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2 Involuntary Body Language 3 Links 4 Reference |
Many elements of body language can easily be understood, and tested, simply by knowing about them. For example, the tendency for people to raise their eyebrows as one approaches them fact-to-face is usually indicative of esteem. If you walk down the street and encounter someone you don't know then the chances are that neither of you will raise your eyebrows. If you recognise each other, however, even if you do not greet each another, then eyebrows will likely raise and lower. Of particular interest here in a work context is that if one is not rated highly by the other person then that person will not raise their eyebrows, even though one is recognised.
The relation of body language to animal communication has often been discussed. Human paralanguage may represent a continuation of forms of communication that our non-linguistic ancestors already used, or it may be that it has been changed by co-existing with language.
Some species of animals are especially adept at detecting human body language, both voluntary and involuntary: this is the basis of the Clever Hans effect (a source of artefact in comparative psychology), and was also the reason for trying to teach the chimpanzee Washoe American Sign Language rather than speech - and perhaps the reason why the Washoe project was more successful than some previous efforts to teach apes human languages.
It is widely believed that involuntary body language is the most accurate way into a person's subconcious. In principle, if people don't realize what they are doing or why they are doing it, it should be possible for a trained observer to understand more of what they are thinking or feeling than they intend - or even more than they realise themselves.
Interrogators, customs examiners, and others who have to seek information that people do not necessarily want to give have always relied on explicit or implicit hypotheses about body language. However, this is a field that is fraught with risk of error, and it has also been plagued with plausible but superficial or just plain erroneous popular psychology: just because someone has their legs crossed toward you, it doesn't mean that they want to have sex with you; it could just mean that they are comfortable with you, but it could also be how they always sit regardless of where you are.
Furthermore, it is not possible to tell reliably whether body language has been emitted voluntarily or involuntarily, so to rely too heavily on it is to run the risk of being bluffed.
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Voluntary Body Language
This is less commonly discussed because it seems unproblematic, refers to movement, gestures and poses intentionally made by the subject: moving hands, mimating actions, and generally making movements with full or partial intention of making them. It can apply to many types of soundless communication, for example, formalized gestures in matches.Involuntary Body Language
This applies to involuntary movements that may give observers cues about what one is really thinking or feeling. The ability to interpret such movements is itself unconscious, at least for untrained observers. Reference
Argyle, M (1975). Bodily communication. New York: International Universities Press.