Is Body Language Universal?

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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div></div> </div> <article class="topic-content content mt-20"><figure class="md-assembly md-feature-assembly print-false" data-type="1" data-descid="1"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/45/213945-050-65426C83/Frowning-little-girl.-Angry-annoyed.jpg" target="_blank" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center " data-href="*"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/45/213945-050-65426C83/Frowning-little-girl.-Angry-annoyed.jpg?w=600&q=60" alt="Frowning little girl. Angry annoyed" data-width="1600" data-height="1068" loading="eager"><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class=""><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div><cite class="credit d-block mt-5">© zdravinjo—iStock/Getty Images</cite></figcaption></figure> <p class="topic-paragraph">A wave. A thumbs-up. A middle finger. You may think you know what these common gestures signify…but what happens when you wave to your European friend across the street and she turns to walk the other way?</p><span class="MOD1"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph">There’s a reason for that reaction, and it isn’t because your friend is tired of your company. While most Americans interpret a wave as a friendly greeting or goodbye, the same motion is just as likely to communicate the word <em>no</em> in parts of Europe and Latin America. The same dissonance is true of other signals: designating the number two or a peace sign by holding up two fingers with the palm facing inward is inoffensive in most of the world, but it’s a vulgar gesture in the United Kingdom and Australia. Curling your pointer finger toward your body might summon someone across the room in the U.S. but is a way of saying “goodbye” in Italy.</p><span class="MOD2"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph">Looking at these differences, it may feel fairly obvious that body language isn’t universal. But why?</p><span class="MOD3"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph">The most common understanding of the subject relates body language to spoken language. Gestures with specific meanings, while colloquially called “body language,” belong to the field of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/kinesics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">kinesics</a>, an area of study that distinguishes these movements from more instinctive actions, such as smiling when happy or looking away when embarrassed. Developed by American anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell in the 1950s, kinesics uses the building blocks of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/linguistics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">linguistics</a> to understand how gestures generate meaning. As the units of sound that form spoken words are called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/phoneme" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">phonemes</a>, the units of motion that form kinesic gestures are called kinemes—and, as the same phoneme can communicate a different meaning across languages, the same kineme can also communicate different meanings in different cultures or contexts. For example, the thumbs-up kineme signifies a job well done (or a desire to hitch a ride) in North America, but it means something extremely rude in Australia when moved up and down. And the mixed messages don’t stop there. In Germany the same thumbs-up kineme represents the number one, but in Japan it means “five” instead.</p><span class="MOD4"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph">There’s one more complication in understanding <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/nonverbal-communication" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">nonverbal communication</a>, though. Although body language isn’t universal, the emotions behind it may be. In a <a class="external" target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.paulekman.com/resources/universal-facial-expressions/" data-show-preview="true">study</a> performed by American researcher Paul Ekman, participants from the West, insular African communities, and New Guinea were shown a collection of more than 10,000 portraits illustrating different facial expressions (a man frowning with a furrowed brow indicates anger; the same man frowning with downcast eyes indicates sadness). When 90 percent of participants, regardless of cultural background, identified the same emotions in the photos, Ekman concluded that there were at least seven universal facial expressions: anger, disgust, fear, surprise, happiness, sadness, and contempt.</p><span class="MOD5"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph">So while a wave or thumbs-up may not translate on your next trip abroad, a genuine expression of emotion probably will.</p><span class="MOD6"></span> <span class="AM-END-OF-ARTICLE am-inline"></span></article> </div> </div> </div> <aside class="cm-rightrail d-none d-md-block ad-rail"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <div class="grid gx-0"> <div class="col"> <div class="md-loading hidden display-4 font-weight-normal"></div> <div class="text-center my-20 mb-100"> <button class="md-infinite-load-next btn btn-blue" data-value="next-page">Load More</button> </div> </div> <div class="col-md-da-320 hidden-xs"> </div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Story","templateName":"DEMYSTIFIED","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":11,"pageId":9794,"pageLength":null,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/story-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"D","adLeg":"D","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Story","pageSubtype":"DEMYSTIFIED","articleTemplateType":null,"gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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