Nonverbal communication tips?

Angela Rogers2 said:It depends. Sometimes you just get an itch, I guess. The real trick is figuring out if that feeling is actually forced or if it’s just some subconscious intuition kicking in.
How good you are at reading those cues really just comes down to practice. But after a while, once you start looking past what people are actually saying and pay attention to how they say it, you can learn a hell of a lot about someone without them ever explicitly telling you a thing.

... or your beard

But if I spend all my time staring at what they're doing instead of actually listening to what they're saying, maybe it's better 😉

I just don't really like the idea of someone sitting there judging me like that.

Maybe he heard some old myth about how scratching or fidgeting exposes a liar, so he’s trying to play it cool.

You can pick up on certain things through body language—some stuff you just sense instinctively without any effort. But if you actually want to read people properly, you’d need training similar to what CIA agents go through. It’s a lot more complex than just rubbing your chin, covering your mouth, or pointing your feet toward someone you like.

Those little tricks you find in body language books? They’re really only good for selling more books.

Sandra Parker3 said:... or your beard

But if I spend all my time staring at what they're doing instead of actually listening to what they're saying, maybe it's better 😉

I just don't really like the idea of someone sitting there judging me like that.

It’s all about the nuances.
Everyone judges people differently, I suppose. But when you do it this way, you’re basically leaving a massive window open for manipulation. That’s why, for example, passive-aggression just doesn't work on me. I catch onto it immediately. I can't stand those types of people, especially once they start trying to explain themselves.🙄
You don't manipulate or screw over the people you actually respect. There has to be some kind of principle involved.

Gary James88 said:Maybe he heard some old myth about how scratching or fidgeting exposes a liar, so he’s trying to play it cool.

You can pick up on certain things through body language—some stuff you just sense instinctively without any effort. But if you actually want to read people properly, you’d need training similar to what CIA agents go through. It’s a lot more complex than just rubbing your chin, covering your mouth, or pointing your feet toward someone you like.

Those little tricks you find in body language books? They’re really only good for selling more books.

In the moment they're lying, they might realize the other person is watching for those cues, so they shrink back. Most people don't even notice.
People get better at lying as they age—there's no arguing that. But if you watch a kid lie, for instance, they'll unconsciously cover their mouth before or during the lie.
Those kinds of unconscious movements are still there; they've just become more sophisticated over time.

Angela Rogers2 said:It’s all about the nuances.
Everyone judges people differently, I suppose. But when you do it this way, you’re basically leaving a massive window open for manipulation. That’s why, for example, passive-aggression just doesn't work on me. I catch onto it immediately. I can't stand those types of people, especially once they start trying to explain themselves.🙄
You don't manipulate or screw over the people you actually respect. There has to be some kind of principle involved.

Huh... honestly, that's a pretty fair point.🙂

(psssst... maybe pick a more feminine avatar next time)

Sandra Parker3 said:Huh... honestly, that's a pretty fair point.🙂

(psssst... maybe pick a more feminine avatar next time)

It’s sustainable if you don't judge people too much 😁 actions usually tell the real story anyway 🙂

What's wrong with SpongeBob? I guess I'm just stuck in a childhood phase 😁

Everything mentioned above can be practiced quite easily—if you really want to master the art of being a convincing liar, that is.
One thing, however, is a bit more difficult to fake, so pay close attention to this: the tiny wrinkles that form between the eyebrows when someone moves their brow or twitches... essentially, that’s much harder to manipulate than things like eye contact or hand gestures.

Roger Scott7 said:Everything mentioned above can be practiced quite easily—if you really want to master the art of being a convincing liar, that is.
One thing, however, is a bit more difficult to fake, so pay close attention to this: the tiny wrinkles that form between the eyebrows when someone moves their brow or twitches... essentially, that’s much harder to manipulate than things like eye contact or hand gestures.

So we're talking about those "life hairs" now?
The real deal...

What’s the deal with looking over your shoulder in nonverbal communication?

casualranger2 said:What’s the deal with looking over your shoulder in nonverbal communication?

Like... "Are you serious right now?" or maybe "Not a chance," or even just a sort of "Go check if I'm actually there" kind of vibe... (?)

If we’re diving into some trivia regarding non-verbal communication, here’s my two cents.

At its core, communication is really just the process of transferring, translating, and encoding raw emotions into external signals, which are then decoded back into emotions by someone else.

To really wrap your head around the depth of that idea, think about this: there are people out there who have survived major strokes that damaged their motor cortex—that's the specific part of the brain responsible for conscious muscle control. In many cases, these survivors lose function in an entire side of their face or body. If you ask one of them to force a smile, they might only be able to pull one side of their mouth up. But when they laugh genuinely, when it's spontaneous and real, that smile stretches across their entire face. What this tells us is that facial expressions are actually encoded in a completely different part of the brain alongside those automatic functions, bypassing the need for the motor cortex entirely. Honestly, a person can consciously manipulate far fewer facial muscles than what it takes to produce a truly sincere smile, which is exactly why you can't easily fake it.

So, essentially, there is a dedicated center in the brain for converting emotions into facial expressions that operates independently from the area used for voluntary muscle movement. Those "honest" expressions are basically hardcoded into our biology because that's how we encode our internal emotional state into the "ether," allowing another person or even another animal to pick up those signals from the environment and translate them back into felt emotions.

If you’ve ever sat through one of those psychological studies where they show people various facial expressions and track their reactions, you only get the full picture once you understand what I just explained—once you realize just how deeply these patterns are etched into our very brain structure.