Allan Pease - Body Language | Page 4

left arm first. When a man passes a woman in a crowded street, he
usually turns his body towards her as he passes; she usually turns her body away from
him. Does she instinctively do this to protect her breasts? Is this an inborn female
reaction or has she learned to do this by unconsciously watching other females?
Much of our basic non-verbal behaviour is learned and the meaning of many
movements and gestures is culturally determined. Let us now look at these aspects of
body language.
SOME BASICS AND THEIR ORIGINS
Most of the basic communication gestures are the same all over the world. When
people are happy they smile; when they are sad or angry they frown or scowl. Nodding
the head is almost universally used to indicate ‘yes’ or affirmation. It appears to be a
form of head lowering and is probably an inborn gesture, as it is also used by deaf and
blind people. Shaking the head from side to side to indicate ‘no’ or negation is also
universal and may well be a gesture that is learned in infancy. When a baby has had
enough milk, he turns his head from side to side to reject his mother’s breast. When the
young child has had enough to eat, he shakes his head from side to side \
to stop his
parent’s attempt to spoon feed him and in this way he quickly learns to use the head
shaking gesture to show disagreement or a
negative attitude.
The evolutionary origin of some gestures
can be traced to our primitive animal past.
Baring the teeth is derived from the act of
attacking and is still used by modern man in
the form of a sneer and other such hostile
gestures, even though he will not attack with
his teeth. Smiling was originally a threat
gesture, but today it is done in conjunction
with non-threatening gestures to show
pleasure.
The shoulder shrug is also a good example
of a universal gesture that is used to show that
a person does not know or understand what
you are talking about. It is a multiple gesture
that has three main parts: exposed palms,
hunched shoulders and raised brow.
Just as verbal language differs from culture to culture, so the non-verbal language
may also differ. Whereas one gesture may be common in a particular culture and have a
clear interpretation, it may be meaningless in another culture or even have a completely

opposite meaning. Take, for example, the cultural interpretations and implications of
three common hand gestures, the ring gesture, the thumb-up and V sign.
The Ring or ‘OK’ Gesture
This gesture was popularised in the USA during the early nineteenth century,
apparently by the newspapers that, at the time, were starting a craze of using initials to
shorten common phrases. There’ are many different views about what the initials ‘OK’
stand for, some believing it stood for ‘all correct’ which may have been misspelled as
‘oll korrect’, while others say that it means the opposite of ‘knock-out’ that is, K.O.
Another popular theory is that it is an abbreviation of ‘Old Kinderhook’, from the
birthplace of a nineteenth century American president who used the initials as a
campaign slogan. Which theory is the correct one we may never know, but it seems that
the ring itself represents the letter ‘O’ in the ‘OK’ signal. The-,’OK’ meaning is
common to all English-speaking countries and, although its meaning is fast spreading
across Europe and Asia, it has other origins and meanings in certain places. For
example, in France it also means ‘zero’ or ‘nothing’; in Japan it can mean ‘money’; in
some Mediterranean countries it is an orifice signal, often used to infer that a man is
homosexual.
For overseas travellers, the safest rule to obey is, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans
do’. This can help avoid any possible embarrassing circumstances.

The Thumb-Up Gesture
In Britain, Australia and New Zealand the thumb-up gesture has three meanings; it
is commonly used by hitch-hikers who are thumbing a lift, it is an OK signal, and when
the thumb is jerked sharply upwards it becomes an insult signal, meaning ‘up yours’ or
‘sit on this’. In some countries, such as Greece, its main meaning is ‘get stuffed’, so you
can imagine the dilemma of the Australian hitch-hiker using this gesture in that country!
When Italians count from one to five, they use this gesture to mean ‘one’ and the index
finger then becomes ‘two’, whereas most Australians, Americans and English people
count ‘one’ on the index finger and two on the middle finger. In this case the thumb will
represent the number ‘five’.

The thumb is also