Allan Pease - Body Language | Page 6

or she was
cold, not defensive. If, howev er, the person used the same gestures while you were
sitting across a table from him trying to sell him an idea, product or service, they could
be correctly interpreted as m eaning that the person was ne gative or defensive about the
situation.
Throughout this book all gestures will be considered in context and, where possible,
gesture clusters will be examined.
Other Factors Affecting Interpretation
A man who has a ‘dead fish’ hand shake is likely to be accused of having a weak
character and the chapter on hand shake techniques will explore the reason for this
popular theory. But if a man has arthritis in his hands, it is likely that he will use a ‘dead
fish’ hand shake to avoid th e pain of a strong one. Similarly, artists, musicians,
surgeons and those in vocatio ns whose work is delicate and involves use of their hands
generally prefer not to shake hands, but, if they are forced to do so, they may use a
‘dead fish’ to protect them.
Someone who wears ill-fitti ng or tight clothing may be unable to use certain
gestures, and this can affect use of body la nguage. This applies to a minority of people,
but it is important to consider what effect a person’s physical restrictions or disabilities
may have on his or her body movement.
Status and Power
Research in the field of linguistics has shown that there is a direct relationship
between the amount of status , power or prestige a person commands and that person’s
range of vocabulary. In other words, the hi gher up the social or management ladder a
person is, the better able he is to comm unicate in words and phrases. Non-verbal
research has revealed a correlation between a person’s command of the spoken word
and the amount of gesticulation that that person uses to communicate his or her
message. This means that a person’s status, power or prestige is also directly related to
the number of gestures or body movements he uses. The person at the top end of the
social or management scale can use his range of words to communicate his meaning,
whereas the less educated or unskilled person will rely more on gestures than words to
communicate.
Throughout this book, most of the examples given refer to white, middle-class
people but, as a general rule the higher the person on the socio-economic scale, the less
gesticulation and body movement he uses.
The speed of some gestures and how obvious they look to others is also related to
the age of the individual. For example, if a five-year-old child tells a lie to his or her
parent, the mouth will be de liberately covered with one or both hands immediately
afterwards (Figure 6). The gesture of covering the mouth alerts the parent to the lie and
this gesture continues to be used throughout the individual’s lifetime, usually varying
only in the speed at which it is done. When the teenager tells a lie, the hand is brought to

the mouth like that of a five-year-old, but instead of the obvious hand slapping gesture
over the mouth, the fingers rub lightly around it (Figure 7).
This mouth-covering gesture becomes even more refined in adulthood. When the
adult tells a lie, his brain instructs his hand to cover his mouth in an attempt to block the
deceitful words, just as it does for the five-year-old and the teenager, but at the last
moment the hand is pulled away from the face and a nose touch gesture results (Figure
8). This gesture is nothing more than the adult’s sophisticated version of the
mouth-covering gesture that was used in childhood. This is an example of the fact that,
as an individual gets older, many of his gestures become sophisticated and less obvious,
which is why it is often more difficult to read the gestures of a fifty year-old than those
of a much younger person.

FAKING BODY LANGUAGE
A commonly asked question is, ‘Is it possible to fake your own body language?’
The general answer to this question is ‘no’ because of the lack of congruence that is
likely to occur in the use of the main gestures, the body’s microsignals and the spoken

words. For example, open palms are associated with honesty but when the faker holds
his palms out and smiles at you as he tells a lie, his microgestures give him away. His
pupils may contract, one eyebrow may lift or the comer of his mouth may twitch, and
these signals contradict the open palm gesture and the sincere smile. The result is that
the