Body language is a very important component of nonverbal communication. It includes all movements our bodies make and don’t make. Below are some common examples of gestures that can act as indicators or our thinking, and how we may use them to decode people as mentalists do.

 

The body language of confidence involves showing oneself. Your back is usually straight with your shoulders opening wide. A confident person tends to walk at a rhythmic pace that is not too fast and not too slow, giving you a feeling that the person has everything under control (Millar). This is adaptive as we see in many animals in which a straight posture makes their body look bigger, which is a form of dominance and confident. On the other hand, for someone who is sitting, steepling of hands is also a sign of confidence (Smith, 2010; IndiaBIX). A raised steeple, where the person’s elbows are to the desk surface and both hands are raised above the desk surface connected at the fingers, indicates that this person is confident and likely has some opinion or advice to give.(Smith, 2010; IndiaBIX). On the other hand, a lowered steeple where the hands still join at the fingers but just slightly resting in front of the body suggests that this person a confident listener at that moment (IndiaBIX).

 

One frequently observed body language of defense is the crossing of arms. It is as if we are hiding the trunk of our body behind the crossed arms to protect our vital organs from attacks. This is commonly seen in people when they disagree with someone else’s opinion or if they feel offended by other’s comments. Another obvious sign of defence reveals a more aggressive form of defence, in which a person firmly presses on the desk or the rostrum in the front (Lardner, 2002).

 

Doubt is one of the common thing people look for when they try to read body language, because it is normal for people to seek for answers from non-verbal communication when the suspect the existence of uncertainty about the verbal response. Doubt itself is also a sign of lacking confidence, which can possibly relate to cases where the subject is hiding something. Gestures showing signs of doubt include rubbing of hands, retrieval such as taking a step back or moving away from the rostrum, shaking of head and shrugging of shoulders (Smith).

 

Apart from expressing certain emotions, we can also tell that someone is holding back their emotions from their body language. For example, someone trying to grip their wrist with the other hand from the back may be a sign that the person is holding back some anger or frustration (IndiaBIX).

 

Most of the time, we perform unconscious movements and gestures that give away what we consciously think of, whether we intend to hide it or not. However, we also try to use body language to help ourselves fit to the context we are in all the time. For example, if we were to attend a job interview for a manager position of a company, we are likely to sit up with are backs straight to show respect, and our shoulders wide to show confidence; as opposed to sitting with or backs sliding down the chair and our shoulders crouching forward. Therefore mentalists tend to compare someone’s reactions with the expected reactions and search for the missing one. Whether there should be anger, sadness or guilt in the person and whether these are reflected in the body language? If a suspect is truly innocent upon being accused of a crime, should he or she not be angry of the authority for accusing him or her? If anger is not shown, is there any sign of guilt such as doubt or sadness? These may be good indications of whether the person is guilty or innocent (IndiaBIX).

 

Similar to the previous example, we can combine different cues together or in a sequence to predict whether a person is hiding something. If the person first shows signs of defense, but then shows signs of doubt, we can easily tell this person is not confident of his or her claims made during the defense stage, and there may be more to the story. In addition, if a person’s mental state is fully consistent with all his or her actions, all the gestures should be coordinating in the same manner and direction (IndiaBIX). That includes eye contact, nodding of head and assuring gestures such as pointing of finger. These should all be assuring the statement or claims made and coordinate at a rhythmic pattern. If there is inconsistency among these cues, it is likely that the person is not fully telling the truth