This ppt is on human behavior and one of the most interesting part in studying human behavior is abour reading their gestures and body language.

1. Topic 6: Daily behavior

2.  GESTURES: YOUR BODY SPEAKS
 When you present a speech, you send two kinds of messages to your audience. While your
voice transmits a verbal message, a vast amount of information is being visually conveyed by
your appearance, your manner and your physical behavior.
 In public speaking, your body can be an effective tool for adding emphasis and clarity to your
words. It’s also your most powerful instrument for convincing an audience of your sincerity,
earnestness, and enthusiasm.
 However, if you’re physical actions are distracting or suggest meanings that do not agree with
your verbal message, your body can defeat your words. Whether your purpose is to inform,
persuade, entertain, motivate, or inspire, your body and the personality you project must be
appropriate to what you say.

3. There are four main types of co-speech gesture
(McNeill 1992)
 First one is iconic gesture – these are gestures that imag-istically represent object
characteristics, actions and 3-D relationships.
 Example:- explaining to a child how to tie a shoe without actually physically
touching the laces. It is surprisingly hard to explain this simple and common
action without moving one’s hands (try it), but adding gesture to speech makes it
very easy and understandable.
 A second type of gesture is a pointing, gesture. These gestures index, or connect,
some aspect of speech to some other idea, object location or action.

4.  For example, imagine you are hiking through dense jungle and your more experienced
travel companion says, ‘Watch out for that poison ivy’. Without a deictic gesture to the
plant, you might end up in trouble.
 A third type of gesture is a metaphoric, which conveys an abstract idea in a concrete
form.
 For example, during a brainstorming session on a new advertising campaign, a
marketing executive may say, ‘Here’s what I am thinking’, while holding her fingers at
her forehead and then suddenly thrusting them outward as if holding an object out to the
group.

5.  This is metaphoric because it is impossible to physically remove an idea
from one’s head and literally present it to others, but the gesture in this case
conveys that meaning nonetheless.
 Finally, beat gestures are hand movements that keep the rhythm of speech.
These gestures are not thought to convey any semantic content, but they do
connect portions of speech over longer times.
 For example, if a chef were to explain the sequence of adding ingredients to
a stir-fry, he might say, ‘You add the lemongrass, the ginger and then the
basil’ . while making beat gestures (right hand repeatedly flipping outward
every time he mentioned an ingredient) throughout the sequence to create a
sense of rhythm and cohesive structure.

6. Body Language
 Body language is an outward reflection of a person’s emotional condition. Each
gesture or movement can be a valuable key to an emotion a person may be feeling
at the time.
 Much debate and research has been done to discover whether non-verbal signals
are inborn, learned, genetically transferred or acquired in some other way.

7. Three rules for Accurate reading
 1. Read gestures in clusters
 One of the most serious errors in body language is to interrupt a solitary gesture in
isolation of other gestures or circumstances. For example, scratching the head can
mean a number of things- sweating, uncertainty, dandruff, forgetfulness or lying-
depending on other gestures that occur at the same time.
 2. Look for congruence
 Research shows that non-verbal signals carry about five times as much impact the
verbal channel and that, when the two are incongruent people- especially women –
rely on the non -verbal message and disregard the verbal content.

8.  Example:- if you as the speaker ask the listeners about what they think about your ideas, his/her
opinion and his body language signals would be congruent or match.
 3. Read gestures in context
 All gestures should be considered in the context in which they occur.
 If for example someone was sitting at a bus terminal with his arms and
legs tightly crossed and chin down and it was a cold winter’s day. It
would most likely mean that he was cold, not defensive. However, if the
person used the same gestures while sitting across a table from him trying
to sell him an idea, product or service, it could be correctly interrupted as
meaning that the person was feeling negative or rejecting your offer.

9. CAN YOU FAKE IT?
 Can you fake your body language? The general answer to this question is ‘no’,
because of the lack of congruence that is likely to occur between the main gestures
and, the body’s micro signals and the spoken words.
 For example. Open palms are associated with honesty but when the faker holds his
palm out and smiles at you as he tells a le, his micro gestures give him away. His
pupils may contract, one eyebrow may lift or the corner of his mouth may twitch ,
and these signals contradict the open palm gesture and the sincere smile.

12.  Open arms:
 Energetically open and possibly feeling vulnerable
 A good way to show you are approachable, especially when combined with open palms.
 Palms up/open hands:
 Defences down
 An open heart
 Palms on chest – When a person uses open palms that occasionally touch their chest, they are signalling honesty.
 Outward, upward hand movements – This conveys an open and positive message.
 Folded arms: A defence mechanism that shows the person is not open to what is being said or done.May mean rejection or
Physically cold or Stubborn in their outlook.

13.  Mirroring– This is evidence of two people getting on really well. Each person copies the
other’s body language, usually subtly.
 Mirroring occurs with: Breathing ,Gestures ,Eye movement ,Leaning towards each other at the
same time.
 Too much nodding – This indicates the listener has lost interest and may be bored. (Probably
where the saying ‘nodding off to sleep’ came from.)
 Body space – Respect for the other person’s body space is crucial in gaining their trust. Stay at
least one arm’s length away from them.
 Backwards moving: Rejecting or Escaping
 Looks you in the eyes without staring – Confident, self-assured

14. Thank you