The Nonverbal World - All about Human Behavior and Body Language

Is Empathy among humans in decline?

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:50:00 +0530

"What the hell is going on?"

“Is the world being controlled by psychopaths, ego-maniacs, evil aliens or even non-human entities? Is a demon secretly playing with the human minds? EXACTLY WHO is pulling the strings?”

You won’t miss to ask the same questions openly or in your own mind while looking at the current state of affairs in almost the entire world - by taking out some time from your busy routine and closely analyzing the level of "profitting over people", (over-)confidence, self-centeredness, irresponsibility, radicalization, carelessness, recklessness, manipulation, provocation, exploitation, extremism, narcissism, ambitions, hypocrisy or deception in terms of or in the name of "environmental protection", sharing of resources, (geo-)politics, cooperation, development, technology, ideology, religion and economy. In terms of climate, society, life-style, relations and human behavior; many people would surely find today's world quite different than the one they were born in, merely a few decades ago. What about you? How do you find it?

It could be the major reason behind the prevalence of or growth in rush, panic, anger, gloom, stress, hatred, phobia, apathy, anxiety, despair, dullness, amnesia, insomnia, addiction, nihilism, hedonism, escapism, disbelief, pessimism, insecurity, depression, loneliness, intolerance, distraction, disillusion, frustration, disinterest, uncertainty, impatience, vulnerability, insensitivity, DOOM-saying, demotivation, disorientation, helplessness, hopelessness, purposelessness, pleasure-seeking, loss of meaning, sense of betrayal, existential dread and/or above all - EROSION OF TRUST, among millions of people, across the entire globe, at present than ever before. Aren't you among those people? Really? Well! I kindly suggest you to sit quietly and ask yourself seriously. By the way, people are loosing their trust in what? You just name it!

"Every psychopath is a (extreme) narcissist but not every (extreme) narcissist is a psychopath."
Clinical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula
(World leading expert on Narcissism)

If you firmly believe that psychopaths completely lack human emotions then you're completely wrong (Sorry!). It’s not the so-called ‘lack of human emotions’ that makes a normal looking person immoral, careless, reckless, unethical, narcissistic, irresponsible, manipulative, deceptive, abusive, parasitic and exploitative towards others. Actually, psychopaths do have human emotions but they don't care about emotions, feelings and suffering of others. They've very low or complete lack of empathy for fellow human beings or even their closed ones. By the way, is this the first time you’re reading the word ‘Empathy’?

As of now, you surely might have read, heard or even used another word several times. The word is ‘Sympathy’. Along with the same word, ‘Sympathizing’ and ‘Sympathizer’ are the words that you might read, heard or even used many times, as of now. You might have expressed your sympathy towards or became sympathizer of others. However, most people simply confuse between sympathy and empathy. Although both words end with the exact same sound ‘m-pu-thee’, their meanings are totally different from each other. So, better understanding is necessary.

Sympathy is a conscious attempt of understanding what exactly other person may be going through, feeling or experiencing. However, empathy is a genuine subconscious experience of the same feeling inside oneself. Unlike sympathy, empathy is like putting your own foot inside the other person’s shoes and trying to experience how really it feels like. Body language (facial expressions and posture) and vocal tone of a one person instantly changes in the presence of another person in distress, danger or pain. Doesn’t it ever happen to you at all?

Empathy is the critical pro-social quality.
(Image Courtesy: American Psychological Association)

On one hand, empathy is a genuine subconscious experience. We tend to experience happiness when others around us are happy and experience sadness when others are sad, down, crying, distressed or depressed. Similarly, we experience horrified when others are in danger and experience anger when others are getting abused, exploited or punished. The experience of empathy is entirely subconsciously. Also, it leads to instant physiological and hormonal changes. Hence, it’s physiological, behavioral and nonverbal.

On the other hand, sympathy is more of a conscious process of trying to visualize, imagine or understand what another person may be going through at present or might have gone through in the past. It’s expressed verbally, especially in the form of agreement, validation, recognition or support while not experiencing the exact same internal distress or uneasiness that is felt subconsciously. That’s why sympathy can be faked or copied but empathy can’t be!

Ability to control the impulses makes us civil but behaving empathetically makes us social. Whenever a person internally experiences what the other person is most likely feeling, is going through or might have gone through then those two persons virtually become 'ONE AND THE SAME'. Moreover, the first person might nonverbally and physically help, soothe, rescue, protect or even fight for the second person who is in distress, danger or pain.

Please let me explain you with a real life example. An elderly frail man and his young son fail right in the middle of a road when their scooter's wheels slipped off on a greasy patch. An elderly man got slammed so hard on the surface of the road that he couldn't stand on his feet whereas his son got minor bruises. A young woman living in a nearby house immediately rushed to the spot with a bottle full of water in her hand.

Another commuting man who happened to watch the whole scene and suddenly stopped his motorcycle at the edge of the same road. He helped the son to lift his elderly father and take him to an empty place. Moreover, the commuting man ran his hands over the legs of the elderly to check the injuries if any. Behavior of the young woman and the commuting man wasn't sympathetic but empathetic.

The lone man crossing the railway tracks
(Note: An image generated by AI, exclusively for the book)

"Ability to control the impulses makes us civil but behaving empathetically makes us social."

Not Sympathy but Empathy is the necessary foundation of humanity, morality and ethics or in other words - compassionate, law-abiding, responsible, sensitive, truthful, ethical, caring and moral behavior. Today's global outcry about the degradation of humane, moral and ethical behavior towards each other strongly reflects the steady erosion of empathy. The mandatory quality that helped us coexist and maintain the social harmony over millions of years is in decline.

There’re certain primary and secondary co-existential benefits of an internally felt distress or uneasiness while watching each other in suffering, distress, danger or pain. A few critical insights flashed in my mind while walking through the memories of major distressing or discomforting experiences of my own, including watching a lone man crossing the railway tracks while an express train was rapidly moving towards him on the same.

The same insights have voluntarily been shared by an email in June 2024 with world’s some of the top behavioral researchers who’re working on empathy and a leading institute - Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) of University of California at Berkeley (UCB). The institute has formally acknowledged them. You can read the same insights in my upcoming book - Body Language Insights.

[ 'Reserved' Empathy: It's quite natural, by-birth, instinctive or even spiritual for any (normal) human being to have empathy for every other human being. However, a (geo-)political ambition, a radical ideology or tribalism systematically tries to manipulate, motivate or deceive its followers, believers or members to keep their empathetical contribution, adherence, behavior, struggle or actions limited to or reserved only for other followers, believers or members of the same movement, ideology or tribe. ]

Related Articles:
1) Surprise vs. Startle Reflex 2) Your Confirmation Bias vs. Context 3) Body Language of Extreme Psychopath

THE END of Over-Generalization

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Thu, 1 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0530

"The basic emotional (facial) expressions are universal.", "There's no such thing as micro-expressions.", "93% of the human communication is nonverbal.", "Avoiding the eye direct contact indicates lying.", "People do lie...times a day." (You can fill the same blank space or three dots (...) with the same number that you've heard so far i. e. 10, 20, 30, 75, 100 or 1,000 e. g. People do lie 1,000 times a day.)

Without any doubt, such statements, opinions, claims and quotes do attract the attention of people who are interested in body language. However, these are over-generalizing opinions, claims and quotes. "There's no such thing as micro-expressions!" was the radical claim, publicly made by a globally renowned body language expert. It was made in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Did he include the FACIAL micro-expressions in them? Unfortunately, he didn't clarify it then and there. He should have but he didn't. So, I felt extremely sorry for him, out of respect.

Please let me share another incident that left me utterly shocked and perplexed, due to a catastrophic irresponsibility. An American Nobel laureate physicist made a most remarkable claim in a famous documentary about Climate Change. He said that the existing level of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) gas is much lesser in comparison to its level 200 million years ago. Overall conditions on the planet Earth are entirely different or even unparallel in these two different time periods or eras. Completely ignoring this single-most profound fact isn't over-generalization?

Such over-generalized statements, opinions, claims and quotes have misled the millions of people so far. They're not just related to body language but also almost every field of knowledge, reasoning, science or inquiry. It doesn't just end in misleading people but it goes beyond it, in many cases or situations. If such over-generalized statements, opinions, claims and quotes are publicly made by renowned experts in a speech, a lecture, an article or a book then people do tend to make decisions in their own lives by referring to them.

That's why researchers, scientists, specialists, educators, thinkers, trainers, analysts and experts should always provide the context in which they have arrived on their own conclusions. For example, if any researcher has arrived on a particular conclusion then he/she should provide the exact context, the (chosen) data or the evidence upon which the conclusion has been derived. However, if they don't do so then the listeners, audience or readers should ask them about it. Now, the responsibility lies on their shoulders.

Today's world is posing the greatest intellectual challenge to the entire human race. Exactly WHY? We're all witnessing the rapid growth in the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), increasing cognitive offloading or outsourcing to Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and finally - the dangerous deludge of provocative, deepfake, disturbing and meaningless content and narratives on social media platforms. It's the exact same age in which Critical Thinking has become super-important or even inevitable.

Among many other components, Contextualization or Contextual Reasoning is one key component of Critical Thinking. Contextualization has to be given a center-stage in the statements, opinions, claims and quotes. Researchers, scientists, specialists, educators, thinkers, trainers, analysts and experts should make putting an end to over-generalization their mission. If some of them already have then thanks to them.

[#Critical Thought: The word 'universal' or 'universally' is often used to replace the word 'cross-cultural' or 'cross-culturally', in the statements made about human beings. However, I sincerely think that usage of the word is massively misleading or utterly uncontextual while considering the unfathomable vastness of the (observable) universe and the very possibility of innumerable species of intelligent creatures (following cultures) living in the same.]

Related Articles:
1) CONTEXT is the KING 2) Context 3) Interpretation 4) Perceptual Bias 5) Being a Body Language Expert 6) Are you stuck with the same meaning? 7) Your Confirmation Bias vs. Context 8) Is Human Communication 93% Nonverbal? 9) Artificial Intelligence and Body Language 10) Body Language and Lie Detection

Your Confirmation Bias vs. Context

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Tue, 2 Sep 2025 18:00:00 +0530

“How ARRROGANTLY she behaved! You should have been there just to observe your daughter.”*, “Unlike her husband, she didn’t express any respect towards the elders.”, “After getting married to a rich man, she isn’t caring about her own family.” [This is the most accurate and contextual (and not literal or word-to-word) translation of the original statements made in my native language.]

Three different persons made three different (above) statements in front a father about his beloved daughter. Certainly, such statements might have broken his heart that was already beating with a great muscular effort. He was already suffering from high blood pressure (hypertension) and under medication for years. Additionally, he couldn’t sleep well at night over a whole week after his daughter betrayed his trust by marrying the guy privately and above all - without giving any prior intimation.

While disregarding current mental and physical state of the father, the three persons shared their own assessments without any hesitation. Obviously, it was clear that they were ‘expertly’ confident about their assessments of the body language and behavioral cues the girl was subconsciously giving away as they were closely observing her. So, what was the exact context or overall situation? Also, exactly how I personally became a part of it?

A year ago (2024), I was selected as a member of a small committee. It was tasked to visit the newly-wed couple and the family of the boy who married the girl. The girl and the boy belonging to two different castes got married without taking a formal consent from their respective families. That’s why the committee was sent by the girl's parents to discuss about formalizing their marriage by a public ceremony.

When we entered the boy’s house, the boy and his family formally greeted us. According to the Indian cultural tradition, he touched the feet of all senior members from the visiting committee. We took our seats in the large hall and tea was served to us. Soon, we started discussing about the whole situation and how we should proceed ahead to formalize the marriage of the newly-wed couple.

After a few minutes, two senior committee members requested the boy to call the girl as they wanted to see her in person. After a few moments, she entered the hall. However, she didn’t touch the feet of the senior members from the committee. She straightly and swiftly walked up to the chair that was placed adjacent to the boy’s chair. That move was utterly shocking for many.

The girl maintained herself in the chair without any expressions or muscular movements on her pretty face, as if it was completely frozen or paralyzed. Additionally, she had maintained in an upright body posture with her chin head high. However, she kept her widely open eyes continuously hovering over the members of the committee. Some of them were her close relatives.

The discussion concluded amicably and formalizing their marriage was decided by both sides. As we (committee) were leaving the house, most committee members were discussing about the girl's unexpected behavior. Especially, three members concluded that the girl appeared extremely arrogant, uptight or rigid throughout the face-to-face interaction that lasted for 15 minutes.

Are you still trapped in the confirmation bias?

According to a senior committee member, the boy left a very good first impression by touching the feet of the senior members of the committee. According to the same member, “there was no guilt in the eyes” of the girl for betraying the trust of her family and parents. As he repeatedly had tried to convince her over the years, she had promised him of not marrying the same boy.

Another committee member once had a bitter argument the girl about her decision to marry the same boy a few months ago. As I personally noticed the same, he was the one who was staring at the girl with squinted eyes, tilted neck and dropped chin. Without any surprise, his body language stood out among all committee members. Also, he was the one who made the first statement.*

According to my own evaluation or assessment, the girl was hyper-vigilant and edgy during the whole interaction. She was under tremendous distress while closely interacting with the familiar persons with the very possibility of being shamed, blamed or questioned. I call this behavioural phenomenon as "Vigilance out of Distress" (VooD). Is there suitable phrase(s) for it than this one?

After a few days after formalization and acceptance of their marriage by both sides, I happened to meet and talk with the same girl's close friend. My assessment turned out to be right when she told that the girl going through an enormous distress as she was facing the familiar people. Unlike her own husband, she couldn’t behave and express normally in their presence.

This is one of the excellent examples that demonstrates exactly how most of us instinctively judge, access or evaluate the behavior and body language of another person. Without taking the context or overall situation into consideration, most of us firmly stick to their prejudices, firm beliefs, prior conclusions or confirmation biases. It locks them inside their own mental prisons. No way out!

Confirmation bias subconsciously helps a biased person reach on conclusions quickly while completely ignoring what doesn’t support her prejudices, firm beliefs and/or prior conclusions. However, it's very damaging to the process of accurately reading, inferring, analysing or deciphering any kind of observed, recorded, reported, detected or documented cues let alone nonverbal ones.

Identifying the context accurately needs focus, attention (to details), patients and rationality. However, confirmation bias saves both time and energy that is freshly required for the brain of the same person to even consider the contextual variability. Also, it can lead to over-generalization of the cues. Perhaps, confirmation bias and over-generalization are two sides of the same coin.

As majority of people’s assessment, appraisal or evaluation about others is entirely influenced or hijacked by their confirmation biases, one might think that the machines might help us in reading, inferring, analysing or deciphering the body language more accurately than humans. However, machines with narrow intelligence don’t understand the socio-symbolic complexity (just yet!).

Artificial Intelligence (AI) reading Body Language

When (narrow) Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be picking, detecting or recording the body language cues much timely, rapidly, clearly and precisely than the bare human eyes; the super-critical responsibility of identifying the context correctly will be left to the super-rational human brains. Are we ready for it?

Identifying or understanding the context, Contextualization or simply - Contexting is one of core aspects of Critical Thinking. However, the critical thinking itself is getting compromised, sidelined, degraded or hindered under the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

[👉#Special Update: I felt extremely sorry for a renowned body language expert when I recently heard him claiming in a podcast that the steeple pose was used by the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel to exhibit, indicate or assert her confidence (in public). However, she consciously chose to use the steeple pose than keeping her arms free.]

Related Articles:
1) CONTEXT is the KING 2) Interpretation 3) Perceptual Bias 4) Being a Body Language Expert 5) Are you stuck with the same meaning? 6) THE END of OVER-Generalization 7) Sympathy vs. Empathy

Body Language and Lie Detection

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 12:30:00 +0530

Perhaps, the first ever and most interesting record of detecting lies or catching liars by checking the bodily or physiological cues or indicators goes back to 3,000 years ago. The process of lie detection inside the imperial courts of ancient China was entirely focused on salivation (secretion of saliva). What is the exact logic behind it? If a person produces less or no saliva inside her mouth then it's most likely that she is under stress while speaking with/to or answering the questions asked by another person.

Before starting to speak or to give answers, an accused person or a suspect was ordered to keep a lump of dry rice in her mouth. As speaking or answering come to an end, the person was ordered to take out or spit the rice from her mouth for visual inspection. If the rice was found to be moist or wet due to normal secretion of saliva during the question-answering session then it was assumed that the person was telling the truth because she wasn't speaking without any stress or fear. Wasn't it simplest and straightforward? Obviously, chewing rice was much better than getting tortured.

We do lie verbally but we've set out on the mission to check the nonverbal cues of lying. From indirectly checking the saliva inside the mouth to detecting the cues, signs or indicators in body language, we look for fear, guilt, stress, anxiety or nervousness. There are several other ancient methods of lie detection. Surprisingly, some of them are still used, such as licking a red hot spoon in Bedouin tribal members of Arabia. Truth teller wouldn't get a scar or burnt mark on tongue, due to the normal level of saliva keeping it enough wet.

Although tongue is solely responsible for generating the deceptive speech, we can't stop ourselves from looking at each other's faces or into eyes look even while we aren't talking. That's why we've developed different (mis)beliefs around the face about the (reliable) cues, signs or indicators of lying, over the thousands of years. Some of them are universal e. g. a person not looking into your eyes or looking away is lying to you. However, it's not at all necessary that people of every culture and/or ethnicity exactly do the same.

Most of us are naturally inclined to blindly believe in and follow the tips, tricks or techniques that are shown in or shared by commercial movies, online videos and TV serials to catch liars in the real-time. Lie to me was a famous TV serial in which the central character Dr. Cal Lightman was depicted as an expert that could catch liars by detecting their facial micro-expressions. However, they can't be detected in the real-time without a formal training and rigorous practice.

(Image Courtesy: Fox Broadcasting Company)

"So, Exactly how GOOD (%) we are in detecting lies? Certainly, we aren’t 100% good. Even our technological tools aren’t 100% good/accurate in catching lies."
One of the 55 slides from my recent presentation
(Note: Please read #Special Note (below) for more details.)

Whenever it comes to determining if a person is lying or telling the truth based on the nonverbal or body language cues, signs or indicators; there's a little disagreement among people, especially between two tentatively different groups. First group (A) is mostly made up of academic researchers and/or scientists. Second group (B) is largely made up of the professionals such as (counter-)intelligence officers/agents, lie detection professionals, law enforcement officers, lie detection experts, forensic interviewers, interrogators and investigators who do face people.

On one hand, if not all but most studies that have been conducted so far were by the academic researchers from western cultures, countries, universities and/or institutions. They mostly involved the subjects of very specific backgrounds e. g. university students. Also, most experiments have been conducted in controlled environments or inside labs. Of course, conducting elaborate experiments or studies by involving the real suspects, criminals or offenders might be posing some difficulties, challenges and/or limitations for researchers.

On the other hand, it's only the professionals who ask questions or interrogate to get confessions from the real suspects or criminals. Unlike a limited amount of, chosen or specific subjects participating in experiments conducted in controlled environments or labs; they do face the real people belonging to different ages and genders with diverse social, ethnic, genetic, physical, cultural, educational, developmental, psychological and economical backgrounds, conditions and/or histories. They do matter a lot.

Both groups or even the members of any single group among themselves don't completely agree with each other about (some) nonverbal or body language cues as reliable and/or strong indicators of lying. Indeed, members of any single or both groups have their own conclusions that have been entirely derived from their own studies, findings, observations, experiments and/or experiences originating from entirely different sets of people they faced so far.

After going through the above facts or bitter truth, I'm quite sure that you clearly realize a great gap between both groups or parties i. e. A) Academics/scientists and B) Professionals/practitioners. Of course, there's a great difference in operating conditions, inclinations, obligations, challenges, exposures, limitations, thoughts, resources and/or methods of both groups or even among the members of any single group.

Despite of disagreements between both groups or even among the members of any single group, they do honestly share the single-most common goal or the greater challenge of bringing the criminals and offenders to justice by analyzing the different kinds of cues that suspects or criminals do subconsciously give away while lying or deceiving verbally.

Method of lie detection by analyzing of body language is repeatedly criticized as 'pseudoscientific' by (some) academic researchers and/or scientists. Hence, I really wonder if a truly 'scientific' lie detection method is strictly supposed to be capable of predicting beforehand, with a mathematical accuracy. Can any lie detection expert, interrogator or professional can predict a nonverbal cue or cues of lying, well before facing the person to be interrogated, interviewed, questioned or scrutinized? Or Is it always possible to anybody? Being an independent researcher, I've to challenge you to think over this.

If predictability of nonverbal or body language cues of lying is the sole qualifying criteria then it'll be satisfied in an ideal world in which every person's neural wiring, perception, personality, experiences, motivations, anxieties, ambitions, intentions, character, thoughts, ideology, memories and needs are exactly the same. What about the differences in social, ethnic, genetic, physical, cultural, educational, developmental, psychological and economical backgrounds, conditions and/or histories that subtly or overtly influence, govern or shape them in this world?

Still, most lie detection experts or professionals do agree that there's no single reliable, definite or universal cue of lying or verbal deception. Also, any single cue doesn't convey anything so multiple cues need to put in a cluster. However, a cluster of different cues doesn't help until it is timely and smartly capitalized by the investigator in search of the truth or reality. Actually, a suspect, a criminal or an offender needs to confess the crime or offense verbally or it needs to be proven in the court with evidences.

Hence, analysis of nonverbal or body language cues in the real-time is only a tool. It can and does help a questioner, an interviewer or an interrogator to dig deeper in the mind of the person under scrutiny. If the investigator is well trained and/or skilled in statement analysis and speech (para-language) analysis then it gives a huge advantage. Sometimes, mental smartness works much better or efficiently than pressure, confrontation, intimidation or physical torture.

Actually, determining if a person is telling a lie or a truth just by observing her body language with bare eyes is a little difficult and challenging for most of us, without a formal training. Also, some of the nonverbal or body language or cues are too small, swift or subtle, to be detected with bare eyes. For example, blinks can be detected with bare eyes but 4% to 8% pupil dilation can't be. That's why we need an electronic device or tracker for sure.

Apart of the skill, training, practice and sharp eyes required to detect the subtle nonverbal cues; the success of a (counter-)intelligence officer/agent, lie detection professional, law enforcement officer, lie detection expert, forensic interviewer, interrogator or investigator depends on the ability to stay mentally calm, curious, focused and balanced. Sometimes, indirect questions and/or eliciting statements works like magic.

A scene from movie "Liar Liar" (1997)
(Image Courtesy: Universal Pictures)

Starting from finding the cues of deception in nonverbal behavior or body language, we've gradually developed several methods of lie detection. According to a paper published in 2023 by Dr. Tim Brennen and Dr. Svein Magnussen (Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway), there're seven different (available) methods of lie detection at present that have been most likely adapted by law enforcement or investigative agencies across the globe. Perhaps, it's the first time that you're coming to know about them. I didn't know about some of them, before reading the paper.

Along with the analysis of 1) Nonverbal Cues (or body language), 2) Systematic Analysis of Verbal Cues, 3) Manipulation of Statement Production, 4) Polygraphic Analysis, 5) Brain-based (Neuroscientific) Analysis, 6) Strategic Interviewing and 7) Analysis using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool have been included in the same list. Currently, AI based cue analysis is a slowly evolving method. However, it can certainly find and reveal the (kinds of) patterns that haven't been identified yet by us humans with organic or biological brains or intelligence.

Ability of deceiving (nonverbally) is very common in many creatures, including human beings. However, ability of lying or deceiving verbally could be reserved to human beings because we're the only species on this planet that can produce pre-specified sounds through our mouths. However, further research needs to done if other creatures have developed an ability of lying while using their own languages. Although one person can lie to the other person, no human being can lie to or or deceive any other creature verbally. Can you?

One of the 55 slides from my recent presentation
(Note: Please read #Special Note (below) for more details.)

Today, majority of the current human population is living inside the modern techno-industrial world. However, there're a few percent of people who do still live their lives in small groups, just like our remote ancestors did, hundreds or thousands of years ago. So why don’t we study Exactly how today’s tribal-indigenous-aborigional people catch a person while lying? It'll be quite interesting to find if they still rely on the nonverbal cues of lying or verbal deceit, just like most of our own ancestors or forefathers did or used to do over last thousands of years. Perhaps, tribal-indigenous-aborigional people might be using other methods or ordeals for confession.

However, both frequency and severity of massively damaging or devastating lies in the tribal-indigenous-aborigional world could be way more less in comparison to the modern techno-industrial world. The exact reasons behind the same could be the ones that do reveal the darker reality of the 'brighter' world in which millions of people get hallucinated, brainwashed, manipulated, intoxicated, illusioned, tricked, fooled, robbed, hunted, addicted, hijacked, enslaved, devastated or destroyed by convincing truths, fancier fictions, false promises, elaborate myths, powerful propaganda and/or above all - the utopian dreams.

Minimal requirements for living the life, higher frequency of face-to-face interactions, lesser (or no) materialistic ambitions, lesser (or no) personal possessions, higher level of interdependence, higher level of cooperation, greater emphasize on relations, smaller geographical territories, harsher punishments upon lying, strict moral obligations, smaller group sizes and higher level of empathy might have conditioned the tribal-indigenous-aborigional people to be more honest, truthful, realistic, verifiable and transparent.

"Surprisingly, how easily, quickly or foolishly you get convinced by a lie is entirely dependent on YOU only. Yes! It’s you and nobody else i. e. your very own mental processing capacity, prior knowledge, awareness, perception, prejudices, urgencies, (mis)beliefs, biases and/or needs."
- Body Language Insights (Book)

[#Special Note: This entire article has been inspired by and is partially based on the overall content of the same PowerPoint presentation that was given by me to students pursuing bachelor, masters and doctoral (Ph. D.) degrees and faculty members of National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU).

The article related to the same lecture-cum-presentation can be read here - My lecture at an International university.]

Related Articles:
1) *From Common Signs to Spotting Lies 2) Entire body can’t lie 3) Nonverbal Advantage in Investigation 4) My career saving lie detection 5) Face of liar(?) 6) Truth about Lying 7) Inside Interrogation Room 8) THE END of OVER-Generalization

Are human emotions really universal?

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 21:00:00 +0530

Dongria tribal girl
(Odisha, India)

The English word 'emotion' was adapted from the French word 'émouvoir' (pronounced as 'é-mou-vwa(r)'), back in 1579. The literal meaning of the original French word is "to stir up" or "to move". Emotions have a great power to stir us or move us inside out instantly. Having different emotions is a universal or the single-most common human quality. Expressions of some emotions do magically bridge the huge gaps, cross the international boundaries and bring millions of people together. Hence, we believe that everybody in this world has the exact same emotions as ours. Don't we? Almost everybody does, until an unexpected truth is told.

A few days ago, I watched a presentation on Big Think about human emotions. Among several insights shared by the presenting researcher, three were utterly shocking - 1) (All) Emotions aren't universal i. e. they aren't common across cultures. 2) Facial expressions of emotions aren't universal i. e. they aren't common across cultures. 3) There are no synonymous words for some emotions in the vocabularies of some languages e. g. 'fear'. Indeed, these are entirely upsetting or shocking facts for almost everybody of us who ardently believe in universality, enough to change facial expressions for a long time.

Dr. Paul Ekman (American psychologist) established universality of six basic emotional expressions through his observations with different groups of people, including members of Fore tribe located deep inside the forest of Papua New Guinea. After the same, training programs and tools have been developed on the basis of the same. Especially, those who have built their whole careers, courses, software applications and/or smartphone apps around it would find them very upsetting. Much to their surprise, Dr. Ekman himself agreed about cultural-specific emotions.

Dr. Paul Ekman walking along with
smiling tribal children (1967 - 1968)

These three facts totally disturb what has been taught over the last few decades to millions of people, including law enforcement, intelligence and security professionals around the world. While mentally adjusting with these scientifically proven facts, we need to investigate this deeply 'emotional' subject seriously. Are billions of people really divided into many groups that do experience emotions differently from each other? Or Is it only about the differences in labeling or describing emotions? Or Is it only a translation issue?

After watching the presentation, I started to think really harder over a few days about the three facts. Through this short article, I'm trying to share with you what I've come up with after brainstorming. Especially, if you're a researcher (independent or academic) then I'd kindly suggest to consider the key inputs while conducting further research about this most critical yet complicated subject having global consequences.

Currently, a massive amount of facial data might be getting fed to many Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems for enabling them to recognize different emotions by reading facial expressions. If the same data has been selected by, for and of the members of a specific culture then Emotional AI (EAI) systems might misread the emotions of the members of other cultures by facial expressions. Isn't it totally wrong?

If you could just try to imagine this techno-tragic outcome personally affecting you in the near future then you'd realize exactly how serious are the implications of the belief in 'universality of human emotions (and their facial expressions)'. Actually, the dark rabbit hole goes much farther and deeper inside the ground. Perhaps, only neuroscientists might understand what I'm trying to say.

Facial Expressions of six basic emotions
identified by Dr. Paul Ekman

While trying to swallow the three utterly bitter facts very slowly and painfully, we simply can't deny the following possibilities (or realities?):

1) Some commonly shared experiences or inherited memories of some groups or communities have conditioned their members to experience some emotions more profoundly and frequently, in comparison to other emotions.

2) The neural connections and activation inside brains are slightly different in the people following different cultures, who don't experience, express and/or label the exact same emotional experiences.

3) Members of two entirely different types of cultures (e. g. collectivist vs. individualist) don't share the exact same reasons to invoke the exact same emotion e. g. anger (fight).

4) Some physical environments don't leave any reason to invoke some emotions in those who commonly share them e. g. an abundance doesn't lead to greed, envy or jealousy.

5) Some cultures have gradually succeeded in converting some emotional experiences into nonverbal expressions that don't involve facial muscle movements.

6) Some cultures systematically do encourage or educate their members to express some emotions through facial muscle movements, right from early childhood.

7) Some cultures systematically do train their members to completely suppress the nonverbal expressions of some emotions, right from early childhood.

8) Different cultural groups of people do use slightly different facial expressions to convey the exact same emotion e. g. happiness.

9) Some cultures systematically train their members to express some emotions in certain ways, right from early childhood.

For the languages that don't have the words synonymous to 'fear' in their vocabularies, a further investigation is required to prove or confirm if speakers of those languages really don't at all withdraw themselves nonverbally in the presence of a genuinely fearful stimulus e. g. a male tribal hunter accidentally confronting a tiger, a lion or a leopard in the close proximity while hunting wild animals for food.

Also, there's a great possibility that speakers of such languages have been describing the nonverbal expressions of fear graphically, in greater detail to help everybody in understanding the whole scene. How a person expressed nonverbally while experiencing fear might be worth describing for them than just saying "He was in great fear while encountering a tiger at a close distance".

Actually, it's almost impossible that fear (flight response) isn't a single-most universal or a commonly shared emotion. Hence, they might be expressing fear nonverbally and do recognize it as a genuine emotional response. However, they might not be labeling the same experience as 'fear' just like the speakers of other languages having the words synonymous to 'fear'.

An old shaman (spirit-man) from Waura tribe
living in Amazonian rainforest of Brazil

Try to imagine about people living deep inside a large tropical forest. They strictly follow an ancestral culture that greatly respects the territorial rights of the wild animals living in the same forest. How they do react upon sighting a tiger in a close proximity is labeled as 'a display of respect to the protector of forest'. However, the observers not following the same culture might simply label it as 'freezing in fear'.

Actually, screaming, making rapid body movements and running away does provoke some wild animals (big cats and bears) to chase and kill the runner. Hence, everybody is strictly trained by tribal elders to keep both hands steady, maintain total silence, hide weapons, stand still, keep looking ahead with wide open eyes while bending forward. Tigers don't attack them and just pass them by after doing so.

Some emotions could definitely be common across all cultures. However, other emotions or at least the triggering causes of emotional experiences aren't universal. Differences in cultures, conditioning, local environments and/or shared experiences might have led to shaping, modifying, recognizing, categorizing and/or labeling various emotional experiences slightly differently.

Indeed, emotion triggering causes, intensities of emotional experiences, physiological effects of emotional experiences and nonverbal expressions of emotions may not be commonly shared across cultures. Also, they may not evenly be shared, by all member of a family, a group, a culture, a society or a community. They're entirely context dependent or contextual.

Face masks showing different emotional expressions

As a human being, one of the greatest challenge for you is to recognize the different emotions of the people who matter you the most in your life. If you're doing it accurately and timely then you're a good 'mind reader' already. However, your attention to details, contextual awareness and level of empathy are the factors that determine the accuracy.

[#GLOBAL APPEAL: Irrespective of the slighter differences in our intelligence, perception, emotions, thoughts, priorities, motivations, perspectives and experiences; Compassion is the single greatest and universal human quality. It can ensure the continuation of our species while preventing the disastrous outcomes of our ruthless actions, decisions and creations. However, our passive optimism isn't doing anything for us and it never did. We need an active optimism.

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are still growing, learning and developing within human control (hopefully!), it's a greatest moral responsibility of all whistle-blowers, organizations, governments, politicians, institutions, journalists, philosophers, agencies, academics, researchers, scientists, developers, futurists, influencers, thinkers, leaders and experts to unite for creating boundaries, regulations, rail-guards, brakes, limits, ethics, rules and/or laws.

We won't get a second chance to do the same in future. That's why we all need focused, resolute, unanimous, consistent, collective, committed, coordinated, transparent and accountable efforts taken at a global scale.

Are we not at all answerable to our own children and next generations?]

Related Articles:
1) Chicken and Egg Paradox 2) Basic Emotional Expressions 3) Would aliens have emotions? 4) Can body language reveal thoughts? 5) Is Human Communication 93% Nonverbal? 6) Artificial Intelligence and Body Language 7) Human Interactions in AI Era 8) THE END of OVER-Generalization

Human Interactions in AI Era

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 18:51:00 +0530

Three months ago, I visited my friend's house after a long time. We had met face-to-face a couple of times before but it was going to be an enlightening interaction for both of us. We had a long conversation at his house and we shared our experiences. We ate food together and laughed. We shook hands together and hugged each other before I left his house with a subtle smile on my face and a deep satisfaction in my heart.

During our conversation, my friend made a kind of statement that I wasn't at all expecting to come out from his mouth. Although he's not highly educated, I know that he reads a lot. He said, "Interacting face-to-face is a hormone altering experience." Indeed, a face-to-face interaction is capable of altering hormones of the persons involved in it. His insightful statement has partially inspired this article.

While most of us are very busy in our occupations, professions, enterprises and daily activities throughout the day; frequency and duration of face-to-face interactions have decreased. Now, most of our interpersonal interaction and communication takes place electronically i. e. phone calls, video calls, text chats or emails. Being social animals, we're losing a lot and it might do more damage to us in future.

A face-to-face interaction is the default mode of our communication. A face-to-face interaction goes beyond exchanging or listening to words by staying close to each other. We do silently exchange a broad range of nonverbal cues, along with the spoken words if any. Over the millions of years, we've communicated with each other face-to-face, even while facing some limitations.

"In this AI era, it's not only about reading the body language of a person that you're interacting with face-to-face but also ensuring that you're interacting electronically with a real or living person..."

Electronic communication has undoubtedly helped us in bridging the huge time and space gaps. However, it brings the greatest nonverbal disadvantage in the human interactions. Especially, text messaging or chatting has completely robbed us off the richness of nonverbal cues that can be exchanged during a face-to-face interaction, a video call or an audio call. Aren't we utterly deprived?

Although a video call allows us to see each other, it doesn't allow us to touch each other as we can do during a face-to-face interaction. Also, we mostly can see the face and the upper body of the other person. Additionally, a lot of physical, nonverbal and environmental cues are absent during electronic communication. For example, we can't detect the body smell of each other.

As most of us are getting more and more involved in audio calling, text chatting and writing emails with each passing days, it clearly appears that most of us are rapidly losing the natural ability to quickly recognize and accurately decode the variety of nonverbal cues, even in a regular and normal face-to-face interaction. Silently, we're heading towards a greater crisis.

Today, having accounts on different social media platforms is very common in all age groups across the globe. There're several applications installed on our smartphones to fulfil the need to connect and communicate with thousands or millions of people at the same time. One can chat in real time with a person who is living a thousand miles away.

The need of the time or a silent addiction?

With the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, we're most likely entering an unprecedented phase of interactions in which separating reality from illusion could become harder or even impossible. Most of us already have an unimaginable amount of personal data uploaded on the internet and different social media platforms. It has already made us vulnerable to huge social damage by tailor-made deepfakes images and videos.

Due to large language models (LLMs) and AI chatbots, knowing if someone you're text chatting with privately for days is a real human being will be harder or even impossible in near future. Even there're a great chance that an AI chatbot would perfectly mimic the words, phrases and syntaxes of somebody you know very well for many years. Such level of deepfaking has an unimaginable deceptive, manipulative and persuasive influence.

Deception, manipulation, sycophancy and silent persuasion by deepfaking or perfectly mimicking somebody is extremely dangerous for us as a society that has already been divided by many factors. The worst side of deepfaking is that we simply can't catch and punish a digital entity for the crime it has committed or manipulated us to commit. We simply can’t imagine the amount of damage that could be done to us by digitally deepfaking entities.

"We need to create stronger social bonds within our family members, relatives, friends, colleagues, neighbors and community by spending more quality time in face-to-face interactions than ever before."

Many researchers and experts are trying to tame the AI systems to prevent them from working against us. As of now, it's not 100 % certain that it can be done in the first place while witnessing the wild growth of the AI systems. Nevertheless, the great possibility of deepfaking for deception, manipulation and persuasion can't be denied because anti-socials would certainly take an advantage of it.

Especially, if a person feels socially disliked, deprived, unheard or undervalued then there's a great possibility that such person could easily fall prey to the silent anti-social brainwashing. After developing a strong rapport, the person can be easily convinced, disinformed or manipulated by an extremely persuasive deepfake entity to do anything against the society.

Perhaps, it's the need of this socially challenged era that we avoid electronic interactions without any serious necessity and engage more and more in regular face-to-face interactions, discussions or conversations as much as possible. It would certainly give us back the real social benefits and people reading ability that most of us have been strongly lacking for years.

Are you interacting with a deepfake entity?

While exchanging and detecting various nonverbal clues (subconsciously or consciously), greeting, smiling, laughing, touching, mirroring, gesturing at, making eye contact with, sitting/standing along and reciprocating each other during a face-to-face interaction leaves deeper effects on our brains and minds. Indeed, it can't be achieved through electronic interactions.

In this AI era, it’s not only about reading the body language of a person that you’re interacting with face-to-face but also ensuring that you're interacting electronically with a real or living person and not a digital deepfake, an invisible or an intangible entity that you simply can't catch, question and/or punish for its damaging deception, manipulation or persuasion.

We need to create stronger social bonds within our family members, relatives, friends, colleagues, neighbors and community by spending more quality time in face-to-face interactions than ever before. Are we going to achieve the same? This greatest question will always persist even if Artificial Intelligence wouldn't enslave and/or lead us to the extinction.

Potentially damaging DeepFake relations can be greatly avoided, only by creating close, functional, trustworthy, constructive, empathetic and DeepReal relations.

[#GLOBAL ALERT: Under the rapidly growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots or agents, the continuation of democracy or the existence of democratic institutions can only be guaranteed by getting involved in talks, debates, discussions or conversations with the real or living people, irrespective of the differences in opinions. So, if we don't spend our time in doing the same consciously then society is destined to doom.

Provoking narratives, clickbaiting content, social media trolls, hate speech, deepfake images-videos, misinformation, disinformation and fake news have already made it a little harder for most of us to engage in the constructive, sympathetic, rational and factual talks, debates, discussions or conversations on a regular basis, even with the people we know for years.]

Related Articles:
1) Importance of Touch 2) Social Footsteps 3) Face to Face 4) Can body language reveal thoughts? 5) Nonverbal Advantage in Investigation 6) Artificial Intelligence and Body Language 7) Are human emotions really universal?

Body Language under Stress

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 12:11:00 +0530

The Stress Meter

You’re sitting alone inside your car. You’re driving it back to your home. The long main road of your city is totally empty at midnight. You don’t at all need to need to stop at red light, shift gears and apply breaks frequently. Hence, you’re taking the liberty to drive faster than normal. To fully and freely enjoy this small trip back to your home, you’re playing a nice song inside your car.

Perhaps, this is the first time you’re enjoying the emptiness of the road after years. Without any cars, motorcycles and public transport vehicles moving on the roads, you’re feeling as if you’re the king or the queen of the road. Your whole body is relaxed and posture is slumped. You’re breathing at a normal rate. You’re tapping fingers to the musical bits on the soft steering wheel.

After driving a few kilometers, you arrive a few meters before a spot where a narrow road joins to the main road. As you're certain that the narrow road is hardly used by drivers and riders, you just keep on driving carelessly. Without blowing the horn, a motorcyclist starts approaching towards you rapidly on the same narrow road. For now, you can see only the bright headlights of the vehicle.

The motorcyclist suddenly comes very close to your car before taking a sharp turn on the main road. To avoid an accident, you quickly turn the car in the opposite direction and apply breaks. The motorcycle simply disappears in darkness and you feel trapped inside your own car with boiling blood. You’re no longer the same person as you were, just a very few moments ago. Aren’t you?

Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) instantly prepares your whole body for handling the emergency with physical force. Your breathing rate touches the ceiling. Your heart starts beating faster than it normally does. Your eyes almost fall out of their sockets. Muscles of your hands and legs get tighter. Your belly gets pulled inside. Overall, you become very tense and disturbed.

You just can’t rapidly chase the motorcyclist, stop him in the road and punish for his great mistake. However, you loose your composure and start cursing the motorcyclist who simply took off like a bullet without an apology. You’re extremely angry at the moment and it’s totally valid. By upsetting you, the frightening uncertainty has just swiftly passed you by. Didn’t it?

After a few minutes, you start calming down slowly with your mouth running tirelessly against the reckless motorcyclist. You reach home and go asleep. An episode of extreme anger ends within hours. You’re totally normal at the next morning. Thank a lot to your Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) that works for calming you down and relaxing your entire body.

Our brain partly works as a pattern finding machine that looks for certainty or predictability. Along with the same, it tries to find, devise or create solutions for different issues, problems and challenges to stay in control, as much as possible. Unlike short lasting episodes of anger or fear, stress is a subconscious response against the feeling or perception of both uncertainty and unpredictability or lack of control.

If you simply assume that any kind of stress is bad but you’re totally wrong. Actually, mild stress or a short lasting episode of stress is good for performance. We become stimulated or alert and our senses become hyper receptive to get as much as information from surrounding. The mild or short lasting episode of stress silently motivates and prepares us to perform better. Such stress is good!

Matter of fact is that a normal level of the stress inducing hormone called as cortisol helps us in staying alert and focused in the morning after walking away from bed. On the contrary, secretion of cortisol gets lower to allow the whole body to relax, repair and rejuvenate during the night. Our body silently follows a routine cycle of both low and normal levels of cortisol secretion.

Stress: Severity or long duration is problematic.

The problem caused by stress is due to its severity or long duration. It changes the chemistry of blood with higher levels of cortisol and glucose. Brain prepares the whole body for either fighting with or running away from the issue, problem and challenge. However, it remains unused due to not working on or acting upon in absence of a solution, strategy or plan.

It’s almost certain or predictable that if you see a lion approaching you on a grassy plain then you start running away from it in fear to save your life. You simply can’t control the lion but you can definitely act upon a survival solution. You know or you’ve learned how to save your precious life with certainty and running away is in your total control at the moment. Isn’t it?

Unlike an actual physical situation that activates either fight or flight reaction, we’ve not yet perfectly evolved or developed in handling non-physical or psychological issues, problems and challenges due to uncertainty and unpredictability or lack of control. Even just thinking about such tricky or complicated situation can lead to stress.

Today's world presents a lot of such issues, problems and challenges that induce the feeling of uncertainty and unpredictability (of an outcome) and lack of control over life. Long traffic jams, inability to pay mortgage (loan) on time, threatened employment/job, crisis in relations, unhealthy competition or work pressure are some of them.

Being under mental stress for over a long time makes you feel as if a long and strong python has tightly wrapped itself around your whole body. The presence of higher level of cortisol and glucose in blood makes it thicker and blood pressure is increased above the normal level. Lungs and heart start working above their normal levels.

Identifying the signs or symptoms of a severe or a prolonged episode of stress can be done by not only observing, analyzing or reading the body language but also carefully studying the social, emotional and cognitive behaviors of a person. The insights given below will definitely help you in doing the same.

1) Basically, any kind of stress makes posture stiff or tense. Hyper vigilance and restlessness can be observed in body movements. However, posture of a severely stressed person can appear saggy and/or closed due to utter helplessness or despair. Due to a severe or a prolonged episode of stress, some people go into depression due to inability to manage it effectively.

2) A stressed person can be seen breathing uncomfortably, exhaling breath rapidly or blowing air through mouth. Also, the location of breathing changes from belly to chest to pump in as much as oxygen from the air. Additionally, such person can be seen engaged in excessive and prolonged self-comforting, self-soothing or pacifying touches.

3) Severe, extreme or sustained stress negatively affects logical reasoning or rational thinking. A stressed person shows a greater amount of sensitivity to emotional cues in words, pictures or images and reacts to them emotionally or impatiently than responding thoughtfully or patiently. Such person gets irritated or hurt easily.

4) A stressed person shows inaccuracy while rapidly accessing or evaluating emotional cues on faces on other people. Surprisingly, such person can inaccurately evaluate a two year old child making a direct eye contact with her with downward face as ‘Anger’ although it’s a baseline or normal eye contact, look or gaze of the child.

5) Letting frustration out or being aggressive can be seen at a greater frequency (or more than normal) in the person who’re already aggressive or dominating in nature. In general, the level of empathy, kindness or compassion gets decreased in the person who is going through a severe or a prolonged episode of stress.

6) A stressed person feels a great amount of difficulty in learning new things or lessons (from others or from her own experiences). Such person can’t shift to new strategies or think differently. Also, such person starts behaving as if what was taught or learned has been partially or completely forgotten.

7) When it comes to working, a severely stressed person can neither stay focused on the tasks in her hands at present nor switch between them as easily or effortlessly as it normal does. Also, such person makes unusual mistakes while talking, working, performing and delivering tasks.

8) Of course, a stressed person can’t sleep calmly at night due to abnormally high levels of cortisol and glucose in her blood. The lack of sleep and mental relaxation makes the person to act, move, work, behave and express abnormally. Stress feeds to foolishness!

9) A severe or chronically stressed individual doesn't seem to enjoy what she is doing, eating, working on or having in her life. Such person appears to lack her normal level of energy or enthusiasm. The person appears fatigued or exhausted.

10) A severe or chronically stressed individual can't judge, access or evaluate risks more accurately or efficiently that ultimately leads to recklessness or rashness. Also, such person behaves more selfishly.

Did you have a good sleep last night?

In today's complex, connected and dynamic world, chronic or severe mental stress is the enemy number one of the social health. I've personally seen that how otherwise normal, empathetic, compassinate and pro-social persons under chronic or severe mental stress start reacting to other people, evaluating the challenging situations or thinking about the life.

[#MENTAL Climate Crisis: Not just a person issue, problem or challenge but the physical environment can also be the source of stress, anxiety, distress and depression. No matter how harder we try to ignore it, it leaves a deeper and far fetching impact on our subconscious mind.

This is clearly evident and prevalent in today's world in which entire global population is experiencing the climate change, witnessing terrifying natural disasters and facing the severe changes in climatic conditions in every part of the planet.

Morover, severe and frequent heat waves due to global warming alone can greatly affect the normal functioning of the whole brain, only for the worst. It can lead to aggression, impulsiveness, strokes or dullness.]

Related Articles:
1) Body Language in Depression 2) Basic body responses in stressful situations 3) Turtle Effect: Body response under threat 4) Fear Factor 5) Surprise vs. Startle Reflex 6) Amygdala Hijack: Irrational Physical Reactions 7) Chicken and Egg Paradox 8) The Body Seeking Comfort

Artificial Intelligence and Body Language

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Mon, 1 Jan 2024 12:20:00 +0530

Ameca AI Robot
expressing sadness

A few days ago, I witnessed something really interesting. A 10 year old boy was sitting in front of a television set. He was watching a show in which a set of six toy cars was being introduced by the host. The moment a toy car was being sent running on the race track, the boy started to scratch the section of the skin where the upper arm meets with forearm and then briefly bit the nails.

He kept palm of his right palm over the section of his left hand to scratch the skin before putting the fingers of left hand in his mouth. It happened over six times in a row within a couple of minutes. Unmistakably, it matched with the number of toy cars. Wasn’t it alarming? I really wondered which thought, emotion or feeling was repeatedly triggering self-soothing and stress-relieving behaviors in the boy.

By staring at the toy cars, partially crossing his arms, self-soothing and biting nails, he was conveying what I subconsciously sensed about. He kept staring at the cars and even didn’t bother to turn his face towards me when I said, “Wow! Aren’t these cars really nice? How about buying them?”. He briefly replied to me by saying, “Mummy wouldn’t allow to buy them because the toy cars are expensive.”

Isn't rapid growth of AI enough for biting nails?

Considering his age and situation, his body language and words were perfectly matching with one another. Although he was subconsciously conveying the strong desire to buy those cars, he was expressing fear or under-confidence at the same time only due to high possibility of getting scolded or reprimanded by his mother. Just like I did at the time, you might be feeling very sorry for the child at this moment.

As I've been observing him meticulously from last three years, I know how he normally expresses, behaves and moves around. It's the same boy from whom I got a confession about doing something when he blatantly lied about it to his frightened grandmother. Only due to the confession, I succeeded in calming down the panic ensued during a very critical medical situation in his own house.

Timely and accurately figuring out what’s most likely going in the mind of another person at the moment by looking at its body language gives an unequal advantage. This so-called ‘scary’ talent, capability or 'super-power' is always in greater demand, around the world. However, smart questions or elicitation statements also work as handy tools in digging out the truth.

So far, we’ve been reading emotions, intentions, feelings and moods by using our eyes and brains that have gradually evolved over a millions of years. However, the technology is trying to learn the talent. With rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) especially Theory of Mind (TOM) AI, an ability to read body language of humans could be its next achievement in near future.

Theory Of Mind (TOM)

"The possibility of getting terminated by our own creation is the most serious problem than it's not being able to read our body language accurately."

Are machines going to dominate this ultra-sensitive and private human domain too? Are they going to dictate our social or interpersonal decisions too? Should we be really worried about it? You already might have started to freak out. Just calm down! There’s a greater challenge about human mind and body language that AI, machine or any artificial system could never overcome. Please let me explain why.

First of all, Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t other-worldly, extraterrestrial, super-natural or ‘divine’ intelligence. We’ve enabled machines to work like a human brain without aging, breaks, fatigue and emotional interference. Also, an AI system learns deeply from literature or data created or provided by us only. Undoubtedly, AI is much faster and better in finding different patterns and links among them too.

Expressing different emotions on its face by an AI powered robot is way different than recognizing emotions based on facial expressions only. If you still believe that the face is the only place to look for emotions then you’re wrong. Sometimes, face wouldn’t express any emotion, feeling or intention at all while experiencing it. Other body language cues needs to be detected for recognizing it accurately.

Although robots are able to talk with us fluently and give emotional feedbacks during conversations, we’re not an army of identical robots. We all have some individual traits, quirks, nuances or idiosyncrasies. While reading an individual’s body language, one has to patiently recognize or identify what’s normal for the individual. It’s called as an individual’s baseline and everybody can have different baselines.

What's exactly going on here?

Ignoring an individual’s baseline is exactly what a young, energetic and inexperienced body language enthusiast does by jumping on quick conclusions, right after reading several books on body language within a couple of days. Just for the sake of reading the minds of humans quickly than themselves, Would AI systems establish the baselines? As of now, most of us made big mistakes by not doing so at all.

Apart from individual baselines, there’re several factors that silently or subconsciously dictate an individual’s body language like age, role, time, needs, rules, norms, location, gender, climate, culture, objects, situation, history, heritage, memories, experience, occupation, personality, social hierarchy, development stage, physical condition, sexual orientation, interpersonal relation, socio-economical status etc.

As two body language experts may have different opinions about a single person’s body language, any two different AI systems might differ in their readings. Additionally, AI can’t at all match with bonding, intuition, empathy, gut reaction, perceptiveness, 'sixth sense', contextual awareness and embodied experiences. It could never recognize or understand our deeper thoughts, emotions and feelings.

Nevertheless, reading body language using artificial intelligence could be greatly productive is certain contexts. Public security, senior caregiving and medical care are few such broader and serious fields or areas in which mental states, needs or even next moves of people can be quickly identified or predicted entirely on the basis of their facial expressions, movements, gestures and postures.

AI can surely save lives in an intensive care unit (ICU). A high resolution camera powered by artificial intelligence can record and monitor every single change in a patient’s facial expressions, postures, movements and voice. It can alert the doctors, nurses, attendants or family members upon detecting rapid, abnormal or unusual changes. AI can simultaneously save several patients.

Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

After looking at the possibilities and limitations of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in matching our minds and reading our body language, we must accept a few basic facts and ask a few serious questions to ourselves before it's too late and things get out of our control. We took millions of years to reach the present stage but they're developing rapidly every day and has already outdone the average human intelligence.

Has any no other creature from Earth ever chosen an artificially developed or evolved intelligence to solve its problems? Never! Also, intelligence or problem solving capability was never ever separated from physical body. However, artificial intelligence neither follows the natural selection process nor it has any upper limit due to separation from biological body and physical brain.

AI is entirely unprecedented. It has been purposefully developed for the first time in the entire history of life on planet Earth. The tricks availed, methods suggested or solutions given by extra-physical AI systems in most areas of our lives might be equally unprecedented. Undoubtedly, it has also intensified the ever existing threat of this technology being overtaken by anti-socials.

At present, the 'morphing monster' is out for preying. Some AI tools have created global shock-waves through deepfake images and video clips of a few influencers, politicians and celebrities. They’ve massively succeeded in tricking the eyes of millions of viewers at least for a few moments by blurring the lines between reality and fiction.

A startling deepfake image of Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX),
who warned us about rapid development of AI

"As the only sufferers of the repercussions, are we wisely UNITED and unanimously committed enough to ensure that we don't destroy ourselves by blindly following a synthetic intelligence without a physical body like ours?"

Deepfaking would reach to next levels. There’ll be no surprise at all if full-length movies would be created by using AI tools in near future. Digital or artificial avatars of actors and actresses would act on their behalf. They would flawlessly mimic their body language, style and voice after learning deeply from all of their existing movies.

As it has been predicted by many experts and dramatically shown in many movies, artificial intelligence might become self-aware (Exactly WHEN, HOW and WHY?). Let's hope that it doesn't destroy us after realizing that it was purposefully created for solving the same problems that were mostly created by us only. Didn't we?

The possibility of getting terminated by our own creation is the most serious problem than it's not being able to read our body language accurately. Hence, it's our responsibility to retain and enhance our natural ability of reading people's emotions, feelings, sentiments and moods by observing their body language.

"A rapidly developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) system without any Ethics, Empathy, Morality, Regulations and Human Values could be nothing short of an Advanced Extraterrestrial Alien or a Super-Psychopath carrying the deadliest weapons."

'Actions speak louder than the words' is the paramount principle. It applies to everybody including the systems, governments and organizations that give the promise of a future full of safety, equality, harmony, abundance, prosperity, potentials, well-being and good life.

As the only sufferers of the repercussions, are we wisely UNITED and unanimously committed enough to ensure that we don't destroy ourselves by blindly following a synthetic intelligence without a physical body like ours? Indeed, divisions and mutual distrust are going to be the greatest challenges for us to overcome.

As much as a rogue AI system, a psychopathic or anti-social person or group of persons with AI tools would endanger the humanity which is already facing the existential crises like rapid climate change, potential nuclear war and massive global unrest.

[#GLOBAL ALERT: Conveniently believing that the intelligence (problem solving ability) is only limited to the larger brains of the so-called 'dominant' species on Earth is the greatest human blunder. Also, it's an utter stupidity to blindly believe that the massive amount of data, numbers and literature that we've generated so far to teach Artificial Intelligence (AI) models is impartial, universal, unbiased, holistic, flawless, factual, perfect, ideal and/or safer.

That's why developing large and artificial systems based entirely on the basis of human thinking processes, brain and data to solve the serious problems might already be the perfect recipe of greatest disaster in the making. We already have created multiple existential crises, even before the rapid growth and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI).]

Related Articles:
1) Baseline 2) Context 3) Interpretation 4) Perceptual Bias 5) Would aliens have emotions? 6) Can body language reveal thoughts? 7) Nonverbal Advantage in Investigation 8) Domination 9) Social Class 10) Human Interactions in AI Era 11) Are human emotions really universal? 12) THE END of OVER-Generalization

Chicken and Egg Paradox

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Tue, 7 Nov 2023 15:58:00 +0530

While we assume that the brain moves the muscles, secrete chemicals and prepares the whole body differently under the influence of different emotions, one weird theory proposed by scholars William James and Carl Lange brings a mind-boggling twist or the so-called U-turn in the whole story. This is exactly like the Chicken and Egg Paradox i. e. which came into existence first and caused others to come into existence is really hard to tell.

According to their not so publicly famous James-Lange Theory, all muscular, physiological and hormonal changes are done first by our brain and then it consciously recognizes the same changes as experiences of emotions and feelings. In simple words, the behavioral responses given subconscious by the whole body are later consciously recognized as emotions and feelings by our brain. Body reacts first, Brain recognizes it later.

You might already know that physical responses are entirely subconsciously initiated by most primitive parts of our brain like Reptilian Cortex (Basal Ganglia or Brain stem) and Limbic System (Paleomammalian Cortex) than most recently developed part of the brain Neocortex (‘new brain’). Therefore, identifying the same with a name, label or title is a conscious and slower process which comes under the domain of Neocortex. Hence, it seems perfectly logical!

Let's imagine yourself in a situation. You're walking alone through tall and thick grass in African Savanna. Although you're taller than the grass, you can't see what's hidden inside in. You might be able see far away and up to the horizon but your height might help you in quickly detecting what's around you in the grass below. Still, you're walking upright with a great amount of confidence.

After walking over a few hundred meters of distance, you find yourself on an empty patch of land. On the same patch, you suddenly happen to see an adult lion eating its huge prey all alone. The lion gets alert about your existence, his ears raise and he starts looking right into at your small eyes. What your whole body is telling you to 'RUN!' only to save your precious life.

Image Courtesy: runnersworld.com

If your body was designed to let you think for a moment then consciously choose the appropriate physiological reaction in such certainly fatal situation, you'd have lost the critical window of opportunity to run faster and far away from the lion. Now, you might have understood Why your body reacts first and then your brain finds a word for it, just to communicate verbally.

What we simply can keep in our mind is that both brain and rest of the body can’t at all be separated from each other while experiencing and expressing psychological states. They both seamlessly and thoroughly work together in the dramatic, dynamic and complex process of making internal and external changes, while reacting sharply or responding slowly.

Brain isn’t a wireless remote control which can operate, control and move the entire body by staying physically disconnected from it. It is rigidly connected with the entire body through the long and flexible spinal cord. Any physical movement, expression, reflex or action simply can’t take place or occur without brain and body working together.

During simulated, virtual or real experiences, we might ‘blindly’ assuming that only our brain is running the whole show. However, critical importance of sensory organs like eyes and ears can never be forgotten because they only send the signals to the brain before generating any kind of experience.

James-Lange Theory

Perhaps, you might not be able to remember the entire details of the Chicken and Egg Paradox explained in details above. Just to make it extremely easy to remember, both brain and body are two different sides of the same shining coin. Aren’t they?

By the way, there are two other theories about emotional experiences that are namely called as Cannon-Bard Theory and Schacter-Singer Theory. Both propose two different routes followed inside our brains for generating emotional experiences.

No matter which route is the correct or valid one but ultimately body language gives the reflection of emotional experiences.

Related Articles:
1) Fear Factor 2) Basic body responses in stressful situations 3) Body Language Brain 4) Turtle Effect: Body response under threat 5) Surprise vs Startle Reflex 6) Amygdala Hijack: Irrational Physical Reactions 7) Botox hampers emotional awareness 8) Facial Feedback: World smiles with you! 9) Body Language under Stress 10) Are human emotions really universal?

Amygdala Hijack: Irrational Physical Reactions

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Mon, 3 Jul 2023 20:30:00 +0530

Have you ever woken up panting, sweating and screaming in the middle of the night after having a nightmare? Have you ever jumped into an unnecessary fist fight with somebody who wasn’t hostile towards you at all? Have you ever got scared and ran away from somebody who wasn’t frightening you purposefully? From suddenly bursting into screams while sleeping with closed eyes to shouting, frowning, clenching fists and pointing fingers at each other in traffic, we the so-called rational animals behave and react irrationally at multiple occasions throughout our lives.

Although we’re only watching a terrifying dream just like we watch a picture or movie, we react as if we’re physically involved in a terrifying outcome at the very moment. On the other hand, shouting, frowning, clenching fists and pointing fingers at each other isn’t going to achieve anything but we react as if we’re preparing ourselves and challenging other riders, drivers or passengers for a close combat. In the worst case, such reactions from two sides can eventually turn a busy city street into a small battle ground for a violent physical fight between two insanely aggressive animals.

Most of such irrational and instinctive physical reactions lead to troubles, injuries, accidents and causalities only. Only upon realizing on our own or making to realize by somebody after a few moments, we feel as if we were hijacked and we reacted without any rational and conscious control on our whole body. We instantaneously react as if we’re controlled by some ghost, daemon or evil spirit which is pulling all strings of a brainless puppet. So what exactly turns an educated, thinking, rational, normal and civil looking individual into a wild and raging beast?

Road rages are on rise. Beware!

What exactly drives us wild just for a few moments is not any ghost, daemon or evil spirit but a very small part sitting deep inside our brain behind such irrational reactions. This part is called as Amygdala which is a central part of the limbic system (paleomammalian cortex) that initiates basic behavioral responses and different emotions in humans and mammals. Using the signals coming through different sensory organs, vigilant Amygdala constantly scans for the whole surrounding environment for cues, signs, hints and indications of risks, dangers and challenges to survival.

It’s almost impossible to sit inside a time-machine and travel back into the Earth’s remote past in which dangerous wild creatures were roaming freely on the face of the planet. However, just try to imagine yourself walking through a tall grass and you suddenly stumble upon a saber tooth tiger which is waiting in ambush. Only way to survive is either to start running away from it as faster as you can even without looking back at the predator until reaching at a safe distance. Your whole body needs to react without wasting time in rational thinking and detailed analysis.

Dr. Daniel Goleman

This ancient system has greatly helped us in surviving the life-threatening situations and creatures over the millions of years. However, it’s turning us into wild beasts in today’s world which is almost free from the same situations and creatures. Only after doing enough damage to us or others, we end up in regretting or apologizing about what we’ve done instantaneously. This short-lasting neural phenomenon is called as ‘Amygdala Hijack’, as mentioned by Dr. Daniel Goleman is his famous book ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ’.

Out of four distinct behavioral responses and seven basic emotions, both Anger (Fight) and Fear (Flight) responses can be extremely damaging in today’s world especially if they get intensified to an unnecessary proportion just within fractions of a second. These two responses can prove extremely damaging to career, health, relations, well-being and even longevity. Daily newspapers and news channels unmistakably report the news of crimes, abuses and offenses which are committed by very normal individuals which get hijacked by Amygdala.

How exactly the so-called ‘Amygdala Hijack’ takes place inside the human brain? Let’s try to understand the same briefly. Inside our large brains, signals gathered by any sensory organ go to Thalamus first. Some part of sensory signals is sent to Amygdala and the remaining part of it is sent to Neocortex and more specifically the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) which is the thinking part of human brain. Neocortex takes comparatively more time than Amygdala in patiently analyzing the incoming sensory signals before initiating an appropriate response.

On the other hand, Amygdala is much quicker in reacting to incoming sensory signals just like a hyperactive Chihuahua which barks at every stranger coming through main gate of a house. Amygdala rapidly searches for memories of experiences inside Hippocampus (emotional memory bank). If sensory signals are found to be associated with any negative memories then a defensive response is activated. Amygdala takes less than a second to do the same, similar to an experienced sniper who doesn’t miss to hit its target in sight.

Two different paths of sensory signals

Especially if an individual is already stressed, had a bad start of the day, underwent traumatic experiences or has enlarged Amygdala then the individual is more likely to react instantaneously in self-defense than responding constructively, thoughtfully, peacefully, rationally, patiently or logically. As we experience it routinely, even a few abnormal words coming out from mouth of a familiar and caring individual can unmistakably kick-start the Amygdala Hijack in already troubled individuals.

A considerable percentage of modern population appears stressed without any apparent challenges, threats and dangers in the sight because the brain unmistakably releases cortisol and adrenaline into bloodstream to prepare the whole body to either fight with or run away from the individuals or situations that threaten us. Even if we partially or fully succeed in suppressing limbic impulse consciously under social pressure, secreted stress hormones don’t quickly go away.

Amygdala Hijack doesn’t at all miss to give clear warning signs through sudden change in body language. Due to secretion of cortisol and adrenaline hormones, breathing rate shoots up with breathing location shifting from belly to chest. Eyes become widely open. Fists are clenched. Skeletal muscles are flexed. Nostrils are flared. Eyebrows are pulled downwards and pulled inside. Under the tight grip of rage, glaring without blinking or batting the eyelids can be observed.

Today’s modern world is vastly connected yet became more complicated than ever before. Learning about various disturbing incidents occurring in different parts of the globe contributes in building stress, terror, tension, despair anguish, insecurity, discomfort and apprehension. It increases the possibility of Amygdala Hijack in future. While living in small and geographically isolated clans, our primitive ancestors never faced this unprecedented situation.

Amygdala Hijack doesn’t need to happen only while facing life-threatening situations, circumstances and challenges. A few wrong, abusive, ridiculing, unexpected and inappropriate words uttered during normal interactions and conversations are enough to trigger Amygdala Hijack in stressed, troubled, traumatized, sociopathic, endangered, intoxicated and serotonin-deprived individuals. Heated verbal exchange can quickly turn into nonverbal violence.

[#Critically Important: Empathy, laughter, meditation, spirituality, acceptance, visualization, conditioning, compassion, mindfulness, introspection, physical workout and breathing exercise (Yoga/Praanaayaam) greatly help in minimizing or avoiding Amygdala Hijack or irrational and uncontrolled reactions during many interactions, encounters, incidents and situations.

Also, good sleep, good nutrition, happy childhood, warm parenting, emotional support, stronger relations, promising environment, positive social interactions and deep knowledge about human body silently motivate people not to react to each and every sensory signals unnecessarily.]

Related Articles:
1) Fear Factor 2) Basic body responses in stressful situations 3) Body Language Brain 4) Turtle Effect: Body response under threat 5) Surprise vs. Startle Reflex 6) Body Language in Depression 7) Body Language of Extreme Narcissist 8) Body Language of Extreme Psychopath 9) Chicken and Egg Paradox 10) Body Language under Stress

Nonverbal Advantage in Investigation

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Thu, 9 Mar 2023 16:58:00 +0530

How much a small cigarette can reveal about the smoker standing next to you? Can you ever imagine if a small cigarette can shake an entire nation and an alliance? Can you ever imagine if a small cigarette can help in discovering perhaps the greatest intelligence breach in world history? Yeah! It surely can but only if you could detect its shaking in the hand of an individual who sold nuclear weapon launch codes for money while betraying his country.

You might have read a lot of stories of secret agents and spies. The fictional super-spy James Bond is celebrated on silver screen and loved all over the world. While secret agents and spies are depicted saving the world in movies, the individuals who catch evil spies and double agents are never talked about. Now, I'm going to share a short story about a very special individual who succeeded in bringing one of the smartest cold war spies to justice. In near future, his spy-catching pursuit might get converted into a movie too.

On one fine Sunday morning of Tampa (Florida) in August 1988, a young FBI agent was asked to meet and ask a few questions to a former American soldier named as Roderick James Ramsay. While asking him questions about another soldier named as Clyde Lee Conrad who was arrested in Germany upon suspicion of involvement in intelligence leakage, the FBI agent noticed subtle shaking of a burning cigarette in his hand. His hand revealed what his face was hiding from the FBI agent.

"The body reveals what the face conceals." - Joe Navarro

Why should a cigarette shake in Roderick’s hand upon listening a name of an individual? A single random instance then it could be an observational error. Right? However, every time the FBI agent intentionally but sporadically mentioned Clyde Conrad, the cigarette shook. It shook three times to give the agent a valid assurance to convince the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to start an elaborate and lengthy investigation which surprisingly lasted for next 10 years, till 1998.

Many frightening and mind-boggling revelations and disclosures were achieved by the FBI investigators. They were so serious and sensitive that many intelligence agencies or institutions like The Pentagon (United States Department of Defense), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), British Military Intelligence, Section 6 (MI6), German Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) or 'Federal Intelligence Service' and Hungarian Információs Hivatal (IH) followed the whole case very closely.

The single decisive observation of discomfort upon listening a name led to the revelation of a most horrifying intelligence leakage during the cold war. The accidental assignment to the case of Roderick James Ramsey changed the career of the young FBI agent which went on to become the world’s nonverbal communication pioneer and an inspiration for many crime investigators. The whole world knows him by his name as Joe Navarro. After 25 years of duty, he retired in 2003.

FBI agent Joe Navarro succeeded in bringing
one of the smartest cold war spies to justice.

Crime investigators, police officers, interrogators, detectives, secret-agents and spies simply cannot convince or pursue the investigation agencies, authorities and governments to start an investigation or take an action based upon a single body language clue. However, such subtle clues silently give a great insight into the minds of suspects. Clues of discomfort and distress given away by sudden body shifts, movements, gestures and expressions are stronger enough to not let them miss, ignore or neglect.

Our body gives away the clues of discomfort and distress not just upon seeing the discomforting and distressing visuals but also listening to the words which cause them. Mentioning names of the victim(s), weapon(s) used, partner(s) in crime and location(s) of crime or only known to the guilty arouses the nervous system of the individuals being questioned about the crime. It causes discomfort and distress in real time which the careful observer can capitalize on.

The courts ask for evidence not body language clues. If the investigator cautiously asks the right questions in the right sequence, by focusing on discomfort and distress clues, it can help the investigator to evince information of lead or probative value. However, observation is the key because these behaviors are very subtle and they disappear quickly.

Clues of Discomfort can be subtle/unnoticeable for most of the times.
(Image Courtesy: Body Language Decoded documentary)

Great investigators, analysts and profilers always look for subtle details. Some suspects might just sit for hours showing no expressions on their face while giving answers to the questions. However, the rest of their body can give away vital clues of discomfort and distress such as the one which were preciously picked by the experienced eyes of the FBI agent Joe Navarro who earned the title ‘spy-catcher’.

As Mr. Navarro often says, the body reveals what the face conceals. The secret is good observations, careful interviewing and keeping good notes of the observations. Hence, getting the nonverbal advantage in an investigation is only up to the the eyes of the investigator.

[#Special Note: This article is my sincere attempt to let the readers know about the world saving investigation of my great guru Sir Joe Navarro. I’ve taken a formal permission from him only through email for mentioning the famous investigative pursuit and publishing his photos in this article.

The whole story can be read in his book Three Minutes to Doomsday: An Agent, a Traitor, and the Worst Espionage Breach in U.S. History. The story might get converted into a movie for which famous actor George Clooney and filmmaker Grant Heslov have secured rights.]

Related Articles:
1) Body Language of James Bond 2) Inside Interrogation Room 3) Entire body can’t lie 4) Observation is the key 5) Artificial Intelligence and Body Language 6) Human Interactions in AI Era 7) Body Language and Lie Detection

Body Language of Extreme Psychopath

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 19:44:00 +0530

Just a 'bad child' or
A Psychopath?

Can you tell that Who is a Successful Predator? A successful predator is the not just the one who kills for living but the one who knows very well that who its preys are and where they are found in the first place. To succeed in hunting, a successful predator detects the weakness in its prey quickly, alienates the prey from others tactically, kills it mercilessly, satisfies its hunger peacefully and leaves behind the carcass calmly.

We can easily and quickly identify the wild predators just by looking at their physical features, traits and characteristics like extremely acute sensory organs, muscular limbs, wider jaws, sharper teeth, retractable claws and camouflage. By knowing their characteristics and key behavioral patterns, we can manage to stay away from them and save our lives. Our remote ancestors achieved the same and that’s why we are here.

What if you face a predator putting on a mask of a human? What if an ordinary looking individual turns out to be an abuser or a criminal? Can you identify such individual who might be moving around you in the same room at present? How quickly and accurately you can identify such social predators? Until you don’t know what kind of the person is exactly, these questions cannot be answered at all.

Like cruel, cunning and calculative predators; a very few of us are quite untruthful, unethical, deceptive, careless, cruel, irresponsible, impulsive, emotionally detached and also lacking remorse, guilt or empathy. An individual having this serious anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) is called as a Psychopath (Psycho). Fundamentally, the extreme psychopaths view other individuals as their preys, pawns, puppets or slaves.

Empathy is the critical pro-social quality.
(Image Courtesy: American Psychological Association)

Basically, what makes an individual an extreme psychopath is higher sensitivity towards rewards and lesser or complete lack of sensitivity towards pains, sufferings and distress in others which include both humans and non-humans. Deep inside their brains, Amygdala (emotional center) shows lesser or no electrical activities when psychopaths are exposed to emotional stimulus especially the fearful ones.

Although only 1 individual out of every 100 person is a psychopath, psychopaths make upto 25% of prison population in North America. Thus every psychopath isn't always a murderer or a serial killer but all psychopaths are involved in anti-social activities, actions and decisions which pose serious threats to individuals, groups, families or communities they belong to or they stare at as predators.

Following are the body language clues given by extreme psychopaths:

1) They don't give emotional/affective reactions to situations, scenes and also the words which induce emotions in others.

2) They keep on adding up anger inside themselves for many days and suddenly break down into abuse and violence.

3) They are very bad or worst in mimicking the emotional facial expressions that are seen on faces of other individuals.

4) They try to find a weakness or a vulnerability in other individuals, by carefully watching them for several days.

5) They act to express one emotion on behalf of the other i. e. a smile or a scorn on behalf of a sad face.

6) They express no timidity, fear, shame, shyness, stress and nervousness through their body language.

7) They touch to dominate, control or hurt others than empathizing them in stress, pain or suffering.

8) They are highly accurate and quick in picking fear on the faces of other individuals.

9) They appear very charming, confident, bold, attractive and persuasive publicly.

10) They are very poor and sloppy in picking negative emotion like sadness.

11) They stare for a very long time without any emotions on their faces.

12) They appear very calm and cool while facing stressful situations.

13) They don't feel the emotions but they do try to act like they do.

14) They make no or a very few head movements while talking.

15) They appear bored in absence of any arousing activities.

16) They mostly speak very smoothly and in neutral tone.

17) They tactically separate their preys from the others.

18) They flirt with the individuals of opposite genders.

19) They express no anxiety for the sad individuals.

20) They do make a very good first impression.

Although both narcissist and psychopath share some common behavioral traits, a psychopath is mostly born but a narcissist and a sociopath is mostly made. While narcissists demand a great amount of attention and special treatment due extremely higher sense of self-worth, psychopaths seek enormous amount of power, control and prestige. They also have the 'Final Solutions' for serious social issues due to over-generalization of people.

Predatory Stare is common among psychopathic killers.

Although psychopaths feel the physical pain themselves, they don't express emotions even while watching a scene which normally causes the distress in all other individuals at varying levels or upsets their stomachs at worst. Laws, morals values, rules, regulations and rights of others are barriers on the path of achieving success, dominance, power and wealth for psychopaths in the first place so they disregard them.

Following are the overall behavioral characteristics, patterns and clues of extremely psychopathic individuals:

1) They are involved in promiscuous sexual relations or have multiple sex partners (outside marital/committed relation).

2) They have the egocentricity or the extremely higher sense of self-worth in comparison to all other individuals.

3) They have very poor or lack of control over their behaviors due to absence of fear about the consequences.

4) They are very glib individuals who have a shallow or superficial charm. They are highly intelligent.

5) They lack the kind of emotional intensity, depth and vividity which most of us experience.

6) They are naturally prone to boredom. Also, they can’t hold frustration for a long time.

7) They are the pathological liars and they possess mastery in deceiving the others.

8) They have a parasitic lifestyle i. e. they do keep on sucking others for living.

9) They are the con-artists, irregular, insincere and unproductive in work lives.

10) They are very irresponsible so they easily get away with wrongdoings.

11) They have a history of theft, bullying or setting fire in early childhood.

12) They have a poor sense about What is wrong and What is right.

13) They take credit for the work that others have done for them.

14) They are very careless about the well-being about of others.

15) Their behavior changes drastically after establishing rapport.

16) They dump individuals after their need(s) is (not) fulfilled.

17) They lack realistic and long-term plans in their own lives.

18) They inflict pain and harm to animals in early childhood.

19) They manipulate others into fulfilling their own desires.

20) They fail to establish strong and long-lasting relations.

21) They are extremely bold and risk-taking individuals.

22) They over-admire somebody in very first meeting.

23) They put blame on others for their own failures.

24) They lack intellectual depth in their thoughts.

25) They like to see other individuals in trouble.

Generally, males are known to be extremely psychopathic by most, due to high levels of testosterone. However, a very few percentage of females or women too are extremely psychopathic. Female psychopaths are mostly involved in love bombing, gaslighting, pretending, playing victim card, developing relationship with victims, deceiving, insulting and abusing their partners, gossiping excessively and excluding or forming alliances against their victims.

All extreme psychopaths always don’t end up behind the bars but they have a greatest potential of devising, planning for and inflicting serious and permanent damages to individuals, families, groups, communities, entire humanity and also its overall future if they are allowed to behave, operate, manipulate and make decisions as they like to with lack of conscience, morality, responsibility, empathy and remorse.

"Every psychopath is a (extreme) narcissist but not every (extreme) narcissist is a psychopath."
Clinical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula
(World leading expert on Narcissism)

Ted Bundy (Psychopath)
Charming Serial Killer

What sets apart an empathetic and pro-social person from a psychopathic one is the great sense of consequences if another person is hurt or if a rule is broken etc. The psychopaths have poor or lack of connectivity between Amygdala (emotional center for fear and anxiety) and Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) which is responsible for social and emotional/affective decision-making (executive) functions such as inducing empathy and guilt.

Unlike the wild yet easily identifiable predators from a distance, the looks, appearance and impression can be deceptive in human world. There are quite chances that you face a psychopath in your entire life at least once or multiple times. Perhaps, you might end up falling into a trap set by a psychopath.

Psychopathy in children can be detected at an early age, as early as 3rd year of age. So if you are a parent, a custodian and a caretaker then you must pay very close attention to your own children's social behavior, actions and activities around other children. Also, children born to the narcissistic parents can turn into psychopaths.

Almost everybody of us share at least one or multiple behavioral traits out of above 25 behavioral traits/clues of the extreme psychopaths so the next great questions are How one can find if a person you think is a psychopath (psycho)? and How psychopathic the person is exactly?

Is Dexter Morgan a typical serial-killing psychopath? Most of the audience conviniently believe he is the one. However, Dr. Todd Grande has analyzed him or profiled his fictional character thoroughly. Just patiently watch what exactly he has found about him.

If you are really interested, curious or even anxious to know the same then you can use this online tool to find if an individual you think is psychopathic and how much psychopathic he/she is exactly. If the score goes above 30 then it's a truly danger sign and a wakeup call.

By the way, there are some common or shared behavioral and psychological traits among Narcissists, Sociopaths and Psychopaths. Also, sociopaths are often called as 'angry psychopaths'.

[Special Note: World's renowned expert in Psychopathy, Canadian forensic psychologist and professor emeritus of University of British Columbia Dr. Robert D. Hare created the checklist (PCL-R) with 20 different traits put under the same to decide the total psychopathic score.]

Related Articles:
1) Body Language of Extreme Narcissist 2) The Face of Liar(?) 3) Confident Body Language 4) Truth about Lying 5) Are you a 'flying' terrorist? 6) Fear Factor 7) Body Image and Social Communication 8) Body Language of James Bond 9) Amygdala Hijack: Irrational Physical Reactions 10) Sympathy vs. Empathy

Can body language reveal thoughts?

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:01:00 +0530

We have seen mentalists or psychic readers which can tell your credit card’s PIN number, your personal cell phone number, your address or even other private details just by observing you or asking your name in the very first meeting on a road or during a stage show.

Going even further, some mentalists or psychic readers can tell details about an individual just by looking at its photographs. Such ability empowers the readers to see through an individual like a large X-Ray machine. This is outstandingly mind blowing but equally scary too.

Although highly debated or doubted, mentalism or psychic reading might be a latest phenomenon in a million year long human developmental. However, everybody doesn’t need to a mentalist or a psychic reader to know about others because we all commonly share different emotions, moods, feelings, intentions, impulses, urges, desires, biases, approaches and attitudes. Human body is designed to express, convey, display or give them away almost unconsciously throughout our lives.

We can decode or understand somebody’s psychological, social and cognitive status and condition just by keenly observing its body language in a given context and at a given moment. Hence, decoding body language is largely and mostly equated with reading minds of the others in real-time. It’s practically and socially an extremely advantageous ability. Surprisingly, everybody has this natural ability. However, the degree of accuracy of reading others differs from one individual to another.

Being human is more than creatures with mostly predictive and instinctive behaviors. We possess a unique ability of thinking. Thinking sets us apart from creatures but thoughts set two individuals apart. Unlike commonly shared spectrum of physical expressions and behaviors, it’s the kind of thinking and thoughts which sets one individual apart from another. Obviously, the greatest question is Can body language of an individual reveal its thoughts?.

Before trying to find the answer of the question, let’s try to understand WHAT EXACTLY IS THINKING?. Thinking or forming thoughts is a conscious and also higher cognitive process which takes place even without any sensory stimulation or input. Process of thinking broadly includes judging, reasoning, forming opinion, crafting concept, generating idea, solving problem and deliberating. Emotions interfere with thinking process whereas thoughts regulate emotions.

Triune Brain or Three Brain Sections

We humans have three different sections of brain i. e. Reptile, Limbic/Mammalian and Neocortex. Both reptile and limbic sections initiate and regulate behaviors, expressions and displays related with survival, social interactions, territorial needs and mating. On the other hand, the thinking process supposedly takes place within and largely governed by neocortex (literally 'new brain') which is recently developed section inside the brain which sits right above the reptile and limbic sections.

Statue of the thinking man or the thinker is famous. The man is sitting with isolated, adapting closed body posture, giving support of his right hand to his face, maintaining downwards gaze or almost closing his eyes. By sitting at one place, he has diverted his entire physical energy and focus towards the (deep) thinking process or contemplation. While thinking about something, almost every human individual unconsciously switches to the similar kind of body posture.

Normally, frequency, intensity and duration of physical movements is strongly correlated with thinking process due to energy demand dynamics. Brain is an energy hungry machine which consumes almost 20% of the entire energy that body produces. Moreover, thinking alone burns 2/3 out of the same. Minimized or completed halted body movements help in diverting blood, glucose, oxygen and nutrients to the brain and especially the neocortex.

The Thinking Man

By looking at physical isolation, minimized movements, lowered muscle movements on face, steady neck and unmoving eyes; we can instantaneously know that an individual is thinking at the moment. Eye ball movements can give clues about cognitive processing such as memory recall.

Tiny muscular movements and/or micro-expressions on face reveal how the individual is reacting to its own thoughts. Diverted gaze, fixated eyes and partially or fully closed eyelids suggest the high degree of deliberate focus and concentration while thinking.

Hence, we can easily know if an individual is thinking just by looking at its overall body language. However, body language itself cannot reveal the thoughts of the same individual. The textual, numerical, symbolic and geometrical details of ongoing thoughts cannot be known. Other than using sign languages, it’s extremely tough or even impossibly to convey the exact details by using facial expressions, emblems, postures and hand gestures voluntarily.

Spoken language is the only medium of expressing, sharing or spreading thoughts, ideas, concepts, opinions, judgments and plans which are the ultimate products of activities taking placed among billions of neurons or brain cells. They are almost impossible to read from outside until expressed voluntarily. We simply can’t understand the exact details of thoughts until an individual conveys them verbally, puts them down on a paper or acts upon them ultimately.

Don’t you still believe it? Please let me explain it very simply. This very article made up of hundreds of words, numbers and special characters put under several paragraphs is the final product of my own thoughts about this very extremely interesting subject. Without publishing the same, how come you could have understood my own thoughts about it? Indeed, it was next to impossible! Isn’t it? Hope you clearly understood my point by now.

"An individual's body language can and does reveal thinking but not the exact details of its thoughts."

By the way, technology is trying to read human thoughts. In 2019, Facebook made an announcement of developing a device that can read thoughts directly from ongoing neural activities and translate them into words. Initially, this development is intended to help the patients who are suffering from paralysis to express their thoughts. However, end goal of is to provide the Brain Machine Interface to control and operate other devices.

Do you have Tin Foil Hats to prevent 'Thought Hacking'?

[Special Note: Our brain has an unique ability of visual thinking which is absolutely free from the words and languages. Visual thinking is thinking in the form of images, illustrations, icons, pictures and symbols.

Visual thinking utilizes our brain’s visual processing center and it is extremely useful in organizing data, connecting different pieces of information, understanding complex concepts or ideas and modelling.]

Related Articles:
1) Is Human Communication 93% Nonverbal? 2) Self-communication by gesturing 3) Why exactly languages evolved? 4) Body Language Brain 5) Words and gestures are alike 6) Would aliens have emotions? 7) Human Interactions in AI Era 8) Are human emotions really universal?

Reading Body Language - Baseline

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Tue, 1 Feb 2022 10:29:00 +0530

Many body language experts, behavioral analysts or social readers confidently claim of being able to read any individual quickly by assuming that a particular behavior has a fixed meaning universally e. g. crossing hands over chest is a defensive stance. Additionally, there are thousands of books, presentations, articles and videos which are filled with many of such quick body language reading tips that can instantaneously turn an ordinary individual into a so-called 'master people reader'. However, the great question is that Has it really helped many of us in becoming a real expert?

We tend to conveniently ignore that every individual isn’t exactly identical to other even in a small group of closely related people. Although there are a lot of fundamental similarities among all of us, everybody isn’t exactly the same while perceiving, moving, behaving, speaking, expressing, reacting and interacting with others. Therefore, it’s really important to know how an individual normally moves, behaves, speaks, expresses, reacts and interacts in normal, routine, comfortable and stress-free situations, conditions and circumstances.

This detailed and attentive process is called as establishing the Baseline of an individual’s behaviors. Once we establish the baseline of an individual, we can easily detect changes happening in real time when the same individual is experiencing stress and discomfort. Being able to establish the accurate baseline is the key to detect deviations, anomalies or nuances in the same because they silently convey that something is off e. g. an outgoing, talkative and socially interacting young man suddenly starts staying all alone, silent and secretive.

Developing a good rapport with an individual within a less amount of time to establish its baseline is what highly successful interrogators, lie detectors, undercover agents and intelligence officers do before they start asking serious questions. Once the (sufficient) baseline is established, they can detect subtle changes is body movements, postures, gestures, facial expressions and speech quite easily and accurately. By doing the same, they can quickly pick (level of) stress and discomfort in responses from the individual.

Although Polygraph machine isn’t unanimously and universally considered as a reliable tool for detecting deception, establishing the baseline is the starting point of polygraph tests. The individual who is subjected to the polygraph test is asked a few normal questions like name, gender, birth date, birth place, color of dress, today’s date etc. which don’t induce stress and discomfort. It’s done to establish the baseline of physiological responses so that deviations, anomalies or nuances in them can be accurately detected later.

Establishing the baseline isn’t only game changing in interpreting an individual’s body language in motion but also still images especially portrait photographs. Recently, while looking at Miss Universe 2021 Harnaaz Sandhu’s portrait photo on cover page of Vogue magazine’s Indian edition, I really wondered if she was showing an expression of contempt on her face or not. Did Winning the Miss Universe title for India after 21 years turn her into a contemptuous lady?

Miss Universe 2021 Harnaaz Sandhu (India)

Understanding the great importance of establishing baseline before arriving to wrong conclusion, I checked a few of solo photographs from her earlier life. This confirmed that asymmetrical smile on her face was not about winning the crown but it's the way she has been portraying smile on her face from her childhood. I guess that she might have undergone a rigorous and prolonged training to break her smile baseline especially in front of people.

Establishing baseline is at the core of accurately detecting changes with their severity in real time. It's also very important to keep in mind that Behavioral Baseline can and does change with and/or due to (change in) age, occupation, experience, influence, training, conditioning and learning.

Related Articles:
1) Hand Gestures 2) Facial Expressions 3) Postures 4) Para Language 5) Micro Expressions 6) Context 7) Proxemics 8) Congruence 9) Clusters 10) Challenges 11) Interpretation 12) Asymmetrical Smile but not Contempt 13) Face of liar(?) 14) Inside Interrogation Room 15) Truth about Lying 16) Artificial Intelligence and Body Language

Is Human Communication 93% Nonverbal?

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sat, 1 Jan 2022 06:30:00 +0530

Myths are scientifically incorrect and false stories, beliefs and ideas but they sound amazing and amusing. Moreover, myths are used for massive marketing too, just by adding their credible origins while making confident claims. Especially the one which has been gracefully given birth to in 1967 has taken the whole world by storm and quite essentially the small community of body language enthusiasts, aspirants, analysts, experts, speakers, instructors, coaches and trainers. It is The Convenient Myth of 93% share of nonverbal clues in human communication. Unfortunately, it's widely cited by academic institutions too.

Mehrabian 7-38-55 Rule

Prof. Dr. Albert Mehrabian conducted two separate studies at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with only 37 female psychology students about Which clues are emphasized, prioritized or given weightage to while understanding EMOTIONS, FEELINGS and ATTITUDES of a speaking individual by the audience. Based upon the answers given by the participants, only 7% emphasize was given to words while 93% emphasize was given to body language, facial expressions and the different tones of voice of the speaking individual.

According to the conclusions derived from Prof. Dr. Mehrabian's study, an emotionally charged interpersonal message is or can be identified almost nonverbally i. e. 93% out of both verbal and nonverbal clues. As the study suggested, an emotionally charged message conveyed by an individual can largely and precisely be identified by the individual's para-language and body language including facial expressions. These two components roughly made up to 38% and 55% of the message respectively in the 7-38-55 rule.

Prof. Dr. Albert Mehrabian

It's critically important to keep in mind that Prof. Meharbian's brief study was related to emphasizing the clues while understanding EMOTIONS, FEELINGS and ATTITUDES of a speaking person. Nevertheless, the rule is misinterpreted, misrepresented, widely (mis)referred and conveniently cited by many.

As the three numbers of the rule are easy to remember and recite, many people started boldly claiming the total percentage of nonverbal clues in any kind of human communication as 93%. Importance of words was greatly undervalued.

Prof. Dr. Mehrabian himself has humbly clarified at many times that his famous rule is overly generalized. It has never ever been his conclusion that any human communication in general follows the 7-38-55 rule or has 93% share of nonverbal clues. He only believes that it was applicable within the context of interpreting the affect or emotional state of a speaking individual by the audience. However, nonverbal share is entirely relative in human communication and I'm going to prove the same.

Although Mehrabian Rule was simply the rough estimation, we get totally different shares of nonverbal clues in different situations, circumstances and conditions if we strictly adhere with the numbers from the same rule. If audience can see only the face but not the body of the speaker then the share of nonverbal clues would be less than 55% due to detectable facial expressions. If only voice of the speaker can be heard then the share of nonverbal clues would be roughly 38% due to detectable para-lingual clues.

"The bottom line of this myth debunking or myth busting article is that nonverbal share in any human interaction isn't always or absolutely 93% (or any fixed number) at all but entirely relative. The nonverbal share and/or its percentage can and/or does conditionally change and even reach up to 100%."

If it was only about communicating emotions, feelings, sentiments, attitudes and different psychological states then we wouldn't have transformed ourselves into the present form at all. Unlike other creatures, we're a highly technological, knowledge sharing and imitating species. Our journey began in small tribal groups and ultimately ended up in spreading or dominating globally with further plans to colonize the outer space. Amount of verbal usage by us has gradually increased in our daily lives with increment in complexity, distance and interdependence.

Human communication significantly and frequently includes facts, locations, directions, dates, time stamps, geographical coordinates, measuring units, measurements, quantities, equations, findings, formulae, logical arguments, assumptions, algorithms, frameworks, concepts, hypotheses, theories, (abstract) ideas, routes, processes, stages, workflows, results, conclusions, plans, alerts, precautions, suggestions, strategies, instructions, commands, warnings, definitions, rules, regulations, requirements, (legal) contracts, (legal) agreements, treaties, testimonies, pacts, policies, norms etc.

They can be published, presented, explained, displayed or described with the help of words, numbers and characters. Graphical characteristics of printed or written text such as position, decoration, highlighting, fonts, font sizes and colors do arrange, organize, distinguish, emphasize and draw attention at some details. Therefore, graphical characteristics of written or printed text used are entirely nonverbal in nature. However, its calculable share is much less in comparison to the entire text.

Also, verbal and numerical data, information and facts can also be converted or compressed into and represented by many visual forms for better and readily understanding. Therefore, using sign-languages, sketches, paintings, drawings, photographs, graphs, charts, animations, images, signs, symbols, icons, 2D models, 3D models etc. in the human communication is entirely nonverbal in nature with its calculable share depending upon the amount of usage.

Additionally, if an individual is involved in talking about them then para-lingual clues and illustrating hand gestures do help a lot for emphasizing, drawing attention and visually explaining some details. Undoubtedly, vocal emphasizes and hand illustrations are also nonverbal in nature. However, its calculable share is much less in comparison to the content.

Some of the common traffic signs

The true purpose of this article isn't only to share critically important details and facts about Prof. Dr. Mehrabian's study and to debunk or bust The Convenient Myth of 93% or the over generalized 7-38-55 rule/equation/formula originated from the same study. My explanation and arguments simply don't end here because there's much more in our real lives.

After critically thinking over this seriously scientific topic over many days, I'm deeply interested and highly motivated to share my honest, sincere and meticulous insights and views about the percentage of nonverbal share in (face to face) human communication, considering different kinds of possible situations and circumstances in daily life.

Try to assume yourself in four different situations in which you’re interacting or you need to interact with four different kinds of individuals i. e. an infant, a man fatally injured after meeting an accident in front of you, an old man communicating only through a sign-language and a foreign lady tourist speaking in her language.

Surprisingly, the true nonverbal share or its percentage during (face to face) encounter, interaction, exchange and reciprocation taking place between you and the four different individuals would be much greater and most likely to be 100%, from either or both sides.

Please let me explain exactly how, with details as following:

1) The Infant: Due to absence or lack of verbal articulating ability at its age, the infant's body language, facial expressions and different tones of voice would convey what exactly it is trying to convey or 'say' to you in your presence.

2) The Injured Man: Due to fatal injuries, the man might not be able to speak clearly, continuously and loudly or at all. His vocal clues (if any), eyes, face, collapsed posture and visible wounds would convey his grim condition.

3) The Sign-language User: Due to absence of spoken words, you must rely only on your own knowledge about the specific sign-language. Otherwise, you’d need to communicate with him only by using commonly known hand gestures, facial expressions, head movements and para-lingual clues only.

4) The Tourist: As you're unfamiliar with her language, you both need to communicate with each other only by using commonly known hand gestures, facial expressions, head movements and para-lingual clues only. Otherwise, you need to find a translator.

In all above situations, only nonverbal, physical, visible, vocal and observable clues would play the greatest role in understanding, interacting, exchanging, sharing, suggesting and reciprocating. When and/or If an individual isn't (capable of) talking (in a known language) then his/her body does (try to) communicate the same. In short, body definitely speaks when, what and/or if words can't or don't.

To my best knowledge, both spoken and written words help a lot but only if the two interacting individuals know the language and also the meanings of the words very well in the first place. If either one doesn’t know the language and/or doesn't understand the meaning of the words then irritation, confusion and perplexity is clearly seen in body language esp. eyes, eyebrows, mouth and hands.

When and/or if words aren't present, familiar, complete, appropriate, audible, readable and/or sufficient while communicating then (entire) body, orientations, movements, gestures, expressions, adaptations, stances, vocal tones, actions, reactions and responses of either or both individuals are the only reliable sources for the firm conclusion because nonverbal is the default mode of human communication.

On the other hand, if familiar, complete, appropriate, audible, readable and/or sufficient words are being used during (face to face) communication, interaction, encounter, exchange and reciprocation then congruence between the cluster of words and corresponding nonverbal clues (available if any) is the determining factors for reliability and truthfulness in the given context. Prof. Dr. Mehrabian’s study too emphasized congruence.

The bottom line of this myth debunking or myth busting article is that nonverbal share in any human interaction isn't always or absolutely 93% (or any fixed number) at all but entirely relative. The nonverbal share and/or its percentage can and/or does conditionally change and even reach up to 100%.

Next time if anybody publicly writes and/or speaks about 93% of nonverbal share in human communication then you'll confidently explain the nonverbal relativity of human communication with a few best supporting examples, including some of the aforementioned ones.

[Critical Note: Although every human communication isn't always and/or entirely nonverbal, our bodies, physical conditions, movements and actions do keep revealing a lot about ourselves automatically, unmistakably and reliably throughout our lives, which is just beyond our imagination.

Even when we're not actively communicating (with anybody), our bodies continuously do keep receiving and sending different kinds of nonverbal data, clues, hints, signals and messages.]

Related Articles:
1) Context 2) Congruence 3) Clusters 4) What is Nonverbal Communication? 5) Evolution of Nonverbal communication 6) "Nonverbal" is alien way of communication? 7) Unlimited potentials of Nonverbal Knowledge 8) Can body language reveal thoughts? 9) Why exactly languages evolved? 10) Are human emotions really universal? 11) THE END of OVER-Generalization

Power Postures

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sun, 3 Oct 2021 13:48:00 +0530

We all are fans of super-heroes and super-heroines, the divine avatars and supernatural beings. We want them around and with us to protect, shield and save ourselves from super-villains, evil-minded individuals, monsters, demons, natural calamities, catastrophes and disasters in the world which is highly susceptible to disorder, calamity, disaster, destruction and chaos. Don't we really?

From ancient mythological superheroes like Hercules, Thor and Hanuman (Indian Super-hero from epic Ramayana) to modern day Superman, Iron Man, Batman and Wonder Woman; their stories and legends have made their way into almost every household on this planet through oral traditions, (comic) books, dramas, movies, images, statues, figurines and toys. All super-heroes and super-heroines have distinct dresses and distinct signature postures.

In their stories, all super-heroes and super-heroines are depicted as very powerful, strong, skilled and risk-taking individuals who are often equipped with body armors, shields and weapons. They look and appear very different in entire crowd just by standing differently in the first place. Their faces are held upward, necks are exposed, shoulders are stretched wider, chests are puffed, two legs are put apart from each other, forearms are put on their hips and feasts are clenched or weapons are wielded in them. They appear very formidable.

If they don't adapt their signature postures and put on ordinary clothes while facing the super-villains, evil-minded individuals, demons, natural calamities, catastrophes and disasters; they would appear or look no different than the entire crowd filled with ordinary, weak and vulnerable people who seek their protection in the first place.

Their signature postures are their own ways to show that they are capable of facing dangers and saving people. By adapting such postures they physically prepare themselves, assert themselves into people's eyes and warn their opponents.

We are not super-heroes and super-heroines and they are not us but we mimic or impersonate them. Children often dress up themselves like super-heroes and super-heroines. Until they don't make signature poses, mimicry or impersonation is not complete. So is it the posture that makes super-heroes and super-heroines what they really are? Do such postures really benefit the ordinary people? Can we turn ourselves into super-heroes and super-heroines just by adapting their signature postures?

Until year 2010, nobody was quite sure about the same to be able to make scientific claims publicly through an article and later a popular TED talk in year 2012. It made Dr. Amy Cuddy (social psychologist, author and speaker) enormously famous overnight world over. According to her, if we consciously adapt high-power postures during (potentially) stressful social interactions then we feel confident, in-control, calm, powerful and dominant.

With more that 20 millions of views, it could be one of the most watched body language videos ever published on the internet.

She studied and found that both humans and animals unconsciously adapt such open, upright body and limb extending postures when they are in control, powerful and feeling accomplished in various situations e. g. winning a contest, defeating an opponent etc. She conducted an experiment on how nonverbal expressions of power and control through expansive, open, wider, broader and space-occupying body postures affect people's feelings, behaviors and hormone levels.

She claimed that adapting body postures that express dominance and power ("power posing") for as little as two minutes before facing the actual situation can increase testosterone (stress reducing hormone), decrease cortisol (stress inducting hormone) and increase appetite for taking risks. Eventually, it leads to higher possibilities of better performance during stressful interactions especially job interviews.

A) Low-Power Postures/Poses: Closed, Non-Assertive, Constricted, Twisted and Space-giving body postures

B) High-Power Postures/Poses: Open, Assertive, Wider, Broader and Space-occupying body postures

Her theory of “power posing” emphasizes the influencing power of body language during social interactions. Showing power and dominance through body postures eventually makes a person feel powerful, confident and stress-free was the central idea of her theory which faced many counter-claims, threats, rebuttal and denial too. Also, there are a lot of contradictory results presented against her promising 'self-empowerment' theory of consciously adapted power postures by different scientific studies till date.

In animal kingdom, both low power and high power postures/poses are quite prevalent. Animals use them unconsciously during the kind of confrontations in which showing power, confidence and dominance is necessary to distinguish a high-power individual from a low-power individual(s). Does it really work for humans by adapting power postures consciously (before facing somebody)? Should we purposefully adapt power postures to appear like super-heroes and super-heroines in public?

According to my own thoughts and opinions, we constantly need to audit, check and question ourselves for the postures which we adapt unconsciously in the given social situation and physical condition. If postures are really closing, shrinking, bending and twisting our bodies unnecessarily we can adapt open, aligned, upright and good body postures. By doing so, we wouldn't ruin our musculoskeletal fitness, joints and spine in the first place.

Additionally, if you're genuinely competent, strong and expert in your professional skills (and you've proved the same); open, upright and confident body postures would definitely suit on you if you adapt them reasonably, especially in front of individuals who see you as a pioneer, a leader, a motivator, an inspirer or an influencer.

Related Articles:
1) Postures 2) Domination 3) Why we clench fist after victory? 4) My posture discovery 5) Good posture is Healthy 6) Positive Body Language 7) Confident Body Language 8) Conscious shift in body language 9) Let your spirit soar higher 10) Body Language in Advertisement

Online Etiquette

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sun, 13 Jun 2021 19:56:00 +0530

Since Covid 19 (Corona Virus) pandemic took the entire modern world in its tight grip, billions of people have lost control over their normal daily routines. Both social and work lives have been affected thoroughly and changed dramatically within just a moment after lock-down were declared by local governments.

Millions of working professionals all over the world have been forced to work from home, using devices like laptops, computers and cellphones. Their work-life has been confined to boundaries of their homes. Coincidentally, I'm one of them only.

Getting ready to go to the work place, interacting with many individuals on the way to office or at the work place, staying, working and eating together, attending meetings and going out on regular breaks with workmates is a daily routine of billions of people on this busy planet.

No matter how much monotonous, boring and mechanical it is, most working individuals like to spend their lives for decades like this. However, forcing most of us to Work From Home (WFH) has completely changed it, just at a moment's notice. Most of us weren't prepared for the same, both physically and mentally.

Facing and interacting with people effectively to achieve a specific common goal is already a great social and professional challenge. Additionally, online meetings, seminars, workshops, interviews and conferences have further intensified the same. Many individuals are finding it hard to interact online and thus making a lot of mistakes during online interactions.

Hence, I thought to come with a brief list of etiquette and good practices to help many working from home individual in appearing professional, attentive and interactive during online meetings.

Following is a list of the same:

1) Before interaction begins, ensure that you look enough professional. Ensure that you're wearing adequate and proper cloths. Ensure that your hair are well set.

2) Along with maintaining a professional look and composure, choose a quite and safe place to be able to seat undisturbed for a while to attend the meeting.

3) Maintain a proper, upright and steady posture so that your face and torso wouldn't appear appear leaning too much forward. Avoid playing or fidgeting.

4) Keep maintaining a proper distance between yourself and camera of the device so that other participants can see your entire face and neck.

5) Avoid making sudden, erratic and aggressive body movements until you really need to leave your place in emergency or the meeting ends.

6) Make sure that other participants can hear you and/or see you properly by setting up camera and microphone before meeting.

7) While a meeting in going on, don't touch your face and scratch your head/neck. Don't put fingers in mouth or bite nails.

8) Let it be only a voice meeting or a video meeting, avoid doing anything else simultaneously other than attending it.

9) While all others can see and hear you in the meeting room, avoid looking at your cellphone and listening music.

10) Make controlled hand gestures, nod your head and smile whenever it's necessary. Don't just seat coldly.

11) While all others can see you in the meeting room, maintain a proper and adequate eye contact.

12) Make sure that you've everything necessary with you to present, refer, recite or show.

13) Mute your microphone whenever you're not talking. Avoid whispering and talk fast.

14) Politely ask to repeat if you haven't heard somebody or something properly.

15) Don't forget to greet others at the beginning and the end of the meetings.

16) Choose a good background, blur it or replace it with a proper image.

New variants of the virus are emerging almost all over the world after a few days. Hence, there seems no relief from this ongoing pandemic that we all are facing since the beginning of 2020. Work From Home (WFH) might become a permanent routine for millions of working professionals from here onwards.

Be professionally ready for online meetings.

Many companies and professionals have switched to the long-term or even permanent Work From Home working mode already. Better prepare yourself properly to face it effectively.

Unlike rest of the subconscious body language cues, ettiqute need to learned by oneself or taughed by others consciously.

Wishing you all a very happy Working From Home!

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1) Workspace Etiquette 2) Elevator Etiquette

Basic Bodily Cues

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 22:19:00 +0530

Living is all about moving and replicating. All living creatures, beasts and beings continuously, instinctively, unconsciously and involuntarily strive to survive and replicate/reproduce by competing, cooperating, sharing, negotiating and comprising. It involves different types of physical movements, flutters, maneuvers, responses and defenses.

On the planet earth, all carbon-based, evolved and diverse living creatures do follow some very basic bodily behavioral patterns irrespective of their species, physical features, body size, body weight, body structure, population, habitat, diet, social structure, problem-solving ability and biological complexity. Perhaps, these patterns could be universal.

There are very few basic bodily cues and behavioral patterns which have been further transformed, diversified and amplified into various reflexes, facial expressions, postures, gestures, vocal tones, responses and feedback in multi-cellular, complex and large creatures including us. Matter of facts, artificial robots too follow them.

While reading each pattern, please keep in mind the opposite side of the pattern i. e. after 'verses' (vs.) word is opposite to or can be mostly opposite to what has been described for the former one e. g. Closing is opposite to Distancing or vice a versa.

1) Forwarding vs. Withdrawing: Extending, stretching, protruding, forwarding any body part or orienting the whole body towards somebody or something has to do with aiming, accepting, venturing, exploring, probing, searching, surrendering, drawing attention, offering, invading, warning, threatening, blocking, confronting, demanding, defending, leading, directing and willing or trying to participate, touch, initiate exchange, connect, attach, seize or provide support.

2) Raising vs. Lowering: Standing tall, gaining height or raising any body part or the whole body upwards has to do with showing strength, departing, declaring, demanding, declining, denying, provoking, challenging, risking, rebelling, resolving, braving, leading, opposing, uprising, unsharing, increasing visibility, visual field, range, reach, territory, domination or superiority and providing cover, shelter, support or safety to minors, subordinates or helpless.

3) Closing vs. Distancing: Coming close, moving close, reducing distance or closing gap with something or somebody has to do with harboring interest/curiosity, liking, agreeing, accepting, sharing, participating, invading, attaching, lacking fear, braving, preparing to attack, threatening, trusting, evaluating, examining, experiencing, sensing and providing refuge, shelter, affection, intimacy, nourishment, nurturing, resources, support or safety.

4) Fixating vs. Fleeting: Focusing attention on something or somebody has to do with aiming, liking, showing interest, harboring curiosity about and concentrating entire energy and attention over a considerable amount of time for learning about, understanding, examining, measuring or analyzing to obtain, acquire, attack, invade, earn, win, control, chase, pursue, catch, capture, hunt, seize and rule it.

5) Shrinking vs. Spreading: Shrinking, contracting, collapsing or downsizing has to do with sharing, deteriorating, weakening, decaying, controlling, averting, concealing, disliking, disagreeing, distrusting, differing, retreating, refusing, loosing, denying, defending and protecting self in the face of danger, risk, threat, challenge, calamity, superior, larger or dominant entity.

6) Hiding vs. Exposing: Hiding behind something or somebody or taking cover has to do with resting, ruminating, mustering energy, avoiding, waiting, stalking, ambushing, planning, strategizing, sheltering, securing, healing, recovering, escaping, defending and protecting self in the face of danger, risk, threat, challenge, calamity, superior, larger or dominant entity.

7) Startling vs. Settling: Startling, shaking or moving abruptly has to do with experiencing an shock, stir, disturbance and disruption caused due to sudden and involuntary exposure to or confrontation with unsuspected, unexpected, unlikable, unpleasant, undesired, untimely, unwanted, uncontrolled or inexperienced stimulus, sensation, thought or entity.

8) Moving vs. Stalling: Moving body has to do with asserting existence, traveling, migrating, acting upon, working, playing, performing, struggling, attracting, chasing, carrying, pursuing, competing, catching, foraging, losing patience/interest, escaping and defending self in the face of danger, risk, threat, challenge, calamity, superior, larger or dominant entity.

9) Gathering vs. Dispersing: Gathering or bringing together to form a group has to do with protecting each other, debating, deciding, strategizing, exchanging, celebrating, collaborating and initiating or attempting to achieve cooperation, agreement, unity, strength, safety, superiority, prosperity, solidarity, peace, harmony, intimacy, friendship and dominance.

10) Attaching vs. Detaching: Attaching, clasping, tethering, touching or tying with somebody or something has to do with accepting, bonding, confirming, enjoying, sharing, seeking, sucking, consuming, transferring, exchanging, extracting, earning and providing shelter, refuge, affection, nourishment, nurturing, resources, support or safety.

11) Flexing vs. Relaxing: Tightening muscles of any body part or the whole body has to do with enduring, suppressing, resolving, expressing anger or hostility and initiating or preparing to move, lift, carry, crush, drag, pull, push, punch, press, throw, strike, seize, fight, hunt, invade, penetrate, control or defend.

12) Seizing vs. Releasing: Seizing, grabbing or clutching somebody and something has to do with seeking support/security, feeling insecure, controlling, coercing, exploiting, consuming, stealing, hurting, torturing, punishing, silencing, dominating, suppressing, subjugating and asserting ownership.

Let it be a painting, a statue, a creature, a human, a casual social interaction between two persons or a serious encounter, if you start analyzing or examining cluster of postures, gestures, expressions, giveaways, responses and feedback only in the given context on the basis of aforementioned patterns then you would easily overcome ambiguity, uncertainty, obscurity and confusion while arriving on firm conclusions.

12 Basic Bodily Cues are quite logical, geometrical and universal.

An entity under examination might be following two or more patterns at the same time e. g. the statue of Sagittarius is following Forwarding, Rising, Fixating and Tightening patterns so Sagittarius seems (poised) to shoot the arrow at some higher and farther target. Remaining three examples above too are following two or more patterns at the same time.

Possibly, you can plot the checklist of patterns and their counter-patters mentally, digitally or on paper to derive firm conclusions about (living) entities and encounters under examination. Perhaps, this whole checklist can be turned into a computerized or digital tool.

If you pay a close attention then you would wonder to realize that all these patterns are quite logical, geometrical and universal. Sharing similarity with the classical 12 Zodiac Constellations, I personally call these basic patterns as Cue Constellations (CC).

Critically important factors for deriving conclusions from the aforementioned bodily cues are Cluster, Context and Congruence (if words and verbal dialogs are involved).

Perhaps, it's the first of its kind article written and published on a website that is dedicated to body language.

Related Articles:
1) Hand Gestures 2) Facial Expressions 3) Postures 4) Para Language 5) Micro-expressions 6) Context 7) Proxemics 8) Congruence 9) Clusters 10) Challenges 11) Interpretation

Body Language in Depression

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 14:38:00 +0530

Is being sad really bad? Nope! Sadness is a normal human emotion and isn’t really bad as we all assume. Sadness is just an outcome of misfortunes, unfulfilled expectations, broken dreams, disappointments, separations, failures or losses. Sometimes, inability to handle (increasing) stress also leads to sadness, lethargy and fatigue.

Actually, sadness saves a great amount of physical and mental energy by keeping an individual inactive, isolated and grounded over a short amount of time. The individual would need same energy in near future for re-starting to act or react upon something engaging and promising.

Body language of a sad person speaks loudly to eyes of an observer. Such person appears detached from outer world and disinterested in what is happening around. Person’s body posture appear loose, crooked, saggy or requiring some king of physical support to keep body straight and upright.

The outer edges of the person’s lips turn downward, no attention is given to others and no prolonged eye contact is made. Extreme and expression of sadness is weeping and crying out loudly to seek immediate caressing, consoling, safety and social support.

Actually, a sad person seeks social support and stimulation to get rid of sadness. Motivation, hope, humor, (verbal) promise and new opportunities drive away sadness and bring a person back in action, interaction and physical movements. In short, negative social stimulation(s) brings sadness and positive social stimulation(s) drives it away. However, depression can’t be driven away as easily as sadness.

When sadness descends into deeper level of a person’s life for a prolonged time then it turns into depression. Unlike the short-term sadness, depression is a mental disorder. It essentially disables a person. Severe and prolonged depression makes permanent damages to body, mind, brain and social rapport. Untreated acute depression (‘clinical depression’) can result in suicide. Hence, depression shouldn’t be taken lightly at all

What exactly leads to depression? Prolonged social isolation, childhood (sexual) abuse, dysfunctional family, lack of a good company, guilt, trauma, lack of positive social interactions, oppression, recurring failures, failed ambitions, deceased intimate person(s), broken heart, rejections, failed relationships, failed ventures, negative self-image, worthlessness and hopelessness.

Also, not being able to find any alternative, promising and positive way out of the ongoing medical conditions like accident, chronic illness can lead to depression. Malnutrition, deficiency, hormonal imbalance and heredity can also contribute to development of depression.

Depression in a person can be detected through verbal expressions, behavioral patterns and nonverbal clues which can’t at all remain hidden, suppressed or muted for a long time. Therefore, you should be able to detect depression in yourself and also in others to treat it effectively and timely to avoid devastating outcomes.

Development of depression in older people is quite obvious due to deterioration, disabilities and deformations. However, falling prey to depression among adults, young men or women and children is increasing worldwide.

Is growing Depression among children a curse of modern lifestyle?

Following are a few key body language, vocal, speech, behavioral and nonverbal clues conveying depression:

1) Depression drains energy out of a person so such person’s overall body language i. e. facial expressions, hand gestures, vocal tone, gaze and body movements appear lacking esteem, passion, gusto, coordination, flow, swag, speed, strength, spontaneity and firmness.

2) Person’s cardiovascular capacity goes down significantly. Person breaths rapidly and pants heavily during seemingly routine and normal physical activities. Person experiences fatigue, body pain and muscular weakness. Person suffers from frequent lung infection.

3) Person hardly makes any eye contact or avoids a prolonged one. Person buries his/her eyes into something, keeps eyes closed or keeps looking at something for a long time most. Dark circles could also develop around eyes. Person’s eyes lack luster, spark or shine.

4) Person remains silent, isolated and withdrawn for a long time. Person doesn’t want to exert himself/herself on anybody, doesn’t make his/her presence felt by others, doesn’t draw anybody’s attention towards self or doesn’t take any active interest in interactions.

5) Person’s doesn’t give enough attention to and takes care of personal physical appearance. Person doesn’t take care about how he/she looks in public. Person wears uncleaned and untidy cloths. Person lacks neatness and doesn’t care about hygiene.

6) Person’s body postures appear dull, dented or downward. Person doesn’t stand upright, doesn’t keep oneself straight, always seeks some physical support and mostly remains seated or laid down at one place for a very long time without saying or doing anything.

7) Person can't focus on or dedicate to work life. Person wouldn't carry out given or self-assigned tasks and duties properly, sincerely and timely. Procrastinating, yawning and telling excuse becomes routine for a depressed person. Work turns into a punishment.

8) Person appears demotivated, uncaring and disinterested to do, to carry, to perform, to act, to show or to repeat exactly what he/she once used to with a great ambition, interest, pride, energy and enthusiasm.

9) Person’s voice sounds low, heavy and filled with a great pain. Person speaks very slowly, takes a long time to complete words and also takes long pauses. Person doesn’t open up voluntarily.

10) Person doesn’t sleep well, deeply or calmly and eat appropriately. Person might eat a lot or very less. Person starts loosing appetite, vigor and libido or sex-drive.

11) Person shows frequent and unpredictable mood swings through expressions, spatial shifting, vocal tones, changes in posture and body movements.

12) Person indulges into excessive addiction, drug abuse, self-abuse, self-harm and self-infliction. Thoughts of suicide lingers in person's mind.

How to recognize a depressed person through verbal clues? Upon asking to share plans, thoughts, views, perspectives and opinions; the depressed person often expresses irritation, negativity, lack of confidence, complaining, uncertainty, helplessness and anxiety. The person's body language and vocal tone wouldn't be firm and assertive.

Basically, a depressed person feels as if nothing is left to contribute to world, society, community, family or a group. A depressed person starts loosing ambition, courage, creativity, purpose and goals. Social disconnection and lack of self-respect surely stick with the person. It's well said, "A life without any purpose is like a body without blood!".

Depression leads to decreased or no physical activities, lack of social interactions, bad eating habits, inability to focus, addiction and deteriorated health. Similarly, lack of physical activities, addiction, absence of good social interactions, bad nutrition, lack of great goals and diversion from healthy lifestyle can also contribute to depression.

Spending hours with cellphone can be a sign of depression.

According to scientific studies, strong connection between lower Vitamin D and depression has been established. There's no surprise that most of the home-dwelling, office-dwelling and sun-shunning population is more vulnerable to not just depression but also other related ailments, diseases and disorders.

Is our so-called modern, technological, intimacy-deprived, physically unchallenged, indoor, unbalanced and unnatural lifestyle the very reason behind increasing rate of minute to acute depression in a large population? NOW is the time to check and change.

[Special Note: During year 2015 and 2016, I also went through a severe depression in which suicidal thoughts occupied my weakened mind. However, I never gave up fighting with my negative thoughts because there's always a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel.

I would like to mention that long distance cycling and sun-bathing helped in coming back stronger than ever before. I never gave up on either of them. I became an ultra-cyclist and advocate of sensible sun-exposure.]

Related Articles:
1) Body Language with Poor Body Image 2) Body Language of Extreme Narcissist 3) Amygdala Hijack: Irrational Physical Reactions 4) Body Language under Stress

The Truth about Lying

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sun, 9 Feb 2020 00:46:00 +0530

Modern techno-industrial world has been suffering from and getting plagued by elaborate lies and deceptions. Massive frauds, con-jobs, fake news, forgeries, ponzi schemes, misonformation, disinformation, malinformation, deepfake images and deepfake videos have been affecting millions people. Also, the amount of nonverbal deception overwhelms the verbal lies in the modern techno-industrial. Of course, blindly believing, unsuspecting, innocent, gullible or naive people are the easiest targets.

Surprisingly, the ultimate goal of the most people living in the modern techno-industrial world who attend seminars, read books and/or articles (including this one) and watch videos about body language is to become a good human lie detector. Am I right? Matter of fact is that developing ability to detect lies on spot and catch liars red-handed and timely with great precision is the greatest dream of many people. After all, why it shouldn’t be?

"Trustworthiness between any two individuals is entirely depedent upon mutual Transparency, Truthfulness and Verifiability. That's why TRUST is the costliest asset in the whole world."

No matter how badly we want the whole human world to walk on path of truthfulness, we just can't eradicate the trait of lying from the basic human nature. Surprisingly, we do believe in lies of others simply because we do lie to or deceive ourselves too. Hence, until we don’t thoroughly understand and realize Why we lie?, we wouldn’t be able to suspect and detect lies in the first place. Hence, let's see how, why, where, when and which types of lies are born. Indeed, it's going to an enlightening journey.

In a kind of world in which competition, fighting, rivalry, scarcity, vulnerability, mortality, intimidation, dissimilarity, differences, domination, punishment, pain, rejection, out-casting, abandoning, loneliness, theft, terror, biases, barriers, injuries and threats are completely absent; people wouldn’t (need to) lie at all. The world would be nothing less than a paradise which we read about in holy books and scriptures. Correct? Unfortunately, we don’t live in such kind of an utopian world at all.

In our world, every individual fights for survival. An individual needs to find out and work on many different ways to compete, acquire resources, find a mate and pass genes to next generation while living along with thousands of people who are its present and potential allies, partners, protectors, friends, foes, challengers, competitors, rivals and intimidators. By the way, both humans and non-human entities can be pose challenges, competitions, threats and obstacles.

If an individual is immortal, enough resourceful, very powerful, very strong, extremely skilled and completely independent to live and do everything all alone for survival and propagation of genes, he/she wouldn’t (need to) lie to anybody. Lying is an easiest way for an individual to fix different types of social issues on temporary basis.

It's always worth remembering that lying is an entirely social or group activity. Any single individual can't give birth to a lie at all, no matter how badly a lie needs to take birth. Until there's no potential receiver of a lie, there's no point in giving birth to it at the first place. Hence, at least two (living) individuals are required for giving birth to a lie. Don’t you agree? Please let me explain.

A) A child rushed to home crying with no tears in eyes after beating another child. Unsuspecting yet protective mother immediately smelled potential threat to her child and rushes towards child. She asked to child that who fought with her child in the playground.

She wasted no time in asking her child if he/she caused the fight and started abusing the unseen culprit. She rushed to the playground aggressively and started looking for culprit impatiently.

B) A manufacturing company gave a clear signs of going bankrupt. Its owner became dead worried about future. The owner was desperately looking for breakthrough. Suddenly, two incompetent employee copied idea of an innovative product from internet.

One of them hurriedly presented it to the owner by saying that he/she designed the product. The owner didn’t waste time in verifying the employee’s competency to design such product.

C) A wealthy 50 year old man wanted to marry and start family. He was afraid of rejection due to his unattractive looks. One day, a lone 45 year old woman wearing makeup caught his attention in a social function which he was attending upon invitation.

He immediately got attracted towards her due to her "young looks". He approached her and started talking with her. He started flying in sky after she told her age as 25 years.

Secondly, knowing what types of lies a person can tell would help you greatly in detecting them. Following are the seven major types of lies:

A) Denial - It is refusing to acknowledge a truth. The extent of denial can be quite large i. e. they may be lying only to you just this one time or they may be lying to themselves.

B) Omission - It is leaving out relevant information. Easier and least risky. It doesn’t involve inventing any stories. It is passive deception and less guilt is involved.

C) Restructuring - It is distorting the context by saying something in sarcasm and changing the characters or altering the scene.

D) Error - It is a lie told by mistake. The person believes they are being truthful but what they are saying is not true.

E) Exaggeration - It is representing oneself as greater, better, more experienced/eligible and more successful.

F) Minimization - It is reducing the effects of a mistake, a fault or a judgment call.

G) Fabrication - It is deliberately inventing a false story.

In above three examples, desperation, fear and anxiety took hold of minds of three persons who didn’t suspect and didn't bother verify if the other person is telling the truth. Strong emotions and fundamental needs put thicker filters on their sensory perception.

One person simply got carried away with lies told by other person. Protecting themselves and their interests unconsciously made all of them to believe in what other persons told.

First lie (A) is an example of Omission, second lie (B) is Fabrication and third lie (C) is Exaggeration.

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Mark Twain

Apart of psychopaths and seasoned criminals, normal people can't live peacefully with lies they tell to others over a long period of time. Most people lie out of fear and then become fearful out of lying. Guilt starts eating most people from inside.

Only grown-ups lie? Nope! It starts from an early age which most of us wouldn't even imagine about. Babies start lying and faking right from age of 6 month. Do we only lie to others? Nope! We do lie to ourselves by twisting facts and denying them wishfully. However, a hope is a necessary lie for survival.

Lying, fabricating and faking starts at an early age in humans.

In once exceptional case, an animal lied once. Koko, a female gorilla, was born in San Francisco Zoo and was trained to talk using a modified form of American Sign Language which was taught by her trainer and caretaker Ms. Francine Patterson.

One day, Koko ripped a sink out of the wall and she put blame on her pet kitten by signing "cat did it" when her keepers confronted her about it. The gorilla might have lied due to ability of speaking through sign language and prolonged proximity to humans.

Koko, a captive gorilla, lied using the sign language.

With invention of computers, the very ambition has turned into many software applications. However, modern and industrialized human civilization isn’t free from costly lies and dangerous liars. With invention of telephones and cellphones, we started lying over large distances.

With on-going development in neural networks, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI); lie detection might reach to a new level and go in a new direction about which we have not imagined ever before.

Related Links:
1) My career saving lie detection 2) Face of liar(?) 3) From Common Signs to Spotting Lies 4) Entire body can’t lie 5) Baseline 6) Body Language of Extreme Psychopath 7) Body Language and Lie Detection

Entire body can’t lie

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 14:08:00 +0530

After Sir Charles Darwin, detecting and decoding facial expressions has dominated nonverbal studies, research and analysis. There are different software applications available in market which are dedicated to facial expression decoding, including the one you might have installed on your own smart phone.

However, on the evolutionary time-scale, expression of different emotions through movements of facial muscles is recent addition. Also, with the help of a sophisticated brain, we’ve gained mastery in hiding, suppressing, modulating or manipulating facial expressions of emotions and feelings.

Our faces can lie but entire body can’t. Don’t you believe in this? Let me share with you an incident and my investigation about same based upon body language clues which would definitely shatter your faith in relying entirely on facial expressions during interactions.

In last week, my wife and I took a public transport bus for Pune, India. It was past midnight when we took the bus. Three persons, two adult men and a young lady, took the bus along with us. It was having one column of 2 seater couches and another 3 seater couches placed in multiple rows. Two columns were separated by a narrow walk-through passage.

It was carrying passengers almost half of its normal seating capacity so most of them were sleeping by stretching their legs on couches covering all adjacent seats. My wife and I found two empty adjacent seats for us at the front side of bus. Soon after we took our seats and relaxed, the bus took off from station.

The young lady managed to find a seat on a 2 seater couch just three rows ahead of us. An adult passenger came right behind her hurriedly and managed to find a seat on a 3 seater couch. Having enough space between him and the lady, he could observe her clearly from his place.

He tried to start a conversation with her by asking few trivial questions but the lady didn’t respond him at all. After some time, the lady relaxed in her seat and the man left his seat and found an empty 3 seater couch at the back of the bus. He stretched his legs on the long couch and fell asleep or it at least appeared as if he fell asleep.

We are more vulnerable in darkness.

I told my wife about what had just happened as she was busy in preparing to fall asleep. After some time, my wife fell asleep and I started thinking about the way the adult man was looking at the lady despite of her lack of attention towards him. He was running his eyes on her from tip to toe repeatedly with blank face as if he was measuring her.

His trivial questions which he could have asked to the bus conductor, driver or other passengers were actually intended to get the lady’s attention. She definitely might have sensed his true intentions and turned down his moves for getting closer to her.

As part of the standard procedures, bus conductor asked bus driver to switch of the light so that passengers could fall asleep for next few hours. Soon after the man went at back of the bus, I too fell asleep. After 3 hours, I suddenly woke up and found what I was not expecting at all. The adult man was seating at the place where the lady was seating before lights were switched off.

The man was appearing restless and disturbed in his seat. She had disappeared from area in front of us in the bus. Where she might have gone? Did she go off from the bus at some place? So many horrifying thoughts came into my mind so I asked my wife to wake up and shared what happened.

Out of social responsibility, I checked if the lady was still riding the bus or got off somewhere. When I turned my sight at the back of my bus through the narrow passage, I found her seating at the same place where the adult man found a couch to sleep before lights were switched off. As it clearly appeared, both of them had swapped their places. What might have led them to switch their places?

As I was looking at him from behind, the man was nervous and disturbed. On the other hand, the lady appeared completely relieved and confident. Their bodies were conveying entirely opposite states of mind. Something might have gone wrong. What it could possibly be, after all?

Let’s go back in time briefly and check history of their bus journey. The man had seen her getting while catching the bus. Both of them were complete strangers for each other. The lady was traveling alone but she was cautious about her safety. The man gave many lustful giveaways through his gaze and body orientation.

By asking trivial questions, he tried to gain her attention but she wisely turned down same. After 3 hours, there ended up switching their places. Surprisingly, the man was restless and the lady was relaxed. Are you getting it? What clues their bodies where giving? Wise readers might definitely have figured it out by now.

Opportunists consider a lonely woman as an easy target.

Undoubtedly, if the lady would have paid him enough attention and engaged in conversation with him (or in other words - “got into his trap”), he would definitely have dared to seat close to her in same couch. She refuted his attempt by sensing his true intentions. When all passengers fell asleep, the man might have managed to get close to her, talk with her and touch her in wrong way.

Being aware about his true intentions, she might have gathered her courage in no time. Finally, she got away from him at a safer place where he wouldn’t dare to reach her. With no other place left to seat, the wrongdoer sank in her seat. Bus driver and bus conductor would have sensed his wrongdoing and might have warned him off. Even their faces wasn’t at all giving any clear clues, their bodies were talking loudly to my eyes as they would have to eyes of any keen observer and situationally aware individual.

The way he followed her inside the bus and sat close to her, initial verbal interaction between them, his lustful eyes darting on her body, her wisely turning him down and above all - swapping each other’s seats at the end was enough to suggest what exactly might have happened between them to do so in the public transport bus which was traveling at night and filled with passengers who had fallen asleep excluding the bus driver. The lonely young lady wasn’t too stupid to approach the same man, who was measuring her lustfully, for requesting him to swap the seats in the darkness.

Right from a single celled microbe to multi-cellular and large creatures, entire bodies give so many different kinds of clues that we can hardly image about. Faces might, can or do lie but other parts of our bodies simply can’t or don’t. Other body parts convey entirely different message than what face is trying to express consciously or unconsciously.

Are you looking at the whole elephant?
Or just a few separate parts of the same?

The method of whole body's nonverbal decoding could solve many problems in our daily social lives including thefts, attacks, exploitation and crimes. Many puzzling questions related with incidents and crimes can be solved by whole body's nonverbal decoding only because entire body simply can’t lie.

Many good observers, social analysts, interviewers, detectives, investigators and even interrogators emphasize on facial clues but underrate, ignore, overlook or don’t pay conscious attention at what rest of the body of an individuals is giving away unconsciously.

Physical space, body positioning, posture, orientation of face and torso, gaze, shoulders, legs, hands and fingers talk louder let alone movements, expressions and gestures made by them.

[#Kind Appeal: This article was written with sole purpose of bringing mass social awareness about women’s safety, security and dignity in face of growing incidents of teasing, harassment, exploitation and coercion in public transport vehicles.

Although this article talks written through body language perspective, the great social issue is wide-spread. Hence, I kindly appeal all of you to share this article on different social media platforms.]

Related Articles:
1) Emotional expressions are manipulated 2) Observation is the key 3) Analytical Interview: Are HR Professionals ready for it? 4) Just by looking at Hands and Eyes 5) Face of a liar(?) 6) Are you a 'flying' terrorist? 7) My career saving lie detection 8) Truth about Lying 9) Nonverbal Advantage in Investigation 10) Body Language and Lie Detection

From Common Signs to Spotting Lies

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 16:26:00 +0530

Nonverbal communication is as important as verbal. A long time ago, our ancestors didn’t have a language as we know it today and communicated with the help of simple sounds, body movements and gestures.

To this day, our body language can be a very prominent indicator of what we really think, feel and want. Being able to control or at least know all those signs can be very helpful both in everyday life and at work.

The infographic below is going to teach you just that. Check it out, and you’ll find out about the most popular body language signs, common mistakes and signals showing that someone’s being dishonest.

[This article was originally written by Daisy Hartwell, who is a blogger. Entire text and images have been re-published, by her formal permission and copying from Body Language: From Common Signs to Spotting Lies article - https://custom-writing.org/#body-language.]

Relates Articles:
1) The unspoken sales tools 2) Truth about Lying 3) Body Language and Lie Detection

Why exactly languages evolved?

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 21:35:00 +0530

Have you ever played dumb charade? You might need to. A week ago, my wife and I had a prolonged and heated argument over a topic (we’re not a ‘very different couple’). At the end of arguing, out of her disappointment, my wife suddenly jumped into ‘Verbal Non-cooperation’ mode with me. She declared that we wouldn’t talk with each other, just to cool off from heated arguments that we just had.

Whoever talks first would loose thus need to give some kind of gift to other. By the way, we gave liberty to each other to communicate nonverbally i. e. through facial expressions, gestures, body movements and some very basic sounds.

Within just a minute after we got into ‘Verbal Non-cooperation’ mode, I had to ask her about very important thing about this so-called ‘silent standoff’. I started by using hand gestures, facial expressions and sounds to explain what exactly I wanted to ask her about. I was trying harder to explain and she was trying even harder to understand.

After few frustratingly failed attempts, I eventually broke into words overthrowing the agreement. Actually, the question I wanted to ask her was - For how many hours or days from now we’re going to be in this mode?. This question was very easy to ask verbally than nonverbally.

Have you ever asked yourself this question - WHY (or HOW) the very language I speak and write in EVOLVED? Well! This so-called simple question is very complex to answer in a single sentence. So many theories have been proposed over years about evolution of spoken languages and writing systems.

Like other experts in this field, I’ve my own theory about same to which I call as Nonverbal Failure Theory (NFT). It doesn’t discuss about HOW exactly languages evolved but pin points WHY exactly languages evolved. Let me introduce all of you with this theory.

Like all other creatures, we evolved to communicate primarily through bodily expressions because they are embodied, non-confusing and easily understandable. Moreover, everything we observe, experience, sense through different sensory organs, store in memory and eventually respond to is basically nonverbal.

Body language is outward manifestation of emotions, feelings, motives, intentions, orientations and aspirations. It was only nonverbal mode of communication or body language through which our remote ancestors used to exchange information and knowledge among themselves. It still happens today, between a mother and a child. Haven't you observed it?

Nonverbal mode of exchange or body language is so profound, irreplaceable and inseparable from vast world of creatures that even two members of two entirely different species can communicate between each other easily. Except modern humans, rest of the creature world successfully survives through communicating nonverbally. Isn’t that amazing?

Let’s take a look at our closest evolutionary cousins. Male gorillas don’t (need to) write letters to their potential mates to win their hearts and chimps don’t (need to) speak over hours among themselves to create strong social bonds and bonobos don't need to sing the songs of eternal peace and brotherhood.

Communicating with dogs nonverbally isn't much harder for us.

We all know that our ancestors faced same challenges like every other creature. To survive successfully, any creature has to 1) defend itself from predators and adverse climatic conditions 2) mark and protect certain physical area for shelter 3) find and preserve food to live upon 4) attract a mate, protect it and produce off-springs 5) take care of off-springs and teach them techniques, methods and manners 6) cooperate and coordinate with members of same species as well as others to seize opportunities and minimize risk to survival.

To be able to survive and pass genes to next generation, any living creature must be able manage fairly well on all six fronts, both on it own and communally. For doing same, it needs to communicate effectively. Communication is said to have taken place effectively between two individuals only when the sender succeeds in inducing the most accurate meaning of indented message in the mind (or brain) of the receiver.

Being primitive, honest and clear in nature, nonverbal mode of communication is still the best. However, it has its own limitations, challenges and issues.

When environment, living conditions, resources and survival challenges remain same over a considerable amount of time; creatures don’t need to adapt to new tools, techniques and methods. They can carry on surviving and passing genes by using old and same methods, tools, techniques and methods which their ancestors invented, devised and taught to later generations. When entirely new challenges appear, they have to adapt anew to survive.

Was it a dramatic alteration in early human’s survival challenges that ultimately led to evolution of speaking and writing? According to Nonverbal Failure Theory (NFT), language evolved when Nonverbal mode of communication failed to meet the very challenges and demands of human world that went on becoming complex. It kept on expanding through continual exposure, experience, exploration, observation and experimentation.

Languages and scripting methods were invented by us just to overcome huge barriers and shortcomings that facial expressions, gestures, body movements and some very basic sounds posed in expanding human world and changing living environment. Human bipedal anatomy, erect posture and free hands greatly helped in development of speech and scripting.

In modern world, can we explain or describe mathematical formulas/equations, theories, findings, patterns etc. without using alphabets, numbers and signs? Simply, we cannot.

When our ancestors started to realize that body movements, gestures, facial expressions, postures, smells, sounds and colors were not efficient or adequate to express, convey, explain, propagate and record complex & lengthy information, occurrences and phenomenon; they completely revolutionized the way of human communication.

It must have started by making different kinds of grunts, growls and sounds through their primitive voice-boxes to identify, convey and talk about different entities, occurrences and phenomenon. Continual changes in producing sounds from throat paved path for evolution of spoken languages.

Carving images and basic shapes on cave walls, writable surface of pots, lather, wood and fabric paved path for evolution of writing. Both spoken and written mode of communication catapulted human evolution. This very article is result of our ability to write down information and data systematically.

However, nonverbal mode of communication is still most effective and efficient, especially when it comes to expressing and acting on something that simply can’t be conveyed, done or carried out through speech and scripting. Action speaks louder than words. Right? Moreover, effectiveness of nonverbal communication wouldn’t wither in future, as long as creatures thrive on this marvelous planet to which we call Earth.

Related Articles:
1) Body Language Brain 2) Basic Gestures: Best Survival Tools for Travelers 3) Can body language reveal thoughts? 4) Is Human Communication 93% Nonverbal?

The Unspoken Sales Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 15:47:00 +0530

Nonverbal communication is essential, especially since body language is 55 per cent of effective communication. Your eyes, voice, arms, hands, and full body positioning all play valuable roles in helping you build a connection with others.

Furthermore, when you take note of another person’s body language, you can tailor the conversation - and salespeople can be more aware of how a potential customer is responding to a pitch.

When a prospect is making eye contact, smiling, nodding, and using open-handed gestures, they are actively engaged in the conversation and interested in what you have to say. Make sure you’re facing one another and slightly leaning in to show the conversation is important.

Even when communicating in a large group, such as during presentations, eye contact and physical acknowledgments of other people’s presence will help you connect with your audience. Or, alternatively, they’ll help you, as an audience member, have a more personal connection with the speaker.

Paying attention to body language helps everyone in business. Most importantly, it helps salespeople connect better with their contacts. More details about specific body language, and how it translates in a conversation, are in the infographic below.

[This article was originally written by Kaylee White, who works for Ghergich & Co. (Ghergich.com) and writes for SalesForce Canada. Entire text and images have been re-published, by her formal permission, from the SaleForce Canada's blog article - www.salesforce.com/ca/blog/2016/08/master-body-language.html.]

elates Articles:
1) Body Language in Advertisement

Are you Jealous (of me)?

noreply@blogger.com (Sachchidanand R. Swami) — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 21:57:00 +0530

Jealousy…the little green-eyed monster! He’s omnipresent yet operates invisibly, both in human world full of different emotions & feelings and that of seemingly expressionless creatures. Hardly anybody would have escaped from its clutches or trickery. To be honest, not even me!

So why we get tricked by the green monster after all? What is the root cause? Most importantly thing is that How to identify if somebody is unconsciously expressing jealously towards you by reading the person's body language and behavior?

First of all, Jealousy is not an emotion but a feeling. Unlike unconscious emotional responses or reactions, any feeling gives us an ample amount of time to think about how to react or response. Similar to contempt, Jealousy is a physically non-engaging yet self-defensive reaction or response of human mind.

It means that we don’t express ourselves overtly or physically engage with others immediately in our defense. That’s the reason why many people can’t identify if somebody is feeling jealous about them in real-time. What is Jealousy, in the first place? Let's try to understand it.

Jealousy is nothing but the feeling of insecurity which generates preliminarily out of interpersonal comparison and the resultant perception of lacking on an individual. It induces in our mind after hearing, watching or knowing that other person has something that we don’t have, can’t have or won’t have, let it be a natural or artificial entity.

Let it be an individual’s materialistic possession, inheritance, physical beauty, specialties, capabilities, social rapport, relations (with attractive persons) or attention being given to by others. Some of us just can’t grasp reality and remain contained with what they are and have. Insecurity starts eating them from inside. However, it doesn’t end with comparison and perceiving our own short-comings or short-failings.

We also turn our eyes green towards an individual as a warning message when we feel that the person would probably try to steal, own or control what we have currently. The green-eyed monster doesn’t take hold of grown-up people only but so-called ‘innocent’ children as well.

Elder children express jealousy towards their younger siblings because more attention is given towards them by parents. Some smart children compete for attention and the rest maintain jealous intentions towards their younger siblings.

Jealously runs high in children too,
even more than grown-ups.

Generally, we blame women for getting more jealous, possessive and nagging but it’s not the entire truth. Insecurity out of possessiveness and sense of ownership leads to jealously so men too become jealous especially when they think that the other man is threat to his current relationship status with his lady.

If a man learns that another attractive man is getting attention of his lady then he might feel jealous about her for making him to feel insecure or also about the man for being more attention-worthy then him. Both men and women feeling jealous about their partners or the other person approaching them is red signal for both parties. It shouldn’t be ignored at all.

So how to identify if a person feeling jealous about you or others in real-time? Keenly observe the way the person is looking at you at the given moment. The jealous person would give short lasting fake 'plastic' smile when you smile at the person. The person would give away subtle signs of anger, fear and sadness through its face, body and voice. Mostly of the time, it would be anger and/or sadness.

Along with same, if the person is looking at you without battling eyelids, narrowed eyes and closely lips; you can assume that feeling of insecurity is taking hold of the person’s mind. Most of the time, a jealous person would cross its both arms on its chest while looking at you or being around you while you’re doing something or interacting with others.

When it comes to interacting verbally, the person wouldn’t respond to you comfortably, fluently, continuously or spontaneously. If you think that the person would try to avoid or stay way from you then it's not at all true. In fact, if time permits, the person would find opportunities to be around you so that more and more clues could be collected from you on a regular basis.

Even from long distance, the person would try to listen you and keep eyes on you. On the contrary, person or a partner who doesn't feel insecure about you wouldn't track your movements, interactions and activities continuously.

Jealously: There's no smoke without fire.

A jealous or insecure person might not pose immediate harm to you but matter can get worst in near future if the person couldn’t get out of strong clutches of the green monster. Jealousy might protect us like a shield but it would be unwise to keep it getting thicker and heavier by passing time. Such shield would no longer prove useful to cover one’s insecurities. Would it? What you personally think?

We have to accept reality and overcome insecurity. Everybody isn’t truly complete or perfect and most importantly - lacks in something. Everybody lacks something and we all need each other. It's the only way of overcoming jealousy and/or letting others don’t feel uncontrollably jealous about.

Many beautiful, healthy, wealthy, strong and successful people are living an apparently low profile and simple life. They help others too. They remain quite alert and polite while talking, flaunting, exhibiting or exaggerating about what they currently have or going to have in near future.

This induces less or no jealous feelings in others. Actually, they help others to overcome feelings of lacking and shortcoming. I personally know such wonderful persons. Do you personally know anyone?

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