How the Body Points to Where the Mind Wants to Goaccepts the challenge, it will reciprocate by also standing head
on. The same applies to humans. If, however, the animal wants
to check out the other animal at close range but doesn't intend
to attack it will approach side on, just as friendly dogs do. And
so it is with humans. A speaker who takes a strong attitude to
his listener while standing straight and facing them directly is
perceived as aggressive. The speaker who delivers exactly the
same message but points his body away from the listener is
seen as confident and goal oriented but not as aggressive.
To avoid being seen as aggressive, we stand with our bodies
angled at 45 degrees to each other during friendly encounters
to form an angle of 90 degrees.The picture above shows two men with their bodies angled
towards an imaginary third point to form a triangle shape. The
angle formed indicates that a non-aggressive conversation is
probably taking place and they are also displaying similar
status by mirroring. The formation of the triangle invites a
third person to join in the conversation. If a fourth person is
accepted into the group, a square is formed and, for a fifth and
sixth person, either a circle or two new triangles are formed.
In confined spaces like lifts, crowded buses and under-
ground trains, where it's not possible to turn your body away
from strangers to a 45-degree angle, we turn our heads to the
angle instead.
Each standing at 45-degree
angles to avoid coming
across as aggressive