Body Language: The Observable Polygraph Test

Body Language: The Observable Polygraph Test

“I speak two languages, body and English.” In this famous quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson states that he is, in a sense, bilingual. He is able to verbally speak English, while at the same time nonverbally “speak” body language. Michael Argyle, a psychologist at Oxford, also stated that “Humans use two quite separate languages [language and nonverbal communication], each with its own function” (Beattie 19). All humans have the capacity to simultaneously comprehend these two languages, yet few know they possess this accurate skill. Body language is defined as the “mixture of movement, posture, and tone of voice” of an individual (Boe). Charles Darwin recognized reading body language as an accurate skill in 1872, and he became the first to study it. He published his findings in The Expressions in Man and Animals, but at first experts doubted his theories (Boe). Darwin’s theories were disregarded up until 1972, when Albert Mehrabian also decided to test the accuracy of nonverbal communication. According to Mehrabian’s study, body language is comprised of 55 percent facial expression and body movement, 38 percent tone of voice, and seven percent verbal messages (Johnson). That being said, nonverbal signals make up 93 percent of all communication. Mehrabian concluded that the most effective use of body language is to accurately read others, take in information, and respond accordingly to what was seen. When nonverbal signals are correctly read, they are more accurate than words could ever be. Polly Sparling, the author of the article “Say…What?” said body language is like an “emotional polygraph test”. Unless the body is intentionally trained otherwise, it is hardwired to tell the truth. Humans subconsciously point their feet in the direction they wish to go, their eyes move downwards and to the left when lying, and their pupils dilate when they see an item of interest. Not only do humans use their feet and eyes during communication, but their hands also play an important role. Hand gestures are comprehended more quickly than words, so they are unintentionally incorporated into everyday speech. Often time’s body language is used to avoid painful situations. According to Patrick Miller, author of the article Body Language in the Classroom, nonverbal signals can express feelings that are too disturbing to state. He also expressed that it is evident words have limitations, so in certain situations body language is a necessity. In order for individuals to accurately send and receive messages, they must be able to “speak” and read body language. Nonverbal signals like body language are done subconsciously and frequently expose the truth. Therefore, body language is the most accurate aspect of nonverbal communication.
The first time body language was considered a significant, public issue was during the Nixon-Kennedy Presidential Debate of 1960. Those who watched the debate live or on television were captivated by Kennedy’s charming smile and youthful appearance (Boe). Nixon’s five-o’ clock shadow and his shifty eye movements gave voters second thoughts; he didn’t have a “presidential appearance” (Boe). In polls of those who physically saw the debate, Kennedy won by a landslide. However, radio listeners were positive Nixon had won the important first debate (Boe). The television emphasized the accuracy and significance of body language, and politicians from that day forward have had to learn “tricks of the trade” when it comes to physically impressing voters.
After the 1960 presidential debate, a whole new dimension was added to politics. Politicians now have the option of being coached. That is, a “trainer” meets with them and they practice gestures, posture, facial expressions, and hand and eye movements. There are movements that show action, like finger pointing, as well as motions that should be avoided, for example crossing the arms behind the back (Halloran). Crossed arms indicate dishonesty, a quality no politician wants to have. Coaches increase the approval rating of politicians by simply altering their body language into an easy to comprehend style which voters can accurately interpret.
Ever since body language was “discovered” during the 1960 presidential debate, it has been integrated into daily life. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will soon incorporate body language screening into their regular security checkpoints (Frank). This screening is known as behavior detection, a form of skillfully and accurately observing body language. Forty major airports plan to train security guards to monitor all passengers, and those who seem suspicious will face police questioning (Frank). A few examples of suspicious behavior would be wearing a winter coat during the hot months, those surveying their surroundings, and the avoidance of eye contact. If they still seem suspicious after questioning, extra physical screening will be performed (Frank). According to Carl Maccario, a TSA program analyst, “the fear of discovery changes people’s behavior and body language” (Frank). When researchers looked back at tapes of the 9-11 hijackers walking through the airport, it was easy to tell they were acting unusual. None of the hijackers made eye contact with officials, and they all kept their heads down (Frank). Avoiding eye contact indicates an individual is hiding information. In this case, that information was a deadly terrorist attack. If the accuracy of body language and behavior detection had been incorporated earlier, the 9-11 attacks could have been prevented.
Additionally, police officers outside of airports have been able to accurately use body language to their advantage for years. During interrogations, officers watch the eye movements, hand placement, posture, and facial expressions of their suspects. Suspects may be able to tell a perfect lie verbally, but they are less able to control their nonverbal actions (“Behavior; Study result”). When suspects’ answers are evasive and they avoid giving clear cut answers, it is almost obvious that they know more than they are confessing to. This is another example of body language as an emotional polygraph test. There are researchers who believe it is better to listen closely to what suspects are saying, though. When mainly nonverbal cues are observed, however accurate they may be, they can lead officers to a bias (“Behavior; Study result”).
Recently, one university police officer’s observation of nonverbal cues paid him well. When he got onto an elevator, he noticed a young man moved towards the back and shoved his hands in his pockets. The young man avoided eye contact and tried to show no interest in the officer. After a short conversation, the police officer arrested the young man and charged him for drug possession (“Behavior; Study results”).
Although there would be countless benefits to using body language and behavior detection accurately, this new means of security also could potentially pose problems. Members of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are afraid this screening will lead to racial profiling (Frank). Barry Steinhardt, the director of ACLU’s technology and liberty program, said, “When we begin to say to police officers that they’re allowed to guess about who’s dangerous, we’re inviting the possibility of abuse” (Frank). Police officers on college campuses have the same fears. The entire situation would be based on how an officer defines the term “reasonable suspicion” or how accurately he or she interprets body language. One officer might think an Arab man walking around campus is dangerous, while another officer might not even think twice that the man’s actions are hazardous. This is more of an issue with racism than simply reading body language to draw an accurate conclusion. While it is true that body language may not be a perfect science, it is still an accurate source of information that should not be ignored.
In addition to security, body language also plays an important role in the business world. Managers have to pay attention to the nonverbal cues of an applicant they are looking to hire. Sales representatives need to attend to the hidden communication of potential buyers. Virtually all business workers use body language to their advantage or disadvantage, whether they know it or not. There is a “standard framework” businesses use when it comes to accessing body language (Beall). This is the PERCEIVE framework. PERCEIVE stands for proximity, expressions, relative orientation, contact, eyes, individual gestures, voice, and existence of adapters (Beall). Proximity and relative orientation are the main pieces of the puzzle. Proximity is the distance kept between two individuals (Beall). Humans tend to sit and stand closer to those who are appealing to them. However, invading a stranger’s personal space during times of conversation may often lead to awkward or uncomfortable situations. Expressions can last as little as 1/15 of a second, but are extremely accurate. These split second expressions are called “micro-expressions”, and almost always occur when one is being deceitful (Beall).
Relative orientation is the “degree to which people face one another” (Beall). When a potential buyer aligns their body parallel to the sales representative, it means he or she is interested and focused. However, when they lean away from the sales representative it shows they are uninterested (Beall). Managers frequently tell their colleagues to look at another’s feet during sales pitches. It is a subconscious movement for humans to point their feet in the direction they want to go. Contact refers to the amount of physical contact that takes place (Beall). Humans show closeness and familiarity by touching, so a multitude of it is a sure sign of friendliness. Sales representatives place their hand on the small of a buyer’s back to make the buyer feel more comfortable and at ease. Eyes are notoriously known as being the windows to the soul. They give away whom or what one is most interested in (Beall). It is fairly easy to tell if a buyer likes a company by looking into their eyes.
The term Individual gestures refer to the subconscious hand movements that are used during conversation. In business, gestures can help support a point, make a presenter seem more reliable, and reveal how an individual is feeling (Beall). Voice can reveal more about an employer than one may think. It gives away gender, age, area of origin, and even social class (Beall). Beall’s final part, the Existence of adapters is the easiest part of the PERCEIVE framework to utilize. It is also the most accurate. These adapters are subtle behaviors, but can strongly reflect how an employee is feeling during a meeting. Twiddling of the thumbs, tapping a pencil, and twisting of one’s hair are all examples of adapters. They show signs of boredom and stress; therefore, an effective manager spots these and allows his or her employees to take a break.
While tapping a pencil shows stress, there are various other actions that can unintentionally send the wrong message. If a female secretary tries to deliver a message to her male boss and he is checking his phone or other written messages at the same time, it silently shows he doesn’t value the secretary’s time and has no need to make eye contact with her. Furthermore, by pronouncing a colleague’s name wrong or staring off into space when he or she is talking shows a lack of interest (Rawe).
IBM and Wells Fargo are taking a stand against improper body language in the workplace (Rawe). These companies have learned that humans can accurately interpret the body language of others, and poor body language is damaging their business. Now they are holding seminars to teach employees how to “listen with their eyes” (Boe). If sales representatives and managers learn how to read nonverbal signals, they have a viable edge. The best example of this is when it is applied to baseball. If a coach knew the opposing team’s signals, he would be able to accurately predict what was to come; therefore, he would enable his team to be better prepared (Boe). Body language gives managers and employees the upper edge if read correctly. Recently when it comes to the workplace, this “silent communication” is finding its voice.
Not only is body language significant in security and the workplace, but it also plays an immense role in the classroom. A school classroom is full of nonverbal clues. The majority of the time, teachers convey messages to students. Perhaps the best example of body language in the classroom is “the look”. When students receive “the look”, they know they are in trouble. A teacher’s “look” is simply a glare, but it goes much deeper. Without saying a word, teachers can send shivers down students’ spines, make them red with embarrassment, and get them to stop what they are doing. A teacher making eye contact isn’t always bad sign, though. If a teacher makes eye contact with a student without giving them “the look”, it stresses points and enables the student to pick up on expressions (Miller). Mainly, it demonstrates superiority. By making eye contact for even less than two seconds, students can accurately read their teacher’s body language (Miller).
Students convey messages to their teachers, too. A student’s posture is by far the most accurate, recognizable form of body language. Students who are eager to learn sit on the edge of their seats and lean towards the teacher (Harrigan 286). Students who are distracted and have no willingness to learn tend to lean back, fold their arms across their chest and stare off into space (Miller). The problem with trying to interpret only posture, though, is it can be misleading (Harrigan 291). Students can be listening to every word their teacher is saying, but may find it more comfortable to lean back in their seat. This is when signals other than posture should also be taken into account.
Body language is most accurately interpreted when not only posture is read, but also facial expressions and a student’s habits are considered. The number of facial expressions that exists is endless. The most common ones show anger, fear, happiness, disgust, and sadness. These often go hand in hand with a student’s habits. Doodling, yawning, and looking off into space are examples of bored habits. If posture, expressions, and habits are all read at the same time, an accurate perception of how the student is feeling is comprehended (Miller).
A teacher’s misleading actions can be more frustrating than a student’s. During primary research, a teacher gave her class instructions to exit the school building through a specific set of doors, but haphazardly pointed in the opposite direction. Since nonverbal communication is likely to be more accurate and reliable, all of the students went in the direction the teacher pointed instead of where she actually intended for them to go. When verbal and nonverbal communications don’t match up, confusion occurs. In a different setting where the same teacher was giving directions, it was observed that half of all students who didn’t look at the teacher when she was talking ended up asking what would be considered a “stupid question”. The other half turned to their neighbors with a puzzled look. This inattentiveness by others hinders a competent student’s learning. If the negligent students would have “watched” what the teacher was saying, such problems would have been eliminated. This is a perfect example of the significance of body language. As Carol Kinsey Goman, the author of the article Lost in Translation, stated, “The good news about understanding body language is that our brains are hardwired to respond instantly to nonverbal clues. The bad news: That circuitry was put in place a long time ago…” Apart from being important at school, being able to accurately read body language is also a key component to a successful relationship. Males and females subconsciously send out signals to be picked up on. These signals are collected, construed, and responded to within fractions of a second. The easiest way to tell if two acquaintances are fond of each other is to sit back and watch for these micro-signals (Nadeau).
Signals and gestures often have opposite meanings in other cultures, but when it comes to the “language of love”, nearly all cultures flirt by using the same series of events (Nadeau). According to Robert Nadeau, author of All You Need is Love?, both men and women smile, quickly raise and lower their eyebrows, briefly widen their eyes, then turn their head down and to the side when they are attracted to a potential mate. Eye contact is the single most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to attraction. It is a natural instinct for humans’ pupils to dilate when they see an item of interest. A natural urge to close the eyes and drop the gaze accompanies these dilated pupils (Nadeau). Nervous gestures follow, such as playing with the hair, pen, or other small objects. Laura Guerrero, author of Nonverbal Communication in Close Relationships, states that “As with other nonverbal behaviors, they [nonverbal forms of affection] may be enacted with less conscious control than verbal behaviors and might, therefore, be presumed to reflect more accurately the emotional status of the sender”.
Humans’ primal instincts are at their peak when it comes to mirroring a potential mate. If a man raises his glass and looks to the right soon after the woman he is with raises hers and looks to the left, there is a strong emotional and physical attraction (Nadeau). This is a form of “unconscious mimicry” that shows two mates are highly in synch with each other (Boe). When humans disagree in relationships, their actions don’t match up. The majority of problems in relationships could be solved if couples would take the time to accurately read each other’s nonverbal signals. In today’s fast paced world, relationships break down because a couple’s nonverbal signals are diminished by the use of text messaging and e-mails. Studies have shown that face-to-face communication is still preferred and continues to be more accurate than technologically enhanced communication (Goman).
Perhaps several of the best amateur readers of body language are athletes. Evaluating body language was brought to a personal level when Mary Conway, a high school volleyball coach, stated, “If she [the opposing team’s player] has a terrified look on her face or her body language shows lack of confidence, give her the ball.” This is a tactic used not only in volleyball, but also in track, cross country, and football. In these sports it is easy to see which players are suffering from fatigue by watching their body language. Opponents can accurately pick out which players are the weaker ones by reading how athletes carry themselves. Those who avoid eye contact, slouch their shoulders, and shuffle their feet clearly demonstrate a lack of confidence. Successful coaches notice the accuracy of these blatant signals and tell their players to take advantage of them.
The biggest challenge when trying to accurately interpret body language is the varying meanings of gestures in foreign countries. For example, Americans wave goodbye by extending their arm and moving their wrist back and forth from left to right. Italians and Greeks, however, wave goodbye by extending their arm with their palm up and bending their fingers back and forth (Axtell 29). In the United States, this signal is interpreted as “come”. Another example is the difference between the American and the Indonesian beckoning motion. In the United States, an easy way to summon a human nonverbally is to extend the arm and curl the index finger in and out. To Americans, this gesture simply stands for “come here”. Conversely, in Indonesia this same gesture is used to summon prostitutes (Axtell 32). These nonverbal gestures are easily and accurately interpreted, but the meanings vary greatly by location. Using body language is an instinctive part of life. Humans do it subconsciously to stress points, show true emotions, and comfort themselves. It plays a substantial role in security, the classroom, the workplace, relationships, politics, and athletics. In certain situations it is almost impracticable to not use nonverbal communication. Try to describe the shape of a spiral staircase by using only words. It is unfeasible. Next, try to depict the motion of an accordion while remaining completely still. Once again, it is nearly impossible. Body language comes hand-in-hand with verbal communication. Individuals have the ability to read body language more accurately than any machine ever will; they just have to learn how to utilize that crucial skill. It has been proven that 93 percent of all communication is expressed nonverbally (Johnson). Likewise, nonverbal signals are more accurate and trustworthy than verbal ones. “What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say”, another quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, backs this idea (Madonik). Body language has always been evident, but has just recently been incorporated into society. It is like an observable, indomitable polygraph test that is accurate beyond all comparisons. Body language: the most accurate aspect of nonverbal communication which all humans are hardwired to understand.

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