Why Eye Contact May Be Less Influential Than We Thought. Secrets of Special Agents. There was a logical clue and there was an emotional one. Each was apparent on the stoic visage of Anita,* a woman in her early 20s who was being questioned at an ATF field office in Oakland, California. She’d arrived from nearby Richmond, an industrial port that always finds its way onto the national crime blotter.
For years the town was terrorized by drug lords, the most notorious of whom was One-Eyed Marvin. Like all despots, Marvin demanded total fealty and exacted fatal revenge . At the height of his reign, in the early 1990s, he was the chief suspect in the death of Anita’s cousin, machine-gunned outside Johnny’s Diner, a local hamburger joint. Anita shared her story with two attorneys and two ATF agents: She’d been walking to the back of the burger stand when gunshots rang out—and instantly she dove under a parked car.
James (J.J.) “I pulled my convertible into the lot, got out, and headed to the back of the stand,” Anita began. “Why were you going out back?” “No,” she responded. How to Read People. What the Shoulders Say About Us. I remember as a child my mother saying, stand up straight, shoulders back, chin high. What I didn’t realize was that she was telling me this because of what I was communicating to her with my posture and shoulders. I was nonverbally saying, “I am having a bad day because my friends can’t come out and play.” Perhaps she learned it from her mother or perhaps from her classical training in ballet, but she instinctively read my body language and used that to communicate back to me.
Who knows perhaps this was my first lesson on nonverbals of the shoulders, in any case, it has served me well ever since. I say that because as I look back over my life there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t used the information from the shoulders to help me understand others. While most of the literature on body language is inordinately fixated on the face, I think it worthwhile to consider what the shoulders can reveal about us. As with dancing, shoulders reveal what is in the heart and mind very effectively. Beyond Words. Body Language vs Micro-Expressions. Thoughtful questions often prompt thoughtful analysis and recently a series of questions from a reader regarding "micro-expressions" had such an effect on me.
His questions made me stop and think about how the public perceives "micro expressions" and their significance in our overall understanding of body language , and more importantly, their relevance in detecting deception . By now most people have heard of " " as a result of the show or because the term has been popularized by the media.
In fact, I routinely run into people who say they have taken courses on "micro-expressions" and have been "certified" or who want to become experts on "micro-expressions. " (It reminds me of when students first wanted to be "criminal profilers" and then they wanted to be "CSI agents," just like on TV, now I guess it is "micro-expression experts") That's fine I say, but what about the rest of the body? And that is when I hear silence. . - Furrowed forehead - Squinting eyes - Lip compression - Fake smiles. Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are.