At some point, all of us might have certainly thought about reading people’s minds. You know that it is quite easy to understand what people are holding back just by reading their body language. We, humans, pick up lots of body language signs that we are consciously apprised of.
So, without wasting time any further, let’s get into the eight great psychological tips to read someone’s body language:
1. Crossed arms
People are generally seen with crossed arms and even with crossed legs that strongly indicate that the person is not into what the speaker is saying. The listeners may pretend that they are attentive and able to understand clearly; however, body language is what speaks the truth.
According to psychologists, when a person crosses arms and legs, it indicates the mental, physical and emotional occlusion of the person from the present scenario. The most interesting thing is that this is not intentional, which is why it is so unfolding.
2. Leaning forward
This is also another frequently used body language. The simplest way of decoding this is, “The closer you get, the more interested you are.” This posture means that he/she is interested in the topic on which the discussion is going on. If leaning forward is combined with a genuine smile and nodding, it is an obvious way to agree non-verbally.
Positive postures by the listener during a communication could trigger the speaker’s vivacity, and he/she would feel that the person listening over is receptive, friendly, and truly approachable.
3. Frequent glances at the clock isn’t a good sign.
During a conversation, if one tends to look at the clock frequently, then there can be multiple reasons like maybe he/she is not interested, wants to terminate the conversation soon, or does not understand much that is being said. A positive approach to this action may be that he/she is in a hurry.
4. Stepping-back is not a good sign.
When you are talking to a person and if the listener swiftly steps back, then that generally means that what you said at that point has made them uncomfortable, or they are not interested in that topic, and they want to come out of the situation. This behavior highly demotivates the speaker; they feel rejected sometimes. If the speaker experience this conduct they mostly would not open up themselves in front of that particular person in the future.
5. Eye crinkles only with a real smile.
When people smile, their face may lie, but the eyes don’t. Authentic smiles always reach the eyes, which results in creasing the skin to form crow’s feet on the person’s face. Often, people smile just to hide their thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
To know whether a person is actually smiling or not, one should take a glance towards their eyes and see if the viewer finds the crow’s feet on the corners, if yes, then it’s an authentic smile, and if not, then there is a strong probability of hiding something.
6. Eyes don’t lie; they are the mirror of our inner soul.
We all must’ve heard at least once, “Look me in the eye when you talk to me!” Well, then let’s discuss why we had to hear this. People can’t lie while looking in someone’s eye, but some people most often hold eye contact deliberately to convince others that they are speaking the truth even when they aren’t.
Most people maintain eye contact until a point where it becomes uncomfortable. If the person you are talking with is perfectly still and doesn’t blink, it is most likely that they’re lying.
7. Raised eyebrows indicate discomfort.
Three primary emotions, namely: fear, surprise, and worry, resulting in raised eyebrows during a discussion. Generally, during unfavorable communications or heated arguments, there is no trace of worry, surprise, or fear, then that might mean that there is something fishy.
8. Excessive nodding indicates their eagerness for approval.
Generally, listeners overly nod; it means that they want to have a positive impact on the speaker. Positive in the sense which they want to convince the speaker that their agenda is crystal clear to them.
Most listeners think that if they do not nod frequently, the speaker would doubt their potential of following the instructions, or the information that is being delivered by the speaker is not understood correctly by the listener. So, If someone is nodding too much then it’s better to be doubtful about them.
Hence, based on the discussion above, we may conclude with the well- known quote of great American novelist Sarah Orne Jewett “Tact is, after all, a kind of mind-reading,” and the tact is nothing but the ability to read others’ mind by analyzing their reflective body language.
