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OOKBody Language Hacks
The way you hold yourself affects
how others perceive you and how you
perceive yourself. Here’s how to use
body language to everyone’s benefit.
Change How You Feel
To de-stress: Forcing a smile can make
running easier and tough tasks less
stressful. One 2012 experiment found
that a grin makes holding your hand in
ice water more bearable.
To feel more confident: Standing like
Wonder Woman — legs apart, hands
on hips, chest up — may make you feel
more powerful. Striking this so-called
power pose shortly before an interview
or athletic contest can be particularly
powerful for women, who tend to sit andstand in a way that takes up less space.
(The initial study supporting these
claims sparked debate, however. See
“Picking Apart Power Poses” at right.)
To persevere: Crossing your arms
across your chest can help you persist
in solving a problem. In a 2008 study,
students who sat with their arms
crossed kept working on an impossible
problem nearly twice as long as those
with their arms at their sides.
Change How Others Feel
To come across as sincere: Studies
show that holding someone’s gaze may
help people think you’re trustworthy
and intelligent. According to body
language expert Carol Kinsey Goman,
it can also make people think you’rea good listener.
To foster connections: Mirroring the
facial expressions and gestures of
the person you’re talking to can help
them feel more comfortable. One 2011
experiment found this is an effective
sales tactic.
To engage or disengage: If you want to
let someone know you’re listening, sit
facing them with your full body, knees
and shoulders pointed at them. But if
you want to diffuse tension, angle
your body slightly away — facing
full-on is confrontational
when things get heated.
The Birds and the Bees
Humans aren’t the only gesticulators. Other species use their bodies to
communicate all sorts of information. Here are just a few.
BEES
Honeybees dance to show their hive mates where good flowers are. The angle
and duration of their so-called "waggle dance" conveys the direction and
distance to food sources.
FISH
Coral reef groupers repeatedly shimmy their bodies to encourage their hunting
partners — eels and other fish — to help them search for prey. If a quarry escapes
a grouper, it will shake its head while doing a headstand to reveal the hiding
place to a partner better equipped to reach in and snag dinner. Trout have also
been seen performing the headstand behavior with octopus partners.
RAVENS
Ravens use their beaks to show and offer objects like moss and twigs to
potential mates. The gesture may be similar to infants who point to or show
parents objects; sharing interest strengthens an existing relationship and,
for the birds, may encourage a newfound partnership.
JULY/AUGUST 2019. DISCOVER 33
Picking
Apart Power
Poses
In 2010, Harvard University psychologist Amy
Cuddy published a study claiming that when
participants sat with their feet up on a desk or stood
tall leaning over a table, they felt more powerful. The
two “power poses” also boosted levels of the dominance
hormone testosterone while decreasing levels of the
stress hormone cortisol.
The paper came under scrutiny in 2014, when
other teams couldn’t replicate some results — namely the
hormonal changes. Psychologists also questioned how
Cuddy and her team had analyzed the data. Some argued
the statistical methods, though common at the time,
let the team cherry-pick data to fit their hypothesis.
But in a recent paper, Cuddy says the findings
about feelings of power hold up, even in
Power more rigorous scientific tests.
pose