64 WHAT EVERY BODY IS SAYING
up, so that his toes were pointing skyward (see figure 20). To the average
person, that behavior would have gone unnoticed or been disregarded as
insignificant. But to the trained observer, that gravity-defying foot behavior
can be readily decoded to mean that the man on the phone had just heard
something positive. Sure enough, as I walked by I could hear him say,
“Really—that’s terrific!” His feet had already silently said the same thing.
Even when standing still, a person telling a story may inch up to a
taller stance, elevating himself to emphasize his points, and he may do
so repeatedly. The individual does this subconsciously; therefore these el-
evating behaviors are very honest cues, since they tend to be true expres-
When the toes point upward as in this
photograph, it usually means the person
is in a good mood or is thinking or
hearing something positive.Fig. 20