The Definitive Book of Body Language

The Power Is in Your Hands

which dropped to 52% when they delivered exactly the same

presentation to another audience using mainly the Palm-Down

position. The Finger-Pointed position recorded only 28% pos-

itive response and some participants had walked out during

the lecture.

The pointing finger creates negative feelings in most listeners

Finger pointing not only registered the least amount of posi-
tive responses from the listeners; they could also recall less of
what the speaker had said. If you are a habitual finger-pointer,
try practising the palm-up and palm-down positions and
you'll find that you can create a more relaxed atmosphere and
have a more positive effect on others. Alternatively, if you
squeeze your fingers against your thumb to make an 'OK' type
of gesture and talk using this position, you'll come across as
authoritative, but not aggressive. We taught this gesture to
groups of speakers, politicians and business leaders and we
measured the audience reactions. The audiences who listened
to the speakers who used the fingertip-touch gestures
described those speakers as 'thoughtful', 'goal-oriented' and
'focused'.