Descriptions, Colors, Memories...
I asked my husband what color our car was. Then I asked him to describe what our daughter looks like. Then I asked him to tell me what our last conversation was about.
He answered each question and then he said, "Honey, what in the world is going on? Why are you asking me those questions?" He laughed nervously, raised his eyebrows, opened his eyes widely and stared at me. I had to laugh at his expression, and I had to tell him, he’d failed every one of the eye body language signs.
I attended an online writing workshop recently and one of the subjects discussed was a tic. This interested me since I give my characters tics. Certain movements they repeat when they are feeling a certain way. Some voluntary and some involuntary, like one of the ladies wears her hair in a tight bun, but periodically when she's unsure of something she'll run her hand across it as if she's putting a stray hair in it's proper place. I also I have an MC whose ear tips turn red when he's angry or embarrassed.
I found that I mostly look straight at people no matter if I'm thinking, remembering, telling the truth or lying. When I'm alone the eye facial movement that I seem to have the most is the looking up to the right. That's in first person. If I were looking at you, you would be looking up to the left. The article says I am constructing images in my head.
The art of reading body language is just that an art. I believe you also need to get to know your subjects and how they react to certain situations in order to read them more accurately. You know your characters as well as you know the people who are closest to you so you should be able to give them realistic tics.
I saw this on one of the research sites and decided to try it.
You try it too: Sit-up straight, raise your head, take a deep breath and exhale deeply, open your eyes, pull your shoulders back, and smile. You feel more awake, energized and confident, don’t you? Let me know.
Here’s another site I enjoyed while I was researching body language:
http://www.kevinhogan.com/bodylanguage1.htm
If you followed the above link, let me know if you feel these people will stay together.
By
Cher'ley Grogg
http://www.freewebs.com/cherley/index.htm
I tried to edit this a little and couldn't get it to come back up.
ReplyDeleteI love this topic, Cher'ley ;o)
ReplyDeleteIt's one I use daily in real life. Body language says A LOT. You can tell if a person is really smiling (happy) in a picture, or real life, by looking at... (deleted, cause I want you to try this!) There's a super fun quiz that uses pictures to see if you can spot the "fake smile" -- check it out and see how you score:
BBC Quiz on Spot Fake Smiles
For liars, eye shifts are a big one. There's a whole art of judging professional speakers and political candidates by the way they advert their gaze.
Another big one, for me, is what we call "snubbing" -- it's rubbing your nose if you disagree with someone. Try it out! Tell someone you know something that you know they'll disagree with, and see if they rub their nose. (You have to be a good actress to accomplish that with someone you know though) Or try it with an acquaintance for a more accurate assessment.
Anyway, let me know how you all did with the "Spot Fake Smiles" quiz. List your score out of 20. How many you got correct. =oD
Thanks for posting this, Cher'ley ~ excellent.
Hugs,
Ang
Oopsie! I may have put the wrong link. Please click on: Spot the Fake Smiles
ReplyDeleteHere's the raw link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/
It's a challenge... GO!
Ok, I've always been a compulsive quiz taker, so I did the "fake smile" quiz and got 19 out of 20 right. =) So, does that mean I have a fairly well developed b.s. meter?
ReplyDeleteI got 14 out of 20. I thought more of them were fake than there were.
ReplyDeleteHow did you do with the couples?
http://www.kevinhogan.com/bodylanguage1.htm
Man, I thought I was doing good with 12 out of 20. But I did always try to look at the eyes, the ones I knew were genuine usually had a special "twinkle"
ReplyDeleteI tried to look at the eyes and the muscles and eveything I thought would give them away. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI think it'd be different if they were in person. I feel I can tell better then.
I had a hard time finding this blog again. There was a link in it I wanted to follow. Strange.
ReplyDelete