Body Language

Body language is a broad term for several forms of communication using body movements or gestures, instead of, or as a complement to, sounds, verbal language, or other forms of communication. In turn, it is one category of paralanguage, which describes all forms of human communication that are not language.




Paralanguage including body language has been extensively studied in social psychology. In everyday speech and popular psychology, the term is most often applied to body language that is thought to be involuntary, but in fact the distinction between voluntary and involuntary body language is often blurred: a smile or a wave may be given either voluntarily or involuntarily, for example.
Voluntary body language
This is less commonly discussed because it seems unproblematic: it refers to movement, gestures and poses intentionally made by the person (smiling, hands, imitating actions), and generally making movements with full or partial intention of making them and a realization of what they communicate. It can apply to many types of soundless communication, such as formalized gestures.

Involuntary body language

Facial expressions are often a form of involuntary body language and a means for one to read the expressions — and so emotions — of another person





Origins of body language 

The relation of body language to animal communication has often been discussed. Human paralanguage may represent a continuation of forms of communication that our non-linguistic ancestors already used, or it may be that it has been changed by co-existing with language. Some species of animals are especially adept at detecting human body language, both voluntary and involuntary: this is the basis of the Clever Hans effect (a source of artifact in comparative psychology), and was also the reason for trying to teach the chimpanzee Washoe American Sign Language rather than speech — and perhaps the reason why the Washoe project was more successful than some previous efforts to teach apes how to dance.

Body language is a product of both genetic and environmental influences. Blind children will smile and laugh even though they have never seen a smile. The ethologist Iraneus Eibl-Eibesfeldt claimed that a number of basic elements of body language were universal across cultures and must therefore be fixed action patterns under instinctive control. Some forms of human body language show continuities with communicative gestures of other apes, though often with changes in meaning. More refined gestures, which vary between cultures (for example the gestures to indicate "yes" and "no"), must obviously be learned or modified through learning, usually by unconscious observation of the environment..
The importance of body language in groups

When one thinks of body language one typically thinks of one-to-one communication. There are indications that body language may be even more important in group communications. In a group each person has an open body language channel to all other people in a group while speaking is typically limited to one person at a time. In other words, the larger the group, the more body language starts to dominate.
Examples
Showing one's palms to the listeners may mean openness and honesty, hiding the palms may mean deceit. Moving the hands close to the mouth or touching the nose may also indicate deceit.
Pointing with a leg or knee towards another person may mean interest or acceptance of said person. Pointing your body away from the one you talk to means you would rather not be talking to the person and would rather move in the direction you are pointing.
Silence itself, can often be a form of paralanguage, and has a variety of interpretations, usually dependent on the individual. One interpretation, comprising of silence and looking at the floor or avoiding direct eye contact, often shows that a person is thinking about a problem that emotionally affects them. Not looking into the persons eyes, in Western culture can also indicate deceit. This shows that you would rather be somewhere else than talking with them—discomfort or anxiety, which may accompany lie-telling.
Body Language in Flirting (see also: Flirting)

Body Language is often used in Human Courtship between a Male and a Female. People such as Desmond Morris haved looked into this behaviour in their various works. However, it should be noted, that despite scientific theory behind any "flirting gestures", argueably it may not reflect a person's true feelings.
Nonetheless, here are some examples of supposed "flirting gestures":
Once you make eye contact with a woman, watch her for a few seconds after she looks away. If she does something that implies that she has become nervous due to you making eye contact, this means that she is interested in or attracted to you. For instance, she will play with her hair, adjust her clothing or jewelry, or fiddle with something in her hands.
She will expose her wrists and palms of her hands only to people she is interested in. This is a subconscious display of being submissive to you, in which her body is saying "If you want me, you can have me".
Her shoulder orientation is one of the most obvious signs of attraction. Her upper body will be facing you if she is interested, in essence, she points her shoulders at what she wants.
Leaning foward is also an easy sign to pick up. If her shoulders point at you and she is leaning towards you, then you can put your mind at ease, it's yours for the taking.
When her legs or feet are widened this means she is very comfortable with her surroundings and with you.
Her pupils will dialate (get bigger) while looking at a person she likes, and will get smaller while looking at a person she does not. Keep in mind that lighting can greatly effect this. For instance, if you are outside when the sun is present, her pupils may appear to be very small no matter how much she likes you, and vice versa. The best method to use for testing this is when you can view the change in her pupils when looking at you and then at someone else.
One of the best signs you can hope for is when she will laugh at just about every slick thing you try to say. You may begin to think that you might actually be pretty funny, but your wrong, she just likes you alot, and that's even better!
She will make eye contact with you and hold it for a longer than usual period of time, almost uncomfortably long. Before looking away, remember to smile at her. This will let her know that you are interested and are a nice guy. Following this, you may also notice her glance at you occasionally. After the second or third look it should become obvious to you that she wants you to talk to her.
If you notice a woman flip her hair and immediately afterward glaces your way, she is showing her interest in you and trying to get your attention focused on her by catching your eye.

"The Closed Gestures"

Whenever a woman that you are macking on rolls her eyes it means that she is embarrassed by your presence... and is attempting to display to everyone else that she is not interested in you. If this happens to you turn around and walk away, you have little (if any) chance of getting with her.


Crossing her arms is a tell-tale sign that she is either agitated, nervous, uncomfortable, or just does not like you. It's time to change your strategy, and quick.

Crossing her legs is just as bad as crossing her arms, but can be worse because once her legs are crossed, she will most likely cross her arms also. However, if her legs are crossed and pointing towards you (knee points toward you), this means that she is nervous, but has interest in you. On the other hand, if her knee points away, your in trouble.

The "lean back" is the most dreaded sign in all of body language. If she is leaning away from you, and it is very noticeable, my advice is to forget her and move on to your next prospect. Only a very experienced player can warm up to a woman after noticing this type of behavior, but if you think you've got the skills, give it a try, you've got nothing to lose.