Many of you know that I have been
researching the relationship between body language and the DISC personality
assessment for many years. After reading about movement analysis being used to
determine Putin’s decision making style I have been looking at some of the
newest research in personality and nonverbal communication. Here is a great
article on some of the research. I have several other articles if you search on
my blog for personality or DISC or gestures and speakers.
Note the yellow highlighted information.
The following article was posted on http://postnihilism.blogspot.com/2011/07/can-body-language-indicate-personality.html
Can Body Language Indicate Personality
Traits?
In
my previous discussion paper, “The Tarot as a Source of Ancient Personality
Theory”, one of the more interesting findings was that some characteristics of
the court cards, which are believed to represent people in your life, had to do
with the way people move, such as ‘graceful’, ‘swift’, ‘acute’, ‘slow’ and
‘clumsy’. As a result this researcher was lead to question whether personality
may actually be indicated in how a person moves and carries themselves.
However, current personality theory does not associate traits with physical
movement within any of the Five Factor Model of personality characteristics.
Even though people tend to use their first impressions about a person to make
quick judgments regarding personality, surprisingly little research is
available to further our understanding of how exactly this might work. In this
paper we will examine whether any current research on body language could lend
itself to personality theory and expand present knowledge in this area.
An interesting tool recently used in
assessment of personality and body language is Laban Movement Analysis. Created
by Rudolf Laban to describe interpret and document human movement for dancers,
actors, athletes and health professionals, LMA is also being incorporated by
psychologists into these theories by correlating movements with emotional state
and personality variables (Levy & Duke, 2003). LMA also takes a gender
based approach, finding subtle differences in the expression of particular
emotions between males and females. For example, in males anxiety may be
expressed by increased use of shrinking movements while dominance, achievement
and exhibitionism is expressed by decreased use of enclosing movements.
Females, in contrast, expressed anxiety by a decreased tendency to change back
and fourth between efforts and lack of emphasis in effort, as well as decreased
sagittal movements. Dominance and exhibition is expressed by a decreased use of
spreading movements. This indicates that there may be some subtle gender based
difference in emotional expression in body language.
Another study examined whether body
language could be linked to desire for control. In a study more than 700
participants were asked to sit and stand in a variety of positions (Rhoads,
2002). In addition, the same subjects completed need for control tests and the
results were correlated. Results indicated that people who crossed their arms
with the right arm in the dominant position, with the right shoulder elevated,
as well as which side they favor when they stand or sit was positively
correlated with desire for control. Highly controlling people are associated
with characteristics in the low agreeableness trait.
A very informative study covers a much
more holistic view of personality assessment based on body language.
Politicians giving speeches were transformed into animated stick figures and
shown to subjects, who rated the five personality factors of the figure based
on gestures (Koppensteiner & Grammer, 2010). Overall subjects were found to
be very adept at associating meaning to gestures and movements. Stick figures
with more low arm gesture activity interrupted with smaller periods of high
activity were regarded as more agreeable than stick figures with overall high
activity. High extraversion was associated with high overall activity and only
brief low activity periods. Stick figures with greater head movements were
considered less conscientious, more neurotic and less open compared to stick
figures with head movements with less amplitude. High openness was associated
with pronounced changes in movement direction, and round movements were
considered linked to less openness. Making smooth transitions in movement from
one activity peak to the next was associated with low neuroticism, whereas high
neuroticism was linked to sudden changes in gestures and making these changes
more often. Although further study is required to confirm if these traits are
consistent, it gives us considerable insight integrating particular movement
patterns with trait theory.
Overall we can start to see connections between body
language and personality. High extraversion seems to be connected to more
movement, broader, sweeping movements and increased saggital movement. High
neuroticism could be seen in shrinking, enclosing movements, decreased saggital
movement, more head movement and more sudden, jerky movement. Openness may be
linked with more profound changes in movement direction, and conscientiousness
with less head movements. Agreeableness may be linked to low periods of activity
with short periodic bursts of high activity, as well as displaying more
submissive body language such as crossing arms with the left arm dominant as
well as sitting and standing with the left shoulder favored relative to the
right.
Going
back to the original traits under consideration we could see swiftness as a
trait of high extraversion and slowness associated with low extraversion.
Graceful gestures could indicate a smoothness of movement linked to low
neuroticism. Finally, acute movement could also indicate increased confidence,
and hence low neuroticism, or it may indicate high neuroticism if gestures are
sharp and change frequently. It is surprising this has not been an area of more
intense research, since the research that has been done would seem to indicate
that this method of personality assessment is constantly employed by nearly
everyone, and deserves to be better understood.
References
Koppensteiner,
M. & Grammer, K. 2010. Motion patterns in political speech and their
influence on personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 44,
374-379.
Levy,
J. A. & Duke, M. P. 2003. The use of Laban Movement Analysis in the study
of personality, emotional state and movement style: An exploratory
investigation of the veridicality of “body language”. Individual Differences
Research, 1, 39-63.
Rhoads, S. A. 2002.
Using body language as a measurement of the personality trait of desire for
control. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and
Engineering, 63, 2996
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
