Bears don’t high-five: know what the body posture has to say

So which one would you like to hug and say it’s ok baby, and which one is a “HELP I’M DYING” case?

Body posture is an element of nonverbal behaviour which not only affects how one perceives you but also can affect how your brain perceives yourself as well. In other words, by changing your posture you can in a way change the level of your hormones and how you feel about yourself. A person’s own behavior provides information about the person’s own attitude (Olson & Hafer, 1990).

So, let’s start with the interpersonal effect of your posture. Imagine you just saw a stupid person that is trying to persuade you that J.R.R Tolkien has written The Lord of the Rings based on Harry Potter, and no matter you give them all the reasons why this is not true, they’re still like Frodo is totally like Harry...when you’re speechless, you will stand there, heads up, shoulders back feet apart from each other, (you little thing, see me? I can break you into pieces!)

You see, this posture can also be seen in animals, like Gorillaz and bears when they wanna show that they are more powerful and that they can cut you into pieces! Also it’s suggested that when you wanna go to an interview it’s better if you have more of an upright posture, which can show your confident.

Dr. Amy Cuddy has done some awesome researches on posture and power posing. You can find her TED TALK here,

http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html

She also talks about how your upright superhero posture changes the level of hormones in your blood and makes you feel more confident about yourself. How does that work? I’ll tell you about a research which Dr. Strack and his colleagues conducted in 1988. Participants were told to hold a pencil between their teeth while performing a task that involved rating the degree of humor in cartoons. Holding the pencil in the mouth this way forced the individuals to smile. Other participants were instructed to hold the pencil between their lips without touching the pencil with their teeth and this forces the muscles to contract resulting in a frown. The authors hypothesized that participants who were led to smile would judge the cartoons as funnier than participants who were led to frown. Annnnd that was the result as well!

Also wanna change how you think? In a study by Petty & Cacioppo, (1986) they asked some people that were standing and some that were laying down to listen to a weak and strong argument. The ones that were standing showed no difference toward the two persuasive arguments while the reclined group responded differently to the the two arguments. That can imply that the reclined posture makes you, in simple words, think more!

Also one possibility is that posture may have affected information processing by influencing participants’ sense of power. That is, people in a standing posture are seen as (and may feel) more powerful than people who are seated, slumped over, or lying down (Briñol & Petty, 2008).

Standing people seem to be more dominant, and actually, people that are vertically higher are perceived to be more powerful (Schubert, 2005) and that influences both themselves and their audience. So, I suggest when you wanna make someone listen to you, find a chair stand on it, and start talking (isn’t that what mulla’s and all people that wanna give a speech do??). Weird thing is the power will reduce information processing :S

However, the power thingy is not only about height. When people expand themselves and take

up a lot of space, they are perceived as dominant, like when you see a guy leaning on his seat, having his arms on the other seat backs and his legs extended, usually these people have a higher status, whereas when they constrict themselves and take up little space, they are perceived as submissive, like a typical crossed leg lady with a lurch, holding hands (Argyle, 1988, Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1975).

Let's see who sits like a lady and who as if they own the world!

This article has been of great help, if you want to take a look at it:

Briñol, P; Petty, R.E; (2008), Embodied Persuasion: Fundamental Processes by Which Bodily Responses Can Impact Attitudes

So, guys, you see a bear like that, it’s trying to tell you something “You come close to me, I break your neck” and NO, he’s not high-fiving.

What Rapunzel's Hair Tells Us About Her

On hair...

For my dissertation I had to work on the importance of self-grooming (touching your hair or playing with it) and the gender difference regarding it. what I did for my dissertation was to ask people to tell me one of their sad stories and one of their happy stories then I measured their self-manipulation activities (touching your face, other hand, clothes, body etc.) and their posture change during these periods. One of the interesting outcomes was that women did more self-grooming, i.e they touched their hair more and played with it more often.

Hairstyles serve as important cultural artifact, because they are simultaneously public (visible to everyone), personal (biologically linked to the body), and highly malleable to suit cultural and personal preferences (Firth 1973; Synott 1987).

If I don’t include the results of the study by Moore (2004) stating that the gender difference in self-grooming in rats is due to hormonal differences,one can say women identify themselves more closely with the hair on their heads than men do, which is, to an extent, related to the cultural definition of femininity. Also, using this important belonging, women kinda can express their resistance toward the social norms...well I guess that’s not just for women. Probably a good example is different groups of people that can even be identified to an extend with their hair style!

Ok, now u guess

1.?

Emo!

2.?

Punk

3.?

What a hipster

So, see? though that was in an exaggerated level. In a less obvious situation you can take a quick guess by seeing people’s hair styles and color...though remember a normal straight ponytail is not necessarily all you see...I used to have very short neon-pink hair, now it’s long black boring...DON’T YOU DARE SAYING I’M BORING! but what I’m saying is that you should also see how people’s hair style changes by time, many cut their hair really short after they have a bad thing or stressing thing happening to them, like a break up, or sometimes a death of a beloved one. Sometime this huge change arises from a need for attention to gain back some kind of energy or something they have lost!

I found these in this link www.divinecaroline.com/entertainment/surprising-traits-reveal-your-personality, from the book Reading People: How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior – Anyplace, Anytime, (Jo-Ellan Dimitrius).

"Short Hair

If a woman has a well-maintained and carefully-cut short hairstyle, it can reveal that she is artistic and wants to express herself through her hair. Any high-maintenance hairstyle can be a sign of wealth or that a woman cares about her looks, but short hair requires frequent trips to the stylist, a sign that the woman is okay with spending money to look good. According to Dimitrius, “Spending a significant percentage of one’s income on hair—or any other aspect of personal appearance—suggests vanity, a need for acceptance, concern about others’ perceptions, and possibly insecurity.”

[me: for guys might also be agood idea to check the back of their head, like the line on the neck]

Long Hair

Long hair can have multiple meanings. Many women believe that long hair makes them more sexually appealing, but it can also show a bohemian spirit or a need for freedom. Women over forty with long hair can be trying to hold onto their youth (and sex appeal) and may be unrealistic in their perceptions of themselves.

Gray Hair

Women who go “naturally” gray are comfortable with who they are. They have their own opinions about what looks good and what they like.

Mohawks, Multi-Colored Hair, Unique Styles

Obviously this shows that the wearer bucks tradition and doesn’t care what people think of her. The wearers are usually young and adventurous, but wearing these styles into adulthood reveals a woman who has little regard for what conventional society (employers, authority figures) thinks of her."

Ok, I tried to find academic articles on a relation between hair style and personality etc. but couldn’t find anything in particular, so if you know any references let me know, also let’s remember that fashion plays a great role on determining what kind of person you are dealing with, for example if you see this in Iran according to the current fashion:

you definitely know that she values is the society’s trend, she tries to keep up with the routine of the social norms of the same age and her cultural class and probably is less open to experiencing new things (just my personal opinion).

Whereas this awesome NASA’s Mohawk guy...phewwww, isn’t it hot in here?!...a rebel, eh??

And about Rapunzel? I don't know man...she'll have a hard time trying to wear a wig...I mean, I found it so much fun to try one...she'll probably be traumatized if she goes to a wig-party.

And:

“Interviewer: 'So Frank, you have long hair. Does that make you a woman?'

Frank Zappa: 'You have a wooden leg. Does that make you a table?”

- Frank Zappa

The Fat, Depressed, Relaxed, Ovulating Woman

So I was looking at this walking dude on the biomotion lab which is a pretty interesting thing (http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html). After playing with the sad/happy, male/female, anxious/relaxed and heavy/light buttons, I took some snapshots so that I can make a comparison between different factors, placing female, heavy, relaxed and sad in the same column as I thought they have more characteristics in common (see below the post).

So in the first place, the female and the fat guy both have wider hips and in the female this makes the elbows to be positioned closer to the trunk, also the fat, female, relaxed dudes have their feet closer to each other... I assume the reason for that in women besides from the anatomical reasons is social obligations and stuff like oh a lady doesn't stand like this. You can also see tomboys have a bit of a different posture, like they stand with their legs positioned wider than more feminine girls, same is for sitting style.

Feminine? 

Also the feminine figure has more swing in the hips while the male figure has broader chest thus elbows are outward and the upper trunk has more swing. The nervous guy is interesting too, he has all his muscles tensed, and a very fast speed, he will probably be having a lot of hand manipulations like scratching and rubbing, but well i guess i’ll leave the anxiety details for another time.

It’s very cool to see how women’s gait change during ovulation, apparently they walk sexier! Guéguen was really obsessed to prove this so he conducted a study in the good old days that you could film your participants without their previous consent :P so he made his participants walk while there was a man there and he filmed them and measured their LH level.

“Guéguen tested for sexier gaits by measuring two things. First, he wanted to see how long it would take in seconds for the participants to walk down the hallway, the longer it took a woman, the sexier she walked. Second, he wanted to evaluate how sexually attractive her gait was, as rated by two male judges on a scale from one to five. Of note, age did not play a factor.” Result? “Women at peak levels of fertility took more time walking down the long hallway and their gaits were rated as sexier by males!”

Find the details here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/head-games/201210/what-womans-walk-says-about-her

Great Gait Personality!

So on our way back from the city of Isfahan to Tehran we stopped at this restaurant. I was trying to see if I can see what people’s walking pattern tells me.

Ok, one thing you should know.Stop assuming that you’re wrong most of the times when you want to guess what these signs tell you. In a study by Norman and Passini (1966) results have shown that the rating of strangers converge surprisingly with well with the self-rating of personality by targets. People usually unconsciously are sending these clues to the outer world for mainly interpersonal communication so it would make sense for you to be fairly accurate about interpreting them...you just need to “observe” instead of just “seeing”.

So let me get back to the restaurant. Starting with the waiters, two types of energetic gait and walking can be identified, one is like a straightforward and authoritative walking, fast, determined, more intense arm swing, upright posture and a more serious facial expression, while some others had the same things with the difference of having a more cheerful facial expression, looking more at the surrounding area, being more playful with the objects they have in hand or the food trolley.

The other thing that I had to struggle identifying was the difference between a relaxed manner in walking and just being tired. To me it just felt like some people keep their upright posture, sometimes hands in pockets and a neutral facial expression which appealed more to be relaxed while some others seem to have a similar pattern but it felt like the gravity is effecting them in a weird way, as if their hips and shoulders are more drawn towards the ground, probably downward shoulder...round shoulder, forward head and of course you can see the tiredness in the face as well (remember to look at the subjects in a cluster, rule number 1,2 or 3 (!!!) of body language interpretation by Allan Pease)

still I’m not sure about any of the stuff I have written...so if there’s any comment please don’t hesitate to let me know it.

Also found this in “Learningmind.com”:

“Your gait not only reflects your personality, but also your current mood. If you feel happy, then, most likely, your gait will be energetic, and the speed of your walk will increase. When people feel confident and bold, they move with big strides, and, as a rule, outrun their friends while walking.

Some people have a lot of pressure on the ground when walking, but not because of the heavy weight, but because of their persistence in life. Persistent people usually walk with heavy steps, strongly stepping on the surface. Persistence is a good sign, but it is worth noting that this type of gait can also be caused by a simple lack of flexibility.

Some people tend to move slowly, dragging their feet behind them, just like if they do not have the energy to move normally. Lack of energy usually reflects sad feelings or depression, but it also may be associated with a fear and uncertainty of what awaits the person in the future.

“Cat” gait in women is usually a sign that a person is just like trying to say: “Everyone, look at me”. The same is true for the men who walk as if they are models for the fashion show.

Walking with your hands in your pockets can be a sign that you are not satisfied with your self-esteem or the clothes you are wearing.

If your head is up while walking, it could mean that you are in a good mood, while the head down most likely means that you are not feeling well.”

also you might wanna take a look at the biomotion lab... It let's you see how anxiety, happiness, etc, can affect your walking pattern...it's pretty cool, I checked this website out like 3 years ago and they didn't have the mood elements in there yet...they were still working on it. Good to see how awesome these people are :)

http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

I love you for your gait personality!

Intro

Hi
I'm Rey...and I'm a physiotherapist - health psychologist with an interest in nonverbal communication in health settings.
I used to be a huge Dr. Lightman fan (based on dr. Paul Ekman's life) and I still am, he solves crimes using nonverbal clues. I guess he was a big inspiration to me while I was doing my master. To want to be able to know my patients better by listening to what their body had to stay, specially when working with kids.
Later I realized that Sherlock Holmes is also a great role model for me. He kinda is a comprehensive pack of Dr. Lightman and some extra skills that just makes him super dooper awesome!
He uses every single clue to see what people's stories are...so I was thinking having a comprehensive pack of nonverbal cues would be of great help for people that work in a health setting and need to know many things that are hidden i the core incidents presented by their patients.
For now I have identified these subjects to try to work on:
Facial expressions
Gestures and Body Postures
Gait Analysis
Voice Analysis
Eye Movements
Clothes
Accessories and Belongings
hand Writing
Preferences (like music, color, etc)

I know it's all just too much, but that's just a list for start :P
you guys lemme know if there's something you think i can add to the list


Wish me luck
Rey

Yes, Sherlock has boobs in this photo