Body language says everything. It’s how you hold yourself in an interview, or while talking to a friend. Body language can suggest that you’re confident, approachable, integrable, and sometimes can effect how you process information (aka learning ability). I decided to dig deeper into this matter, and investigate just how important body language is in life.

The study (part 1)

In a study conducted at Stanford University, professor Jeremy Bailensen and doctoral student Andrew Stevenson Won strived to unveil whether or not body language and posture played a role in learning information. They took 100 subjects and had a “teacher” attempt to teach them a topic in 5 minutes, recording the entire exchange at 30 frames per second. They repeated the process 50 times, and had the subjects take an exam after the lesson.

Hypothesis: Subjects with more movement would be more distracted.

Results

Bailensen reported that subjects with excessive movement in the upper body tended to test poorly on the exam. However, they said that this is little evidence to actual prove or disprove a hypothesis – too many potential third variables! The subjects could have been sick, or had an itch, or were just bored in general. The professor also explained that if the teacher had a lot of distracting movements (i.e. pacing, excessive hand motions), the subjects tended to test lower as well.

The study (part 2)

The second study (conducted by the same authors) focuses more along the lines of body language and creativity. They took 104 people (52 pairs), and asked them to brainstorm ideas to improve conserving water and/or reducing water energy use. Note: they had learned the facts of this matter prior to the testing. In this study, they focused on two things: how many viable (aka – not like “stop drinking water”) ideas the partners could come up with and how their body body movements synchronized throughout the testing.

Results

The authors came to their conclusion by evaluating word count (how many ideas were formulated) and precise angles of their body parts and limbs. They found that the partners with the most viable ideas, tended to have more synchronized body movements as they communicated.

My thoughts

Though well conducted by credible researchers, the study itself I believe has some flaws. I think a lot of the results make sense logically, but there could have been plenty of third variables that they skipped over. For instance, in the first study, were the subjects being examined random? Did they have a history of ADHD or ADD that could have played a role in their focus on the lesson? In the second study, it’s a bit confusing to understand the correlation between word count and body language, especially because correlation does not equal causation. Meaning, just because they have synchronized body movements, does not necessarily mean it allowed them to communicate ideas easier. However, in both studies, the authors DID acknowledge margin of error, as they intend on continuing their research to find more concrete answers.

Digging deeper into body language

Body language is a huge part of human interaction. Employers look at body language in job interviews, your peers assess whether or not you’re approachable through your body language, and from this study, it can even impact your learning / creative abilities. Another aspect I’d like to explore is body language and lying. Recently I watched the Netflix original “Amanda Knox”, which is about a study abroad student that got caught up with this horrific murder. The evidence was shaky, but prosecutors based a lot of their judgements off of her eyes, and her body language in interviews. This got me thinking about how professionals are trained to study body language during interrogation, and how a lot of times your body says more than your mouth ever could, without realizing.

I found an article published by Vanessa Van Edwards, a behavioral specialist, explaining tips to spot a liar solely through body language:

1. Baseline – meaning know your subject under comfortable circumstances, when they aren’t being questioned, and when they aren’t having to lie. This will show you their natural body language, and give you a base to start at.
2. Hotspot – this is when you notice a sudden difference from the baseline. Many times it will be involuntary, but something will change in your subject that differs from their natural body language. Edwards shared two specific indicators to look out for: opposite nodding and one sided shoulder shrug. Opposite nodding is when someone says “yes” but their head ever so slightly shakes no, or vice versa. One sided shoulder shrug is that people may slightly shrug one side of their shoulder when telling a lie, it may be so small and so discrete, but you could catch it. Both of these indicators may seem insignificant, and the subject may not even know they’re doing it.
3. Clusters – Edwards says not to jump to conclusions if you see one difference from the baseline behaviors, it’s when you begin seeing 3+ to start being worried, and even address it.

Conclusion

Body language is a part of who we are as humans. It can say more words than we can ever physically speak. That’s why it’s such a hot topic to study by researchers, because while our brain is so focused on one thing, body language is often overlooked. So, be more aware. Better body language could get you a job, or make you new friends, make you smarter or more creative, or even be able to detect a lie if you know what to look for!

Sources

“Scientists at Stanford Identify Body Language Tied to …” N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Stevenson Won, Andrew, Jeremy N. Bailenson, Suzanne C. Stathatos, and Wenqing Dai. “Automatically Detected Nonverbal Behavior Predicts Creativity in Collaborating Dyads.” N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Edwards, Vanessa Van. “Do You Know When Someone Is Lying to You? – Science of People.” Science of People. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.