The Steps to Reading Body Language 23
position is feeling self-confident” and conclude that the theory
applies to all steepling—up, down, or sideways. Not so, as you will
soon find out.
I think that using percentages similar to this to justify a conclu-
sion about human behavior borders on nonsense. To me, assigning
numbers to behavior patterns is an attempt to mask uncertainty.
Humans are easily represented on a bell curve for any demographic.
The greatest percentage is going to fall somewhere near the center
with extreme deviations lying near the edges. This works for intel-
ligence, skin tone, how white your teeth are, and how many times
you have skinned your knee. It is not magic; it is simple math.
Even after these folks go through the basic body language
course, they often allow their projections to contaminate what they
observe. The turning point tends to be their failure to pinpoint the
bad guy in a scenario that serves as a kind of final exam.
Right now, I’m going to give you one of those scenarios. If you
determine what kind of body language the terrorist would have,
then you are on the road to expertise in this field.
The scenario
You and two other people in your unit are sent to a farmhouse
in northern Iraq. You have been told that an informant alleges that
someone in that house is an IED (improvised explosive device)
kingpin. You have room for only one person in your transport
besides yourself, so you must find the individual that is most likely