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Reading Body Language
How to Read Body Language
Reading body language is a useful skill. It requires observations of eyes, face, hands and arms, and legs and feet as well the pitch, speed, volume, and tone of voice.Non-Verbal Communication (Physical Actions)
When a chimp screams and bashes its sibling over the head to retrieve a banana, the verbal and physical actions occur at the same time. We humans, however, prefer to resolve our differences using speech first, and that's what we think we're doing most of the time. We're not. In fact, we're also performing simultaneous physical actions – even if they're not as blatant as a bash over the head.
The Benefits of Reading Non-Verbal Communication

When people talk, they complement their words with various body movements (e.g., nose touching). Some of these body movements are known as cues. Everyone transmits these cues unconsciously, and, if you miss them, it can be like trying to read a book with loads of the pages torn out.
The ability to read non-verbal communication will also help you to gauge how your messages or arguments are being received and how your opponents think they're doing in countering them.
Reading the Different Parts of the Body
We have divided the body into discrete segments and look at the cues (known in poker as "tells") from each segment. The tells are the behaviours that you exhibit unconsciously that reveal the inner you. For example, if your arms are crossed close to your body, it can indicate you are unhappy or being defensive. We're only looking at individual body areas and their associated tells because it is the easiest way to study them. However, the most important point about reading body language is that you usually need to read several tells that indicate the same inner emotional state to gain an insight into what is going on – you cannot rely on just one tell. When a cluster of tells points to the same inner emotional state, they are said to be in "congruence". It is then your job to determine whether the cluster of tells is congruent with what your target is saying. Detecting a lie is the holy grail of body language interpretation, but it is difficult to do with certainty.Active Observation

"Active observation" is like "active listening". When you're listening actively, you don't just let the sounds wash over you, you concentrate on them to extract as much as you can. When talking face to face, most people let the images wash over them, but it is possible to concentrate on what you're seeing to extract as much as you can – you might just discover the ability to read people in a way that you didn't think possible. Before we get into the detail, here's a top tip. You must be very subtle with active observation. Be careful not to stare unnaturally at your target and certainly not as if you are auditioning for the part of Count Dracula, because this will definitely alter their behaviour towards you (and not in a good way).
Reading Posture

Specific Business Uses
As we've covered, a person will unwittingly communicate lots of free and sometimes secret (from his point of view) information about how he thinks your interaction is going. And, as we've also touched on, the person you're interacting with will respond subconsciously to your body language. So, reading body language can both improve your understanding and allow you to exert some influence. Whilst these benefits could be crucial to a business or social success, more often than not they just give you an edge that might otherwise be lost.You will, of course, read information and exert influence using your body language naturally, so the margins to be won by doing it deliberately could be very fine. This benefit must be balanced with the risk of being caught applying body language deliberately or just looking weird through over-observing or staring.

Understanding Proximity

When you're on a crowded tube, others are forced into the personal space you would normally reserve for your nearest and dearest. As a result, you seek to distance yourself mentally from the fat tourist breathing in your ear by avoiding eye contact. (Next time you're on a busy tube at rush hour, check out how many people are looking at everything except each other.) This is all to maintain the illusion of personal space.
People like their personal space, and you can exploit that. If it suits you to intimidate someone or to make them feel uncomfortable (perhaps you need them out of the room for whatever reason), you can attack his personal space to achieve your aim.
This can of course be applied to those who are trying to intimidate you. As they encroach into your personal space, understand what they are doing and stand your ground. It will feel uncomfortable at first but, because it is no longer happening unconsciously, you will be better able to deal with the encroachment. I have even seen people deliberately lean towards an intimidator to give them a taste of their own medicine.
Useful but Difficult

The Five Golden Rules for Reading Body Language
There are five simple points to remember when you are looking to use body language to garner additional information to support your own arguments or undermine someone else's:1. Know what you are looking for
2. Actively observe
3. Understand the context
4. Avoid getting caught observing
5. Use it as a guide, not a gospel
Critical Thinking Test
Are you good at spotting the biases, fallacies, and other cognitive effects? Can you spot when statistics have been manipulated? Can you read body language? Well, let's see!
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