Arm-Swing - Body Language

Arm-Swing – Business Body Language Series

Many people study body language to learn how to detect lies. Believe it or not, they are successful in their endeavors. The human body gives away all the signals you need to “read” your interlocutor. So if you feel like you are being lied to here’s my tip: trust your instinct. You are being lied to!

I could give you a lot of tips on how to catch a liar, but this is not the main purpose of this series. I write this because there is not much online about body language, or if there is the topics are too general, and I write this because I know that body language can mean the difference between making a good impression or a bad one. I can only hope that my advice will help you with a job interview (a great CV and perfect answers mean nothing if your body fails to backup your message), a meeting with the media or a business meeting.

Business Meetings and Arm-Swinging

It is not difficult to define arm-swinging: to change the location of the arm(s) by moving it back and forth. This is and automatic unconscious motion, perfectly natural when we walk, studied when we dance (for example twist) and not so welcome when we need to listen to a boring or divisive discussion.

When we have a conference table involved in the equation, some might not really like it if you continuously move your arms (for no particular reason) from the table to your chair, from your chair back to the table, and so on. This movement exposes either nervousness, disagreement upon a topic of the discussion, simple boredom or the need to leave the table for personal reasons.

As David B. Givens (author of Crime Signals: How to Spot a Criminal Before You Become a Victim) notes, “the conference table is a nonverbal battlefield.” So if you are one of the new employees in a company where business meetings are held on regular basis, control your body language. You don’t want your boss or business partner, and any other interlocutor, to see your lack of interest in a particular discussion. Speakers who attempt to promote key points should lean forward over the table and use palm-down gestures. Leaning backward, away from the table and palm-up gestures may suggest submissiveness or lack of conviction.

Neuro-notes: Paleocircuits for arm-swinging originated in the aquatic brain. Today, arm-swinging is still mediated by the basal ganglia. Like walking itself, our vestigial arm movements are unconscious and out of awareness. Motionless arms (and a shuffling gait), meanwhile, are symptomatic of shortages of the neurotransmitter, dopamine, in the basal ganglia (as in Parkinson’s disease).