Patti Wood Body Language Expert Blog

Patti's Reads the Body Language of the Presidential Candidates and Other Speakers at the Republican and Democratic Conventions

Click the link below to see Patti on CNN and hear her insights!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/09/09/exp-patti-wood-conventions.cnn

Here are Patti's rough notes from her recent appearance on CNN reading the body language at the Republican and Democratic Conventions.

Romney’s entrance: 14

His face is smiling. But look at how stiff his back is tension rod up through his back and neck. (He looks like he hurt his back. He is so stiff. His body is in a straight line. He keeps his lower body away. Romney doesn’t do what I call the Clinton lean in. When he came up he would step in and bring his whole body around each person in a symbolic embrace.

He comes out on stage. His body stiff and hunched as he walks to the podium. He gives a rather stilted hand to heart gesture but it looks like faked humility. He is acting humble and teary-eyed but here he’s not in the moment. He is acting to the audience rather than connected to them as he comes on stage.

Stiff posture no emotional Body Movement - He is more animated than in past speeches but he still has that stiff body language. (Time code 7:10 and then at more so at 7:38 he is talking about freedom, but his body is locked, arms at sides freedom to build a life) This video doesn’t show him in close up it goes to the crowd but in the video I first watched his gestures should come up. Only a handful of gestures in first 15 minutes of speech

Lack of Synchronicity of words and message - you move to illustrate what you are saying make us feel a candidate is sincere. Instead look at Romney 7:38 (This is so wild watch him say “Again when every new wave of immigrant’s looked up to the statue of liberty or knelt down to kiss the shores of freedom.” But in that truly emotional content. He doesn’t move or look up or gesture up as he speaks of freedom. He looks like a little kid who memorized a speech.

First real gesture at Puny gesture - When He says”freedom to build” his arms should have swept up. Instead he stands frozen. But not just what we wanted but it’s what Americans deserved. (9:05) He gives his first gesture a puny pinched finger gesture down. This gesture pressing the thumb against index and pointy finger make a point not a weapon like he wants to squeeze emotion out of you and make my point.

Again at (10:45 or so) his words are passionate and his voice has emotion but his body is stiff as he says, “Work harder… Hug your kids a little longer. Again no illustrator gestures. Made it ring false. As he said, “I wish Obama had succeeded because I wanted America to succeed.” I wished he had shown more passion. “

Lack of connection to audience “With your help we will do something,” He had the opportunity to look at the audience and do an open palm Gathering Gesture gesturing out and bring the gesture back to himself. Instead he kept his hands frozen at his sides and then at (11:23) you see him do eye shutter and close his mouth. Indicating nonverbally Romney either doesn’t feel we can do something or he does not feel he needs our help. Gestures my country deserves better point down cupped hand.

Great Emotional Moment - Typically in Romney’s speech his voice is very monotone. In this speech he has more emotion in his voice than any other speech and has some genially emotional moment. One of the few in first 15 minutes, “every day dad gave mom a rose” pointing, and his eyes teared up. My mom and dad were true partners. Should women have less say than our men? Eyes welled up his voice cracked.

Obama

Comes out claps with the crowd. It’s not about him. He smiles and says thank you several times.

Starts his speech real and warm (:49 “Michele I love you so much,” This is a very warm real moment. Uses humor quickly and well as he makes a reference to his daughter’s behavior” Lightens the first moment.

He leans forward opens and grabs the podium “I accept the nomination for president” then he bows slightly forward slightly humble and holding in emotion flat tight smile.

Gestures frequently and comfortably 4:12 he is giving multiple gestures in a sentence. Expressing himself comfortably. Both fists closed (5:34 or so) double our exports.

Tobacco chew finds much of what he has to say distasteful. Challenges of our time. 8:59 does that over 20 times in the first half of his speech.

Truly emotional 1 Veteran story, He gives me hope. Share that hope with me. I ask you tonight for your vote, his voice is emotional and truly humble.

Great Strength in his gestures “If you believe that new energy can power our future. Ladders of ..” Watch his gestures grow in strength size and frequency.

Best moment in his speech for Democrats (38:09) “Every One gets a fair shot voice cracks with powerful emotions. Deserves his fair share.

Best example of his best gestures. (38:38 or so) He says, “Yes our path is harder. Yes our road is longer but we travel he grasps up as if to ask us to pull ourselves up from our bootstraps.

(39.20 or so) We pull each other up... We draw strength from victories. Gesture strike out hold out, keep our eyes fixed on that distant horizon.

Finger pointing

Clinton is laughing and smiling and very comfortable with the crowd roaring after he is introduced. That is very hard to do. We are here to nominate a president (long power of the pause) and I GOT one in mind Clinton, First Thank you his voice is warm. We have got one in mind, Point gestures high and confident finger point, crisp and elevated thumb clasp points slow slide then at 1:26 knowing all the while hands up above waist palms open fingers spread.

1:16 Clinton is strong and confident and in control right out of the gate.

Listen to his voice striking on each word the pausing, “Just six weeks before the elections,

2.06 “A man who believes with no doubt.”

Clinton gestures with almost every single statement. He has over 14 gestures in the first minute and 45 seconds of his speech. These frequent gesture show he is confident. Sure of his feeling and open to revealing them.

6:14 Watch Clinton use the power of the point as he says, “We know that investments in education and infrastructure they increase new jobs. “

Jennifer Granholm: Great emotion enthusiasm open posture. She has more fun than any other speaker. Stand- up comic Pep squad Glee club of speakers. Show us her side. Holds the gesture longer. Waits for the full impact of her words and gestures.

Chris Christie - Enjoys himself out of the box. New Jersey republican. Likeable and funny Comedy. Emphasis he knows how to punch just the right word. On the first four minutes he says we have to FIGHT, or I am HER son He gestures naturally and easily, though at times slow and delayed.

Open palm internal state of openness and honesty. In Clinton, Granholm, Ann Romney

Closed palm dominance and authority can you get that for me.

Ann Romney consistent open window body language show. Open palm internal state of openness and honesty.

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Body Language Mistakes That Can Cost You The Job

Patti was interviewed by Forbes on body language mistakes that can cost you the job. Check the link below for Patti's insights.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/08/20/interview-body-language-mistakes-that-can-cost-you-the-job-2/#channel=f198376b0892fa6&origin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com&channel_path=%2Fsites%2Fjacquelynsmith%2F2012%2F08%2F20%2Finterview-body-language-mistakes-that-can-cost-you-the-job-2%2F%3Ffb_xd_fragment%23xd_sig%3Df35881dfbb8874c%26

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Patti's Recent Interview on HLN Analyzing Zimmerman's Body Language

Patti at the CNN studio on HLN analyzing Zimmerman's
body language

Pictures from Patti's Recent Program in Pittsburg, PA

Pictures of Pittsburg, PA

Pictures from Patti's Recent Keynote and Breakout Session

Pictures of Patti's recent Keynote and Breakout Session
in Pittsburg, PA

Patti in Scottsdale, AZ

Scottsdale, AZ where I did a program for OMEGA

Patti Will Be On ShowBiz Tonight at 11 pm Analyzing Robert Pattinson's Body Language During His Recent Interviews

Robert Pattinson talks Kristen Stewart and Cosmopolis

on Good Morning America and John Stewart Show

A body language read by Patti Wood

Body Language Expert Patti Wood will be on ShowBiz Tonight at 11 pm giving her in-depth analysis of Robert Pattinson’s body language on John Stewart’s show on August 14^th and his Good Morning America Interview today on August 15^th. Below are Patti Wood’s body language rough notes on Robert’s body language in those two interviews as well as his interview on ShowBiz last night.

John Stewart’s Show and Good Morning America Interviews

Feet and legs are down and flexed in the ready to jump up out of the chair and run flexed position. Robert makes a joke, he comforts him, does a head protection comfort cue head scratch. He doesn’t like what’s going on hand over the groin to partial fig leaf protection.

He’s given a cereal box and he has fun for a moment. His body language is playful. Then he puts both hands in his lap like a school boy about to be reprimanded.

How are you doing, “He does an avoidance cluster of cues, his body turns away, he goes for the coffee and you see a micro facial cue of sadness he looks down and eyes partially closed and down.

Then he hand blocks with coffee instead of grabbing the handle so he tries to cover his mouth and curls and presses in his lips to suppress what he is really feeling, a mixture of sadness in his eyes and anger at the mouth. As he puts down the cup the anger cluster is emphasized with a tongue thrust that says I am mad at you for asking that question ‘He says, “I mean…pauses he shakes his head no, he shakes again not just his head but his whole body. He avoids the question looking at his fans. They seem pretty excited about it. And he laughs, this time his head comes down and the laugh and smile show an effort to reduce tension, (laughter and anger cover deception or withholding of information)

I can see where this works for him. His next laugh brings his body up out of his seat as if he wants to escape or this gives him the chance to escape. He sits back in the chair relaxes and crosses his legs. He is ready to be there.

What drew you to this role? Look at the dramatic shift to centered still body relaxed voice.

And though he does another head scratch when they come back to him after showing the suggestive sex scene, he follows it with a flirty showing of the palm and impish grin. And now when he laughs he comes more naturally up and out of his chair.

ShowBiz Tonight Interview

Asked “So how are you doing”

Look at the immediate cluster of withdrawal avoidance mixed with forced attention cues

He lowers his head and shutters his eye, holds his own hand, and comforts whipping off the sweat move. Then forces his eyes wide to pretend he’s paying attention.

“Because the world wants to know?

He leans over to get his coffee and goes off camera. He uses the coffee cup as a shield between himself and the interviewer. Then does a tongue cleanse to clean off how he is truly feeling then says in a low stressed voice, “Yeah” gives the host an micro facial cue of awkward smiling grimace showing he’s mad he has to answer this question. Then laughs but look and listen to the laugh - characteristic award laugh but more forced. One with a tighter throat and vocal chords and instead of the head going up as it usually would in a laugh his head moves swiftly down. And then grabs the outside of the cup swinging his body again away from the interviewer to block and brings the coffee cup way up to cover as much of his face as possible and again used the exaggerated open eyes to show that he is ok and only gives a sideways glance to the interviewer.

“Difficult to hear all the reporting about you” he actually brings his brows together in slight scowl.

“Reports about you drinking” he does his fast blink (the only fast blink thus far in the interview.)

Wallowing in misery …but you look absolutely fine, “ He gives another forced laugh bringing his head down. And he does almost a snarl smile closing his eyes and turning his head away.

Then he looks at the directory. He says, “Since the first twilight.” And brings his whole hand up in a nose cleanse all the fingers whipping under his nose not once not twice but three times as he says, “you enter a realm where you get”

Interesting the look to the director helps then the directory visibly comforts him he gets comforted by the director then once the director starts speaking Robert begins to relax he is still using the cup.

“Do you just laugh it off. “ He gets a sour face and looks down again and makes an audible tongue cleanse, looks away scowls a bit.

Cost of Anger in the Workplace

Joe, a participant in my workshop, was upset when he came in this morning and in the first exercise shared his frustration. “I don’t understand why I was sent to this interpersonal skills workshop. I am a great manager. I am at work before everybody and I am the last one to leave. I walk around I tell my employees over and over again what they need to do to complete their work. I am there for them. I have an open door policy. They can talk to me anytime they want. But, everyone is walking around tense and they don’t do their work. Joe’s classmates that day already knew what could be the problem. Joe was yelling out his frustration and gesturing at us with his fist. They were scared of him. Joe needed to see how his behavior was affecting his body language and his health and his anger's impact on everyone he worked with.

”Workplace anger is costly to the employee, the company, and coworkers. Studies show that up to 42% of employee time is spent engaging in or trying to resolve conflict. This results in wasted employee time, mistakes, stress, lower morale, hampered performance, and reduced profits and or service.

In 1993 the national Safe Workplace Institute released a study showing that workplace violence costs $4.2 billion each year, estimating over 111,000 violent incidents. Further, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 500,000 victims of violent crime in the workplace lose an estimated 1.8 million workdays each year.

Clearly, poorly handled anger, frustration and resentment will sabotage business productivity.

One solution for your workplace anger is to “Check In” on your behavior. Anger can be recognized by certain facial and body language cues. Notice what you are showing about your behavior.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Why Men Look Angry and Women Look Happy

People are quicker to see anger on men's faces and happiness on women's. Is this research finding a simple case of gender stereotyping, or something more deeply rooted? When I was conducting research on smiling my clients assumed that women always smiled more than men. Women do smile more than men, when they are in public. We like our women to smile that makes all of us men and women feel safe. There are more interesting insights in the following article by Beth Azar.

By Beth Azar

April 2007, Vol 38, No. 4
Print version: page 18

It might not be surprising that people find it easier to see men as angry and women as happy. Women do tend to be the nurturers and men--well--men do commit 80 to 90 percent of all violent crimes. More surprising, perhaps, is new research suggesting that the connection between men and anger and women and happiness goes deeper than these simple social stereotypes, regardless of how valid they are.

Our brains automatically link anger to men and happiness to women, even without the influence of gender stereotypes, indicate the findings of a series of experiments conducted by cognitive psychologist D. Vaughn Becker, PhD, of Arizona State University at the Polytechnic Campus, with colleagues Douglas T. Kenrick, PhD, Steven L. Neuberg, PhD, K.C. Blackwell and Dylan Smith, PhD. They even turned it around to show that people are more likely to think a face is masculine if it's making an angry expression and feminine if its expression is happy. In fact, their research, published in February's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 92, No. 2, pages 179-190), suggests that the cognitive processes that distinguish male and female may be co-mingled with those that distinguish anger from happiness, thereby leading to this perceptual bias.

Becker proposes that this bias may stem from our evolutionary past, when an angry man would have been one of the most dangerous characters around, and a nurturing, happy female might have been just the person to protect you from harm. Evolutionary psychologist Leda Cosmides, PhD, agrees.

"If it's more costly to make a mistake of not recognizing an angry man, you would expect the [perceptual] threshold to be set lower than for recognizing an angry female," says Cosmides, of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).

More than a stereotype

Becker first noticed that people find it easier to detect anger on men and happiness on women a couple years ago while working on his dissertation at Arizona State. He was testing whether viewing an angry or happy expression "primes" people to more quickly identify a subsequent angry or happy expression. Becker confirmed his initial hypothesis, but when he ran an additional analysis to test whether the gender of the person making the facial expression affected his results, he found that gender was, by far, the biggest predictor of how quickly and accurately people identified facial expressions.

Becker couldn't find any mention of this gender effect in the literature. So he set out to confirm that people more quickly link men to anger and women to happiness and figure out why that might be.

In the first of a series of studies, 38 undergraduate participants viewed pictures of faces displaying prototypical angry and happy expressions. They pressed "A" or "H" on a computer keyboard to indicate whether the expression was angry or happy, and the researchers recorded their reaction times. As expected, participants were quicker to label male faces "angry" and female faces "happy."

The researchers then used a version of the "Implicit Association Test" to uncover unconscious biases that study participants may have linking men to anger and women to happiness. The well-documented test allows researchers to examine the strength of connections between categories, which lead to unconscious stereotypes. Becker tested whether study participants unconsciously linked male names with angry words and female names with happy words. Most did.

However, 13 students showed the opposite association (male-happy, female-angry), implying that their unconscious gender stereotypes run counter to those of the general public. It was an ideal opportunity to determine whether gender stereotypes are at the heart of the emotion/gender bias. They weren't: Just like the main group of participants, this subgroup more quickly and accurately categorized male faces as angry and female faces as happy.

"While gender stereotypes clearly influence perception, the implicit association test results made us think the effect is not solely a function of stereotypes," says Becker.

Overlapping signals

Since gender stereotypes don't seem to be the culprit, Becker looked toward more deeply rooted causes.

For example, perhaps we see more men with angry faces--on television, in movies--than we see women with angry faces, so our brains are well practiced at recognizing an angry expression on a man. To investigate this possibility, one of the co-authors, Arizona State University graduate student K.C. Blackwell, suggested they flip the experiment around. Instead of asking people to identify facial expressions while the experimenters manipulated gender, they asked them to identify whether a face was male or female while manipulating facial expressions.

"While you can argue that the majority of angry faces we see are male, it's tough to argue that the majority of male faces we see are angry," says Becker. So, if the relationship between emotional expression and gender is simply a matter of how frequently we see anger on men and happiness on women, the effect should disappear when researchers flip around the question. What they found, on the contrary, was that people were faster to identify angry faces as male and happy faces as female.

To follow-up on this finding, they conducted another study in which they used computer graphics software to control not only the intensity of facial expressions, but also the masculinity and femininity of the facial features, creating faces that were just slightly masculine or feminine. As predicted, people were more likely to see the more masculine faces as angrier, even when they had slightly happier expressions than the more feminine faces.

These findings suggest that the brain begins to associate emotions and gender very early in the cognitive process, says Becker. One possible explanation is that the brain has an "angry male detection module" enabling fast and accurate detection of what would have been one of the most dangerous entities in our evolutionary past. But Becker thinks there's a more parsimonious explanation.

"I'm more inclined to think that we've got a situation where the signals for facial expressions and those for masculinity and femininity have merged over time," he says.

In particular, features of masculinity --such as a heavy brow and angular face--somewhat overlap with the anger expression, and those of femininity--roundness and soft features--overlap with the happiness expression.

To test this hypothesis, Becker and his colleagues used computer animation software to individually manipulate masculine and feminine facial features of expressively neutral faces. As predicted, a heavier brow caused participants to see faces as both more masculine and more angry, implying that the mental processes for determining masculinity and anger may be intertwined.

"These results make a lot of sense," says University of Pittsburgh behavioral anthropologist and facial expression researcher Karen Schmidt, PhD. "Faces have always had gender, so if we're always activating gender and affect at the same time then the processing is likely highly coordinated."

The paper raises new and interesting questions about gender, says UCSB postdoctoral student Aaron Sell, PhD, who studies the evolution of gender. "Specifically," he says, "why do male and female faces differ, and what is the nature of emotion detection?"

The data appear to suggest that the anger expression has evolved to make a face seem more masculine, says Sell. Even female faces may communicate anger more effectively the more masculine they appear, says Becker. Future studies will have to tackle questions about the intentions expressed by the angry face and why looking more male would be an evolutionary advantage in communicating these intentions.

"I see this article as opening the book on a new research topic more than having the final say on the issue," says Sell.

Beth Azar is a writer in Portland, Ore.

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18 Attributes of Highly Effective Liars, Characteristics of a Good Liar

18 Attributes of Highly Effective Liars.

Have your heard of Machiavellianism? It is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct Niccolò Machiavelli might well have titled his 16^th-century Dell’arte Della Guerra (" The Art of War ") as The Art of Lying, since verbal deception—mainly, how to get away with it—was so central to his political psychology. To say that the exquisitely light-of-tongue are "talented" is, of course, sure to be met with moral outrage. We place a social premium on the ability to ferret out other people’s lies, especially, as we’ve seen just this week in the news, when they may hide brutal and ugly crimes.
Still, there is something darkly fascinating about those skilled in verbal legerdemain. And at least one team of scientists, led by Dutch psychologist Aldert Vrij , believes that it has identified the precise ingredients of "good liars." These researchers outline the following 18 traits (pdf) that, if ever they were to coalesce in a perfect storm of a single perpetrator, would strain even seasoned interrogators’ lie-detection abilities:
(1) manipulativeness. "Machiavellians" are pragmatic liars who aren’t fearful or anxious. They are "scheming but not stupid," explain the authors. "In conversations, they tend to dominate, but they also seem relaxed, talented and confident."
(2) acting. Good actors make good liars; receptive audiences encourage confidence.
(3) expressiveness. Animated people create favorable first impressions, making liars seductive and their expressions distracting.
(4) physical attractiveness. Fair or unfair, pretty people are judged as being more honest than unattractive people.
(5) natural performers. These people can adapt to abrupt changes in the discourse with a convincing spontaneity.
(6) experience. Prior lying helps people manage familiar emotions, such as guilt and fear, which can “leak” behaviorally and tip off observers.
(7) confidence. Like anything else, believing in yourself is half the battle; you’ve got to believe in your ability to deceive others.
(8) emotional camouflage. Liars "mask their stark inclination to show the emotional expressions they truly feel" by feigning the opposite affect. So you might see a liar cry, or rage to "cover their deception.
(9) eloquence. Eloquent speakers confound listeners with word play and buy extra time to ponder a plausible answer by giving long-winded responses.
(10) well-preparedness. This minimizes fabrication on the spot, which is vulnerable to detection.
(11) unverifiable responding. Concealing information ("I honestly don’t remember") is preferable to a constructed lie because it cannot be disconfirmed.
(12) information frugality. Saying as little as possible in response to pointed questions makes it all the more difficult to confirm or disconfirm details.
(13) original thinking. Even meticulous liars can be thrown by the unexpected, so the ability to give original, convincing, non-scripted responses comes in handy.
(14) rapid thinking. Delays and verbal fillers ("ums" and "ahs") signal deception, so good liars are quick-witted, thinking fast on their feet.
(15) intelligence. Intelligence enables an efficient shouldering of the “cognitive load” imposed by lying, since there are many complex, simultaneously occurring demands associated with monitoring one’s own deceptiveness.
(16) good memory. Interrogators’ ears will prick at inconsistencies. A good memory allows a liar to remember details without tripping in their own fibs.
(17) truth adherence. Lies that "bend the truth" are generally more convincing, and require less cognitive effort, than those that involve fabricating an entire story.
(18) decoding. The ability to detect suspicion in the listener allows the liar to make the necessary adjustments, borrowing from strategies in the preceding skill set. Liars can be readers of body language.
Why give the criminals such helpful advice? The authors anticipated these concerns, clarifying that they hope this knowledge will assist interrogators, rather than those sitting on the other side of the table. Furthermore, "Undoubtedly," they write, "this [work] provides tips that liars could use to make their performance more convincing, but most characteristics we mentioned are inherent, and related to personality."
In other words, there’s still a certain, inimitable je ne sais quoi to the great deluders. And should you find yourself so burdened with this particular type of genius, perhaps, as Mark Twain offered:

… the wise thing is to train [yourself] to lie thoughtfully,
judiciously; to lie with a good object, and not an evil one; to lie
for others’ advantage, and not [y]our own; to lie healingly,
charitably, humanely, not cruelly, hurtfully, maliciously; to lie
gracefully and graciously, not awkwardly and clumsily; to lie firmly,
frankly, squarely, with head erect, not haltingly, tortuously, with
pusillanimous mien, as being ashamed of [y]our high calling.

Good advice from Samuel, as always.
Image: Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito, from Wikimedia Commons
About The Author: Want more Bering in Mind? Follow Jesse on Twitter @JesseBering, visit www.jessebering.com, or friend Jesse on Facebook. Jesse is the author of newly released book, The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny and the Meaning of Life (W. W. Norton).

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

First Impressions Do Count!

First impressions do count: Research shows made-to-measure suit makes you appear more confident, successful September 16, 2011 (PhysOrg.com) -- It’s often said that we make judgments about people in the first three seconds of seeing them. Now new research from the University of Hertfordshire, in collaboration with Mathieson & Brooke Tailors (M&BT), shows how much clothing influences these opinions. The study shows that wearing a made-to-measure suit, rather than an off-the-peg equivalent, positively affects the judgments people make in those first three seconds. google_protectAndRun("render_ads.js::google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);Ads by GoogleVistage® Gets Results. - Successful CEOs become members to get better business results! - Vistage.com In the research, conducted by the University of Hertfordshire and led by Professors Karen Pine and Ben Fletcher of the School of Psychology, over 300 participants (males and females aged from 14 to 67) viewed a series of separate images of a man and a woman for just 3 seconds. They were then asked to make ‘snap judgements’ about the person in the picture. When the man in the picture wore a made-to-measure suit he made a more favourable impression than when he wore a very similar off-the-peg suit of the same colour. People judged him to be more confident, successful, flexible and a higher earner than the same man wearing a similar high street equivalent. The man’s face in the picture was blanked out so these different judgments arose purely from observing his attire. Commenting on the importance of first impressions David Brooke of M&BT, who started his visiting tailoring business in 2004, says, “This research shows that twice as many people will view you as confident, flexible and successful in the first three seconds of seeing you if you are wearing a made-to-measure suit. We have believed for years that first impressions are important and now we can prove it. A made-to-measure, as opposed to an off-the-peg suit, gives you more confidence and ultimately success.” Speaking of her team’s findings, Professor Karen Pine says; “This research is very important in our ongoing work to better understand the psychology of fashion. This study endorses, with real evidence, the popular view that we make up our minds about people within the first three seconds of seeing them although this view comes mainly from research using human faces. In our study people formed very different views of the same faceless man or woman, in the same position, when an apparently minor change was made to what they were wearing. The two suits worn by the man looked very similar at first glance, yet the subtle differences clearly made an impact. This is big news for the fashion industry and certainly highlights the importance of good tailoring.” The findings of the research do raise obvious questions about the affordability of made-to-measure versus off-the-peg, particularly in the current economic climate. David Brooke is keen to answer them; “A made-to-measure suit is undoubtedly more expensive than some high street suits, but does not need to break the bank. In fact, an M&BT made-to-measure suit is always better quality and lasts far longer than off-the-peg suits.” He continues, “A bespoke, or made-to-measure suit, in light of this research, must be seen as an investment in your career and an essential ingredient to your personal success.” The University of Hertfordshire will be publishing the research in a peer-reviewed journal. The executive summary and key findings can be found here: blogs.herts.ac.uk/research/ . Provided by University of Hertfordshire

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2011-09-made-to-measure-confident-successful.html#jCp

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Can a cool head help cure your insomnia tonight?

We are so stressed and sleep deprived. A new study indicates that a cool head may help us sleep. Subjects using a special cooled water cap helped them go to sleep more quickly and have a deeper nights sleep.

Until the cap comes out on the home shopping network I think I will try putting a gel sleep masks from the freezer on my head tonight and see if I wake up with my whole body feeling refreshed. I am hoping that this new study will lead to a simple cure for insomnia.

http://theweek.com/article/index/216295/can-brain-freeze-cure-insomnia

Can brain freeze cure insomnia?

Two sleep experts say they've devised a simple way to help insomniacs get some shuteye: Chilling their brains. Will that really work?

posted on June 15, 2011, at 11:45 AM

Sleep experts say a cool brain can help insomniacs get to sleep faster. Photo: Bloomimage/CorbisSEE ALL 22 PHOTOS

Good news for the 1 in 10 Americans afflicted with chronic insomnia: According to a new study, you might be able to forgo the sleeping pills, white noise machines, warm milk, hypnosis tapes, and other slumber strategies, and simply cool your forehead to lull yourself to sleep. University of Pittsburgh sleep experts Dr. Eric Nofzinger and Dr. Daniel Buysse reported to colleagues this week that a water-circulating cooling cap helped insomniacs doze off as easily as normal sleepers. Here, a brief guide:

What is this sleeping cap like?
The 24 test subjects — 12 with natural insomnia, 12 with no sleep problems — wore soft plastic caps outfitted with tubes carrying temperature-controlled water. They slept in a lab for two nights with no cap, two nights with the caps on a "neutral" setting of about 86 degrees Fahrenheit, two more with the caps set to 72 degrees, and a final two nights with 57-degree water cooling their heads. At the higher temperatures, the caps made no difference, but on the 57-degree nights, about three-quarters of the insomniacs said they slept much better.

How much did these caps help?
The cooling caps helped insomniacs sleep better than "normal" sleepers, apparently. The insomniacs fell asleep quicker — in 13 minutes, versus 16 minutes for the control group — and spent more of the night in slow-wave sleep, which is the deepest, most restorative sleep cycle. Both groups spent an average of 89 percent of their time in bed asleep.

Why do the caps work?
Researchers already knew that insomniacs are "hyper-aroused," with a higher level of activity in their prefrontal cortex. Nofzinger and Buysse hypothesized that "frontal cerebral thermal transfer," or cooling the scalp above that part of the brain, would slow the brain's metabolism and help insomniacs sleep better. This research appears to bear that out.

When will these miracle caps be available to buy?
Nofzinger will likely bring his invention to market, but only after more testing. The researchers don't foresee any safety problems — if the cap is too cold, people will just take it off. "But before crafting your own brain-cooling device, keep in mind that the research was conducted under controlled conditions on a small sample," cautions Marianne English at Discovery News. Also, while the caps promise greater success than sleeping pills and no side effects, there are some drawbacks. "Most of us don't find it pleasurable to have a cold head — and certainly not in bed," says British sleep consultant Neil Stanley.

Sources: Daily Mail, Discovery News, Geekosystem, HealthDay, Los Angeles Times