The Definitive Book of Body Language

Chapter 4

ARM SIGNALS

Holding the hands over the crotch makes men

feel more secure when they feel threatened

Arm Barrier Signals

Hiding behind a barrier is a normal response we learn at an
early age to protect ourselves. As children, we hid behind solid
objects such as tables, chairs, furniture and mother's skirt
whenever we found ourselves in a threatening situation. As we
grew older, this hiding behaviour became more sophisticated
and by the age of about six, when it was unacceptable behav-
iour to hide behind solid objects, we learned to fold our arms
tightly across our chests whenever a threatening situation
arose. During our teens, we learned to make the crossed-arms
gesture less obvious by relaxing our arms a little and combin-
ing the gesture with crossed legs.
As we grow older, the arm-crossing gesture can evolve to the
point where we try to make it even less obvious to others. By