The Science Of Body Language
Written by: Andrew Cowie, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
IMAGINE if you could tell someone was lying just by looking at them. Wouldn’t it be a great weapon to have in your armoury to be able to expose a cheating spouse, a dishonest employer or a disloyal friend? Well, this power is very real and available to all, as a growing public interest in the science of body language is currently demonstrating.
Fascination in this emerging field has been fuelled by one of the most successful YouTube hits of the last couple of years – The Behavior Panel – a weekly digital broadcast in which four of the world’s top body language experts analyse celebrity interviews in search of tell-tale signs of deception.
Scott Rouse, Mark Bowden, Chase Hughes and Greg Hartley are specialists in non-verbal communication, deception detection, interrogation and resistance to interrogation. Their CVs are impressive – they’ve provided training to military intelligence operatives, leaders of the G7 and to Wall Street as well as supplying expert testimony in court.
Each week in their YouTube show, they analyse videos of public figures and, by observing gestures, facial expressions and micro-expressions, reveal whether they believe the subject is being truthful or deceptive. Along the way, they share the science behind their extensive knowledge and the secrets used by interrogators and law enforcement to sift fact from fiction.
Among the videos dissected have been Prince Andrew’s infamous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s controversial Oprah appearance and, most recently, footage of the high-profile defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Other subjects placed under the microscope of the quartet’s interrogative gaze have included Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, O.J. Simpson, notorious serial killers, murder suspects, con artists and even UFO whistle-blower Bob Lazar.
I won’t give away any spoilers here regarding the panel’s conclusions in any of these cases, but I highly recommend checking out their YouTube channel for yourself if you want to witness four masters of the field in action.
The show, which boasts a mammoth 575,000 subscribers, is both entertaining and hugely insightful, with each of the four panellists bringing a unique perspective to the table, coming as they do from backgrounds as diverse as acting and military intelligence.
The channel’s success has already spawned a plethora of imitators and shone a light on a subject which affects us all but which most people know comparatively little about – the science of non-verbal communication.
Over 90% of our human communication is non-verbal and we are bleeding information about our emotional state all the time without even realising it. Body language is the oldest form of communication known to man. Long before we learn to speak, we express ourselves through gestures, grunts and facial expressions and these mannerisms remain hardwired into our psyche for the rest of our lives even if we’re not consciously aware of it.
Most of us have experience of being able to read a person’s mood from the moment they walk into a room. A person who is extremely confident will “walk tall” with their spine erect, shoulders back and head up, using wide, open gestures and typically taking up us much space as possible. Think of talent show impresario Simon Cowell who will often sit with his arm draped casually around the back of the chair of the judge seated next to him, colonising his colleague’s personal space.
By contrast, a person who is anxious or depressed will normally contract as if into a foetal ball, with head down, shoulders slumped and spine curved. They literally shrink into themselves, covering the vulnerable areas of the chest and stomach with their arms for protection. Look at a picture of a soccer player who’s just scored a winning goal and is celebrating with their arms thrust wide and then compare it to one of a player who’s just missed in a penalty shootout – head down, avoiding eye contact, often uncertain what to do with their arms and then contracting into a crouched position on the pitch as if hoping for the turf to open up and swallow them. The contrast speaks volumes.
What many people don’t realise is that it’s possible to change our emotional state by simply shifting our body language. Just as state affects our physiology, so does physiology affect the state. So even if we’re having a bad day and are feeling really lousy and negative, it’s possible to perk ourselves up by just straightening our back and opening our body up.
A simple but effective technique is to imagine a silver thread coming down from the sky that is gently pulling you up from the top of your head. You’ll immediately start to feel more empowered and confident. Mind and body are linked so you cannot remain in a negative state of mind if your body language isn’t congruent with that state.
Laughter and smiling are also powerful tools for shifting your emotions fast. When you smile or laugh, it releases serotonin, the neurotransmitter that makes you feel good, as well as endorphins which boost the immune system and clear the body of toxins. Studies have shown that fake smiles and laughter are just as effective as the real thing so you don’t need to wait for something funny to happen to set you off. Just make a mental note to habitually laugh and smile throughout the day.
One of the most fascinating facets of body language is the way in which it can be used to detect deception – an area in which The Behavior Panel excel. When looking for evidence of deception, the key to watch out for is any deviation from the subject’s normal baseline behaviour.
Poker players will recognise these signals as what they call a “tell” – an unconscious twitch, facial expression or body movement – basically, any subtle deviation from the person’s normal baseline which can be indicative of anxiety or excitement. Our words can lie but our body language cannot, because it’s unconscious, and it therefore provides a telling window into our true thoughts and emotions, no matter how much we may try to mask it.
Eye-movement is another commonly used method of detecting deception. As a general rule, a person looking up and to their left is accessing a genuine memory of something they’ve seen, whereas a person looking up and to their right is likely to be accessing their creative imagination – an indicator that what they’re saying might not be entirely truthful.
The crucial element in all this though is the deviation from the baseline because what’s normal for one person might not be for another. A particular facial tic could be common for someone who twitches habitually. However, a twitch in someone who doesn’t usually exhibit such a mannerism constitutes a deviation from baseline and could therefore be indicative of deception.
Body language is one of the key components in the arsenal of techniques I employ with my clients at Phoenix Coaching & Therapy. I was trained by one of the best in the business, Thom Shillaw, who taught me how people unconsciously interact with their memories and how careful observation of these subtle cues can be used to unearth the root causes of trauma and problem behaviours. Body language can therefore be a useful diagnostic and treatment tool, as well as a powerful method by which to increase confidence, belief and self-esteem.
This knowledge has an infinite variety of real-world applications, including boosting performance on the sporting field and in the workplace and improving interpersonal relationships.
That’s why we’ve just launched a new digital course on our Phoenix website, Real Life Body Language, in which you can learn how to master body language as a key tool for professional and personal success.
The course provides insights into the secrets used by police interrogators and intelligence experts, as well as outlining how to spot and diffuse aggression in a potential attacker, how to adapt your body language to boost your mood or create a good impression and how to use this knowledge in sales, negotiations, and job interviews.
So, if you want to learn more about the secret science of non-verbal communication, and move closer to becoming a human lie detector like the members of The Behavior Panel, just click here to get started.
For further information about our elite level live training in this fascinating field, email info@phoenixcoaching.co.uk
Andrew Cowie, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Andrew Cowie is a transformational life coach, psychotherapist, and author dedicated to helping people overcome adversity and achieve their full potential. He came to the world of therapy after a 20-year career in newspaper journalism was brought to an abrupt end by severe burnout. In the course of his own recovery, he was introduced to meditation, mindfulness, hypnotherapy, yoga, martial arts, and NLP. He went on to retrain under some of the world's leading spiritual and personal development teachers to become an expert in these fields. Andrew has since dedicated his life to passing on this knowledge, synthesizing the various disciplines into one overarching system blending ancient spiritual practices with the latest cutting-edge techniques from the field of modern psychology. He is the owner of Phoenix Coaching & Therapy and the founder of its associated 'magical training school' The Ancient and Mystical Hermetic Order of the Phoenix (AMHOP). His debut book Rise Like a Phoenix was published in 2021 and is described as a manual for personal regeneration. Andrew works with clients worldwide and is passionate about mental health and exploring the latent potential of the human mind.
