this book, I have summarise d many of the studies by the leading
behavioural scientists and have combined them with similar research done by people in
other professions - sociology, anthropology, zoology, education, psychiatry, family
counseling, professional ne gotiating and selling.
The book also includes many ‘how to’ feat ures developed from the countless reels
of videotape and film made by myself and others throughout Australasia and overseas,
plus some of the experiences and encounters that I have had with the thousands of\

people that I have interviewed, recruited, trained, managed and sold to over the past
fifteen years.
This book is by no means the last word on body language, nor does it