General Why do people put so much stock into body language?

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Yuki Nakai's Eye

Slow in the head, Quick in bed
Sep 2, 2015
1,965
3,232
its a goddamn pseudo science if you ask me. But they get body language experts to come on the news to analyze interview footage, they’ve got ex FBI agents writing entire books about this shit.

The only thing it’s actually useful for is understanding how others perceive your body language (even though their perception is often times wrong).

Example: crossing your arms means this person is closed off and doesn’t want to open up into a dialogue. So don’t cross your arms at a meeting or in an interview. (But maybe I just like crossing my arms bro! Stop reading into shit)
 

jasonhightower

"You're not even training are you Frenchy?"
Jan 2, 2017
1,115
1,686
I agree. I consider it people trying to justify the fact they are judgemental as fuck. If I'm crossing my arms, maybe I'm cold bitch!
 

Dead Again

Active Member
Oct 10, 2017
93
116
The main point of observing body language isn't really that one mannerism absolutely means this or that. As YNE stated, maybe he like's crossing his arms....that's actually taught in observing body language. What someone would do is observe your base mannerisms and then see where you diverge from them.

As an example, let's say I am observing YNE in basic, meaningless conversation. I notice he has his arms crossed the entire time. That's his base. I shift the conversation to something he could/would lie about, something that would cause him stress. During his answer, he uncrosses his arms. That's a divergence from his base. Now that alone wouldn't even mean anything, because he could just have gotten a cramp or something. So you would look for another divergence, like he uncrosses his arms and covers his mouth, and he hasn't covered his mouth while answering the entire time. Body language people would call that a cluster, a group of changes in body language. You would want more than one for sure.

Now even with a cluster, that wouldn't mean that YNE lied regarding that particular answer, it could just be stress regarding the topic, or that maybe he feels that he will soon have to lie about something, that the questioner is getting close to something. So the questioner will know by observing the cluster that maybe he should fish around that subject some more.
 

Robbie Hart

All Biden Voters Are Mindless Sheep
Feb 13, 2015
49,706
50,710
I have seen where a body language expert sussed out a fund manager hiding something.......
 

kneeblock

Drapetomaniac
Apr 18, 2015
12,435
23,026
The main point of observing body language isn't really that one mannerism absolutely means this or that. As YNE stated, maybe he like's crossing his arms....that's actually taught in observing body language. What someone would do is observe your base mannerisms and then see where you diverge from them.

As an example, let's say I am observing YNE in basic, meaningless conversation. I notice he has his arms crossed the entire time. That's his base. I shift the conversation to something he could/would lie about, something that would cause him stress. During his answer, he uncrosses his arms. That's a divergence from his base. Now that alone wouldn't even mean anything, because he could just have gotten a cramp or something. So you would look for another divergence, like he uncrosses his arms and covers his mouth, and he hasn't covered his mouth while answering the entire time. Body language people would call that a cluster, a group of changes in body language. You would want more than one for sure.

Now even with a cluster, that wouldn't mean that YNE lied regarding that particular answer, it could just be stress regarding the topic, or that maybe he feels that he will soon have to lie about something, that the questioner is getting close to something. So the questioner will know by observing the cluster that maybe he should fish around that subject some more.
I always knew you were Lono.
 
1

1031

Guest
its a goddamn pseudo science if you ask me. But they get body language experts to come on the news to analyze interview footage, they’ve got ex FBI agents writing entire books about this shit.

The only thing it’s actually useful for is understanding how others perceive your body language (even though their perception is often times wrong).

Example: crossing your arms means this person is closed off and doesn’t want to open up into a dialogue. So don’t cross your arms at a meeting or in an interview. (But maybe I just like crossing my arms bro! Stop reading into shit)
Reading body language is fine as long as people actually know what their reading. It sounds like the people you've encountered may not know as much as they think.
 

Yossarian

TMMAC Addict
Oct 25, 2015
13,489
19,127
Non verbal communication is a thing, through the way we dress, tone of voice (paralinguistics), yes, body language, hand gestures, posture, facial expression, eyes, proxemics. They may not be as obvious as words but pieced together they may be very revealing of ones intentions.