PDF Summary:The Dictionary of Body Language, by Joe Navarro

Do you want to better understand nonverbal communication? Do you wish you could read people’s emotions using their body language? In The Dictionary of Body Language, retired FBI Special Agent Joe Navarro offers a reference guide that explains a wide breadth of body language cues, creating a foundation for studying nonverbal communication. Navarro argues that with this knowledge, you can improve your relationships and understanding of other people, both at work and in your personal life.

In this guide, we’ll touch on Navarro’s tips for understanding the context of body language cues—for instance, why you should assess body language cues collectively, not individually. Then, we’ll examine some of the body language cues that indicate emotions, such as repetitive actions that suggest anxiousness and tense postures that indicate anger. In our commentary, we’ll delve deeper into some of the science behind body language and discuss how you can apply knowledge of nonverbal communication in everyday situations.

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Experts suggest that we feel hot when we’re stressed and anxious because of the fight or flight response—our body’s way of getting us ready to face danger. When we go into fight or flight mode, our body sends out stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones increase blood flow to the muscles, making us feel warm.

It may also be a combination of stress and high temperatures that drives someone to engage in calming, cooling behaviors. High heat itself can lead to increases in cortisol levels, nausea, fatigue, and heart palpitations. These symptoms resemble those of a panic attack, which may result in feelings of anxiety and fear.

The following body language cues calm by cooling, suggesting that the person displaying them may be overheated because of anxiety or stress.

Action #1: Increasing Airflow to the Body

According to Navarro, people will commonly try to cool their bodies when stressed by increasing airflow to their skin. For example, you might see a stressed, overheated person adjusting their hair to increase airflow to the head and neck: Men usually cool the top of their heads by threading their fingers through their hair, while women typically hold up their hair from the back of their neck.

(Shortform note: This gender-based pattern of cooling behaviors may be linked to modern hair fashions in many cultures. Long hair is often viewed as feminine (meaning women have more hair covering the neck), while short hair is frequently viewed as more masculine (meaning it’s easy for men to run their fingers through it). However, hair length is increasingly becoming less gendered as more people express themselves outside of the traditional gender binary. Therefore, gender may no longer be the best way to define these behaviors.)

Action #2: Sweating Profusely

Navarro states that you may observe people sweating profusely when they’re stressed. He notes that this is especially common when someone’s nervous or trying to deceive you. Sweating is their body’s way of cooling them down—the added moisture creates a cooling effect as it evaporates from the skin.

(Shortform note: Sweating is such a common sign of stress and nervousness that it’s become an idiom in American English. When we want someone to stop worrying about something, we tell them, “Don’t sweat it.” Similarly, when we plan to pressure someone (for instance, if we plan to get them to tell the truth), we might say, “I’m going to make them sweat.”)

Boredom and Impatience

Boredom is another emotion you can often read through body language. Navarro names the following cues as typical indicators that someone’s bored or feeling impatient:

Action #1: Resting the Chin on the Hands, With Slack Features

According to the author, people who are bored often rest their chin on their hands (palms up) while wearing a slack expression. (Shortform note: According to some experts, how many hands you use to support your head suggests different feelings. —If you rest your head in one hand, it may actually signal interest. If you rest your head in two hands, that usually means you’re bored or tired.)

Action #2: Tapping the Fingers in a Cascading Pattern

Navarro argues that when people tap their fingers on a surface, starting with one finger and then following with the others in a quick, cascading pattern, it usually indicates that they’re impatiently waiting for someone or something to finish. For example, you might see students doing this as they’re waiting for class to end.

(Shortform note: Tapping fingers doesn’t always indicate boredom—you might do so because you’re nervous or listening to music you enjoy. However, it’s arguably important to pay attention to such habits as they can give people the wrong impression of your feelings. Research suggests that 55% of all human communication happens nonverbally, so body language makes up a large chunk of others’ interpretations of  your thoughts and feelings. Plus, the other person won’t necessarily know why you’re tapping, and they may jump to the most common explanation (boredom). Therefore, if you don’t want to accidentally offend people, you may want to keep your finger-tapping to a minimum.)

Disagreement and Doubt

If you see someone displaying the following body language cues, Navarro states that they likely disagree with or doubt something that’s been said:

Action #1: Pursing the Lips

When someone’s mouth pulls tightly in at the sides and pushes forward to form a rounded shape, it’s typically a signal of disagreement or disapproval. According to the author, the prominence of the forward lip-pushing typically correlates with the level of their disapproval—the more forward the mouth pushes, the more intense the emotion is.

(Shortform note: Pursing your lips may have the negative effect of offending others by signaling disapproval, but it’s also good for modulating breathing. Inhaling and exhaling with pursed lips slows the pace of your breathing, improves shortness of breath, and increases the oxygen flow to your lungs. It can be especially helpful for people with lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).)

Action #2: Raising One Eyebrow

According to the author, people sometimes raise one eyebrow and keep the other in a normal or lowered position to communicate doubt about something that’s been said. It’s a nonverbal form of questioning.

(Shortform note: This nonverbal cue isn’t something that everyone can use—only about 30% to 40% of people are able to raise one eyebrow at a time. Some experts attribute this ability to greater dexterity of the muscles on one side of the face, and others believe that we have a dominant eyebrow like we have a dominant hand. Still others think the ability may be passed down genetically.)

Anger and Irritation

Signs of anger and irritation in body language often involve muscles tensing and constricting. Navarro gives the following examples of anger-related cues:

Action #1: Narrowing the Eyes

Some people who are angry will narrow their eyes slightly, so the part of their eyes that you can see becomes smaller. In keeping with Tip #2, Navarro advises paying attention to the other body language cues that accompany this, as narrowed eyes can have multiple meanings—if someone’s truly angry, you’ll likely see tension in other parts of the face and the body, such as the jaw.

(Shortform note: In What Every BODY Is Saying, Navarro states that our eyes have automatic responses that developed through evolution: They instinctively block out things we dislike and widen in response to things we like. So when we’re angry at someone (and therefore dislike them, at least at the moment), we might instinctively narrow our field of vision to block them out. However, our eyes also instinctively block out other things, like too much light and foreign objects, which is why it’s important to look at other cues as Navarro suggests.)

Action #2: Tightening the Jaw

According to the author, anger also often manifests itself in the jaw. You might see angry people with tight, tense jaw muscles.

(Shortform note: Frequently tensing your jaw can lead to health problems down the line. These may include damage to teeth, inflammation, pain when eating and talking, lockjaw, and headaches. If you struggle with jaw tension from anger, one of the best ways to manage it is to manage your stress—try deep breathing techniques or progressive muscle relaxation, for example.)

Discomfort and Aversion

Navarro notes that body language that displays discomfort or aversion is typically closed and defensive, indicating that someone feels the need to protect themselves or step away from the situation.

(Shortform note: According to Jack Schafer and Marvin Karlins in The Like Switch, many people adopt closed defensive body language without realizing it. When we do this, it can limit our ability to make friends and new connections—if our body language communicates “don’t approach,” others will typically follow that directive. If you have trouble making new friends, take time to observe your own body language to determine if that may be a barrier.)

Navarro offers the following cues for identifying discomfort in somebody’s body language:

Action #1: Folding the Arms Across the Torso

According to the author, people often fold their arms together and hold them against their torso as if they’re giving themselves a hug—this can be a way to soothe mild discomfort, and it may not indicate distress.

(Shortform note: According to some researchers, crossing our arms is comforting because it synchronizes the left and right hemispheres of the brain, allowing them to work together more effectively. They add that bringing both arms across the midline of our body makes us feel calmer and helps us think more clearly.)

However, this posture can also suggest that someone’s trying to protect themselves because they feel unsure or unsafe. Folded arms cover the soft front torso, which contains many of the most important and vulnerable internal organs. Therefore, when we feel unsafe, we instinctively seek to protect this area.

(Shortform note: In addition to folding their arms in front of them, people might hold something such as a bag against their torso when feeling threatened. This adds a further barrier between the vulnerable part of their body and the perceived threat.)

Action #2: Positioning a Fist in Front of the Throat

According to Navarro, when people make a fist and put it in front of their throat, they’re demonstrating fear and discomfort. The gesture is defensive, protecting the soft, vulnerable part of the throat from perceived danger.

(Shortform note: The soft part at the base of our throat is vulnerable because any injury to it could affect our ability to breathe. According to Jack Schafer of The Like Switch, covering this part of the body can be an indicator of lying as well as general discomfort—liars often do this gesture when they’re afraid of being discovered.)

Action #3: Angling the Feet Away From Someone

Navarro states that people often angle their feet away from someone they don’t like. In social situations, this is a reliable indicator of people’s true feelings, even if they’re smiling and being polite.

(Shortform note: Knowledge of this cue can be helpful in understanding the dynamics of group settings, including in the workplace. If you’re in a meeting, for example, observe where other people’s feet are pointing—whoever has the most feet pointed toward them at any time is likely the person people agree with the most. When a group is debating ideas, this will be a good indicator of whose suggestion they’ll choose.)

Comfort and Confidence

In contrast to the tense, protective postures of people who are uncomfortable, angry, or afraid, people who feel comfortable and confident usually display body language that’s open and relaxed.

(Shortform note: Studies suggest that open, confident body language (also known as positive body language) can positively impact the way you feel about yourself and the way you’re perceived by others. First, some researchers have found that displaying positive body language decreases the stress hormone cortisol and increases the confidence-boosting hormone testosterone. This combination triggers confidence, increased mental clarity, and a stronger ability to work under pressure. Additionally, research suggests that people view those who display positive body language as more trustworthy and likable.)

Navarro suggests that the following actions indicate comfort and confidence:

Action #1: Relaxation of the Eye Muscles

Navarro states that comfortable people have relaxed muscles all around the face, especially near the eyes. In contrast, uncomfortable people show tension in these muscles, which may appear as squinting or scrunching of the skin. The muscles surrounding the eyes tend to show tension before other parts of the face, so this is a good spot to observe real-time changes in someone’s mood.

(Shortform note: Though relaxed muscles around the eyes may indicate feelings of ease, tension around the eyes doesn’t necessarily indicate internal strife: It can also be a symptom of eyestrain. Eyestrain occurs when you focus on something closely for too long—for instance, when reading a book or staring at a laptop. It can cause achy eyelids, muscle spasms of the eyes, difficulty keeping the eyes open, and headaches. Eyestrain is common, as many of us work at computers and spend a lot of time looking at smartphones every day. To prevent it, schedule periodic rest breaks for your eyes—every 20 minutes, take a break from your task and for 20 seconds, stare at something that’s at least 20 feet away.)

Action #2: Opening of the Shoulders

According to Navarro, a strong signal of confidence is extending the shoulders to be wide and open. You might observe this in people with authority and power, such as business executives. This pose contrasts with the looser, more inward posture of someone who’s less confident.

Sitting Up Straight May Increase Our Confidence in Our Opinions

While wide shoulders can reflect inner confidence, research suggests that other open postures can actually increase confidence—specifically, confidence in our opinions.

In one study, psychologists asked half of the participants to sit in an upright, open posture with their chests out. They asked the other half to slouch with their backs curved. Then, they had all participants write down three positive traits or three negative traits about themselves (related to job performance).

Later, they asked the participants to rate how well they’d do as a professional employee. The participants who sat upright while writing rated themselves consistently with the traits they’d previously written down, whether they chose to write positive or negative characteristics. In contrast, the participants who wrote down their thoughts while slumping rated themselves in ways that were much less consistent with the traits they originally chose. These findings suggest that the open, straight-backed posture gave participants more confidence in their opinions—whether they were positive or negative—than the less confident, closed posture.

Excitement

Finally, Navarro describes several cues that indicate excitement. These often involve springy, energetic, upward movements. (Shortform note: The springy movement of excited body language may come from our need to prevent emotional overwhelm. The feeling of excitement usually comes from a surge of the feel-good neurochemical dopamine, which can be pleasurable and energizing. However, it can also be intense enough to feel overwhelming, so we move around to release some of the energy that comes with it.)

The following are two examples of excited behaviors:

Action #1: Rapidly Raising and Lowering the Eyebrows

Navarro notes that when greeting friends and family, people often quickly raise and lower their eyebrows in a single movement. The movement happens in less than a second. This signifies that someone’s happy and excited to see the person they’re greeting.

(Shortform note: Psychologists, sociologists, and ethologists have studied this cue—nicknamed the “eyebrow flash” because of its rapid movement—for many years. Their findings suggest that it’s a nonverbal signal that ubiquitously signals warmth, comfort, and excitement across the world. Most famously, one 1970s ethologist identified this nonverbal cue in more than a dozen areas, including Japan, Samoa, Papua, France, South America, and Africa.)

Action #2: Being Springy on the Feet

Sometimes, when someone’s excited, they’ll spring up and down on their feet. According to Navarro, you’ll most often observe this behavior in children, but adults do it occasionally too.

(Shortform note: Springing up and down on your feet can be more than just a natural reaction to excitement—it’s also a tai chi move. One tai chi expert calls this move the “two-year-old bounce” because of its resemblance to young children’s springy movements. Its purpose is to help you feel the springiness of your body, loosen and lubricate your joints, and enhance the elasticity of the ligaments that connect them. To perform this move, relax your body and tune into all of your joints—your ankles, knees, hips, and so on. Then, gently bounce up and down (don’t push yourself up too powerfully), feeling the motion in these joints.)