Body language: Motivating signals

Summary: There’s little or no control over the involuntary signals conveyed by our body language. Human and other primates use gestural signals as guides for their own behaviour. The emotional contents are contagious.


Our behaviour, we realize, can telegraph our thoughts.

So we put a good deal of effort into being ‘correct’ at work or in social gatherings. ‘Rules’, social or cultural, are imposed to control voluntary movements in interpersonal relationships.

Tuned to visuals

Despite these safeguards however, there’s little or no control over the involuntary signals (of emotional messages), conveyed by body language – posture, expressions, tone of voice, etc.

Unbeknownst to us, our bodies are tuning through visual, non-verbal cues into ‘understanding’, ‘resonating’, and ‘responding’, all at the same time.

At unconscious levels, we’re emotionally involved with the environment and others we see around us.

The body language

Non-verbal communication isn’t an alternative to speech, but an integral part of language clearly providing clues to sense making.

Researchers at the University of Tilburg, Netherlands explain that we’re actually so sensitive to living and non-living environments that imagery can bring on strong emotional reactions.

So we’re moved to laughter or tears watching a movie or seeing a painting, a sculpture, or just pictures – each image we perceive is worth a thousand words to us.

Human and other primates are especially sensitive to gestural signals. They use them as guides for their own behaviour.

Precise information

Thus, body language is still a very potent motivator of group action. It sends out information that is more precise than speech. The emotional contents are contagious, touching group members, inducing activity.

Even the casual observer can understand the message, and quite unconsciously, experience fellow feelings. All of us carry this strong tendency just as most animals, to do as others do to ‘survive’ as a group.

Emotional arousal

Response depends on the degree of emotional arousal. For example, when a little afraid, a person may show it fleetingly in eyes or face. This means low arousal, and its significance is lost unless others around catch the look and interpret it correctly.

But when the degree of arousal shoots up and the person is terror-stricken, he/she also runs for cover. Distress, clearly enacted, finds ‘like-mindedness’ forthwith.

Onlookers become attentive instantly, their own emotional states rising in response to the cues they are receiving. The collective intent resonates and surges. Everybody runs for cover – without a word being spoken!

Cont’d 2…Twist of the thinking brain