RETHINKING BODY LANGUAGE Challenging all of our old assumptions, Rethinking Body Language builds on the most recent cutting-edge research to offer a new theoretical perspective on this subject that will transform the way we look at other people. In contrast to the traditional view that body language is primarily concerned with the expression of emotions and the negotiation of social relationships, Geoffrey Beattie argues instead that gestures reflect aspects of our thinking but in a different way to verbal language. Critically, the spontaneous hand movements that people make when they talk often communicate a good deal more than they intend. This ground-breaking book takes body language analysis to a whole new level. Engagingly written by one of the leading experts in the field, it shows how we can detect deception in gesture–speech mismatches and how these unconscious movements can give us real insight into people’s underlying implicit attitudes. Geoffrey Beattie is Professor of Psychology at Edge Hill University. He is the author of 20 books and over 100 journal articles, and was awarded the Spearman Medal by the BPS in recognition of outstanding published work in psychology. He has presented a number of television programmes and was also the resident on-screen psychologist for 11 series of Big Brother, specialising in body language and social behaviour. RETHINKING BODY LANGUAGE __________________________________ How Hand Movements Reveal Hidden Thoughts Geoffrey Beattie First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Routledge All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Beattie, Geoffrey. Rethinking body language: how hand movements reveal hidden thoughts / Geoffrey Beattie. – 1 Edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-415-53888-6 (hb) — ISBN 978-0-415-53889-3 (softcover) 1. Body language. 2. Gesture—Psychological aspects. 3. Hand. I. Title. BF637.N66.B4297 2016 153.6′9—dc23 2015034712 ISBN: 978-0-415-53888-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-53889-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-88018-1 (ebk) Typeset in Joanna by Florence Production, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK This book is dedicated to Emeritus Professor Alan North, former Vice-President and Dean of the University of Manchester, and valued friend. CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: a new perspective on an old problem 2. Two separate languages? 3. Where the action is 4. ‘A remarkable biological miracle’ 5. Images in the hands, images in the mind 6. Different vehicles of meaning 7. Gestures and the frustrations of everyday life 8. Speech is only half the story 9. Who or what the hands portray 10. How our eyes are drawn to the gestures of others 11. ‘The gesture limits itself intelligently to what matters’ 12. Manipulating the salience of individual elements to see how gestures respond 13. How metaphoric gestures affect us 14. Putting iconic gestures into TV advertisements 15. How iconic gestures can leak the truth 16. Unconscious gesture can leak unconscious attitude 17. Concluding remarks References Index PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is a continuation of some ideas which I first developed in Visible Thought, published by Routledge in 2003. Since that time I have continued to actively research this area of how gestures articulate our thoughts alongside speech, and this book describes much of this new, and hopefully exciting, research. The book thus necessarily owes a great deal to my fellow researchers, and the co-authors of the various published empirical papers, and I would like to thank very publicly Brian Butterworth (who supervised my PhD at the University of Cambridge), Rima Aboudan (who did a PhD with me at the University of Sheffield), and Jane Coughlan, Heather Shovelton, Judith Holler, Jamie Ross, Kate Webster, Doron Cohen and Laura Sale (all PhD students, research assistants or research fellows at the University of Manchester). Doron and Laura started off as gesture researchers but became experts in deception! I would also particularly like to thank Laura McGuire (working with me now at Edge Hill University) for everything basically. All of my co-researchers have made very significant contributions to the work I report here. I have tried to tie this body of empirical work together, in order to demonstrate why the spontaneous hand movements generated in talk are so significant. I would also like to single out a number of academics in particular for special thanks. I have been inspired throughout my academic career by the imaginative and creative thinking of David McNeill, now Emeritus Professor at the University of Chicago, whom I regard as both a mentor and a friend. He is the inspiration behind much of the work I do in this area. I would also like to thank Professor Marcel Danesi from the University of Toronto and Editor of Semiotica. Both of these academics have been incredibly supportive of my work and this support has been invaluable, especially over the past few years. Alan North (to whom this book is dedicated) and Christine Rogers were there when I needed them, and I owe them an extreme debt of gratitude. I am fortunate now to be working in a great university (Edge Hill) that encourages fresh thinking and allows important ideas to develop and flourish, and I would like to thank the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, George Talbot, and the Vice Chancellor, John Cater, for their faith in me from the beginning and their constant, unwavering support. I think that I can help make Edge Hill University what it aspires to be.