Allan and Barbara Pease are the internationally renowned experts on human relations and body language. 20 million book sales worldwide have turned them into household name internationally.
Did you know that according to Allan Pease…

1. Being ‘perceptive’ means being able to spot the contradictions between someone’s words and their body language.

   And that overall women are far more perceptive than men. Research reveals that women read the situation accurately 87% of the time, while men only scored 42% accuracy. This has given rise to the term “women’s intuition”.

2. Modern humans are worse at reading body signals than their ancestors because we are now distracted by words.

   Try turning the volume down on the TV and see how well you do.

3. False smiles pull back only the mouth while real smiles pull back both mouth and eyes.

   Science has proven that the more you smile, the more positive reactions others will give you.

4. When you fold your arms your credibility dramatically reduces.

   You may feel that arm-crossing is simply comfortable but others will think you’re not approachable.

5. Skilful elbow-touching can give you up to three times the chance of getting what you want.

   A light 3 second elbow-touch creates a momentary bond between two people. Touching above or below the elbow does not produce the same result and touching for more than 3 seconds will receive a negative response.

6. Gestures can reveal if a person is lying.

   Seven of the most common ‘lying gestures’ are the, ‘Mouth Cover’, the ‘Nose Touch’, the ‘Eye Rub’, the ‘Ear Grab’, the ‘Neck Scratch’, the ‘Collar Pull’ and the ‘Fingers In The Mouth’.

7. Pupil dilation is a sign that the person likes what they see

   When the pupil of the eye dilates, the black section in the middle grows in size. This explains why we sometimes see a “twinkle in the eye” when a person is happy or excited. The larger black area reflects light differently.

8. The closer people feel emotionally to each other, the closer they will stand to each other.

   There are cultural reasons too, why people will stand a certain distance from another person.

9. Jiggling the feet is like the brain’s attempt to run away from what is being experienced.

   If you are not sure whether you’re being lied to or not, look under the table or desk. Glass topped tables cause us more stress than solid tables, as our legs are in full view and so we don’t feel as if we are in full control.

10. Open legs show male confidence; closed legs show male reticence

    Crossed legs not only reveals negative or defensive emotions, it makes a person appear insecure and causes others to react accordingly.

11. The size of a briefcase is linked to perceptions of the status of its owner.

    Those who carry a large, bulky briefcase are thought to do all the work and probably take work home with them because they are poor time managers. Slim briefcases say that the owner is only concerned with the bottom line and therefore has more status.

12. Where you sit in relation to other people in a meeting or even socially, is an effective way of obtaining co-operation from them.

    It makes a difference whether you sit at a round table, a square table, a rectangular table or no table at all. It also matters where you sit – across from the other person, left or right of the person, next to the person and so on.

It’s a fascinating subject and reading a person’s body language is a skill which can be developed. Allan cautions us though not to jump to conclusions when we see gestures and suggests three rules for accurate reading.

1. Read gestures in clusters and don’t interpret a solitary gesture on it’s own
2. Look for congruency between people’s words and their ‘body language’
3. Remember to read gestures in context with the environment and other things that are happening

Have a great week. Make it a great week!

Stumble it!