Body-language expert, Patti Wood, weighs in on Beyonce's latest favorite pose and takes a trip down armpit memory lane.
By Lindsay Soll Feb 02, 2007
Lindsay Soll .
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Get the latest photos, news, and more. She may not have nabbed an Oscar nomination for Dreamgirls, but Beyoncé and her latest ubiquitous signature pose have been hard to miss on the red carpets. We asked body-language expert Patti Wood to weigh in on the singer-actress' stance and took a trip down armpit memory lane, where plenty of celebs have raised their hands ('cause they're sure?).
1. HANDS
''You have to be a pretty brave mama to be putting your hands on your head,'' Wood says. ''It's typically a male posture. It's called 'the cape and the crown,' [which says] 'I'm in charge, I'm royalty.'''
2. ELBOWS
''They make the head appear larger, saying, 'I'm bigger than anybody else.' Also, it's very aggressive because of the sharp edges. It's read by the subconscious as an attack stance.''
3. HIPS
''The provocative hip tilt is very Mae West. It means, 'Come here and have sex with me.'''
4. LEGS
''What she's doing is like a hula dancer!''
ANNA NICOLE SMITH 2005
A certain octogenarian magnet is clearly proud of her TrimSpa body (and her clear deodorant).
JULIETTE LEWIS 2006
Looks like the Catch and Release star is about to break into her own version of the chicken dance.
DIANA ROSS 1988
If this is how she says, ''I'm coming out,'' then we're scared to see ''Touch me in the morning.''
FRAN DRESCHER 1997
Even by Drescherian standards, this late-20th-century look is especially unfortunate.
Originally posted Feb 02, 2007
Published in issue #920 Feb 09, 2007
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http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20010715,00.html
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.
Celebrity Couples Body Language
One of my reads got picked up by People Magazine.
http://www.people.com/people/videos/0,,20408300,00.html
http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,1133580.html
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.
http://www.people.com/people/videos/0,,20408300,00.html
http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,1133580.html
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.
Job Interview Tips - Body Language And Interviewing
Patti Wood, body language expert, on how to ace the non-verbal part of the job interview.
Nonverbal communication often makes a bigger impression on an interviewer than what you say, says Patti Wood, a body-language expert based in Atlanta, who has worked with executives at many Fortune 500 companies. Here’s her advice on what you can do to improve your chances of making a great first impression.
The first 10 seconds are the most important: Most hiring decisions are made within the first ten seconds of the interview, sometimes before you even formally begin the conversation. We’re able to read up to 10,000 non-verbal cues in less than a minute. When we talk about getting a gut feeling about a person, what we’re really talking about is reading all those nonverbal cues really, really quickly. Many hiring decisions in interviews are based on reading those cues in an instinctual way.
The most common mistake: The mistake I see most takes place in those first essential moments. Sometimes you’re so focused on you (your nerves, how you look, etc.) that you’re not doing what you would do naturally, and that’s focus on the other person. Making contact and a connection with the interviewer should be uppermost in your mind rather than, how do I look? how do I seem?
That seems obvious until you think about how those first few moments unfold. What if you’re sitting and somebody comes out to greet you? Don’t do what most people do first: pick up all of your things. Leave your stuff where it is and stand up to greet your interviewer. Shake hands. Make eye contact. Connect with that person. Then, pick up your belongings and follow your interviewer into the office.
Know when to make eye contact: In typical conversation, you’re making eye contact about 60 percent of the time. But it’s also important to realize that it is normal to look away from time to time as you’re speaking because you’re accessing information in your brain. Really, the listener should be the one making eye contact. So make sure that when your interviewer is talking, you’re locked in.
If your interviewer loses interest: The interviewer may back away from you, break off eye contact, or stop giving you nonverbal feedback. If you’re sensing that something has shifted or changed, don’t freak out. Keep being yourself: listening, connecting and answering their questions. If it’s appropriate and fits your personality, you can even choose to be a bit feisty and say, “What can I do right now to convince you that I’d be the best person for this job?”
Women—Watch your voices: I typically tell women that they need to be sure that their voices stay strong until the end of the sentence. There’s a tendency for women’s voices to go up at the end of a sentence as if they’re asking a question instead of making a definitive statement. That makes you sound as if you don’t trust yourself and can leave a bad impression. You want to sound confident.
What to do with your hands: Ideally you want your hands visible. Don’t hide them under the table or between your legs. Keep your hands open and in view on the table or the arms of the chair—but don’t grip them for dear life. Or gesture. If you’re really nervous, you may want to briefly hold your own hand to comfort yourself. That’s actually very natural. But don’t keep your hands closed through the whole interview. When you close your hand the amount of tightness and the way the fingers curve show how you feel about the topic being discussed, the person you are with, and most of all how you are feeling.
Posture that communicates confidence: Use what I call “up” body language. It’s beautifully symbolic–you go up when you’re feeling up. Your gestures move up, your head comes up, your shoulders come up and back, and your step is upwards.
Before the interview, do fun things that make you feel good and positive instead of rehearsing the interview. Consider talking to a friend, watching something funny, or listening to great music that makes you sing in the car. Do things that would naturally make your body language go up.
The end matters too: Make sure your belongings are on the left side of your body so you can shake with your right hand. At the end you may shake hands more than once and that’s fine. You could shake your interviewer’s hand when you get up, at the door, or sometimes you’ll end up talking a little bit more and you’ll shake hands again. Make that seem like the most natural thing in the world, because every time you shake hands, you’re bonding, and that’s a good thing.
The end is very critical. Even if you feel like you didn’t do that well, you can still save it by closing strongly and confidently. Some people, when they feel they didn’t get it, they turn off. Instead, stay present and poised all the way to the end, because you still have a chance if you end strong.
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.
Nonverbal communication often makes a bigger impression on an interviewer than what you say, says Patti Wood, a body-language expert based in Atlanta, who has worked with executives at many Fortune 500 companies. Here’s her advice on what you can do to improve your chances of making a great first impression.
The first 10 seconds are the most important: Most hiring decisions are made within the first ten seconds of the interview, sometimes before you even formally begin the conversation. We’re able to read up to 10,000 non-verbal cues in less than a minute. When we talk about getting a gut feeling about a person, what we’re really talking about is reading all those nonverbal cues really, really quickly. Many hiring decisions in interviews are based on reading those cues in an instinctual way.
The most common mistake: The mistake I see most takes place in those first essential moments. Sometimes you’re so focused on you (your nerves, how you look, etc.) that you’re not doing what you would do naturally, and that’s focus on the other person. Making contact and a connection with the interviewer should be uppermost in your mind rather than, how do I look? how do I seem?
That seems obvious until you think about how those first few moments unfold. What if you’re sitting and somebody comes out to greet you? Don’t do what most people do first: pick up all of your things. Leave your stuff where it is and stand up to greet your interviewer. Shake hands. Make eye contact. Connect with that person. Then, pick up your belongings and follow your interviewer into the office.
Know when to make eye contact: In typical conversation, you’re making eye contact about 60 percent of the time. But it’s also important to realize that it is normal to look away from time to time as you’re speaking because you’re accessing information in your brain. Really, the listener should be the one making eye contact. So make sure that when your interviewer is talking, you’re locked in.
If your interviewer loses interest: The interviewer may back away from you, break off eye contact, or stop giving you nonverbal feedback. If you’re sensing that something has shifted or changed, don’t freak out. Keep being yourself: listening, connecting and answering their questions. If it’s appropriate and fits your personality, you can even choose to be a bit feisty and say, “What can I do right now to convince you that I’d be the best person for this job?”
Women—Watch your voices: I typically tell women that they need to be sure that their voices stay strong until the end of the sentence. There’s a tendency for women’s voices to go up at the end of a sentence as if they’re asking a question instead of making a definitive statement. That makes you sound as if you don’t trust yourself and can leave a bad impression. You want to sound confident.
What to do with your hands: Ideally you want your hands visible. Don’t hide them under the table or between your legs. Keep your hands open and in view on the table or the arms of the chair—but don’t grip them for dear life. Or gesture. If you’re really nervous, you may want to briefly hold your own hand to comfort yourself. That’s actually very natural. But don’t keep your hands closed through the whole interview. When you close your hand the amount of tightness and the way the fingers curve show how you feel about the topic being discussed, the person you are with, and most of all how you are feeling.
Posture that communicates confidence: Use what I call “up” body language. It’s beautifully symbolic–you go up when you’re feeling up. Your gestures move up, your head comes up, your shoulders come up and back, and your step is upwards.
Before the interview, do fun things that make you feel good and positive instead of rehearsing the interview. Consider talking to a friend, watching something funny, or listening to great music that makes you sing in the car. Do things that would naturally make your body language go up.
The end matters too: Make sure your belongings are on the left side of your body so you can shake with your right hand. At the end you may shake hands more than once and that’s fine. You could shake your interviewer’s hand when you get up, at the door, or sometimes you’ll end up talking a little bit more and you’ll shake hands again. Make that seem like the most natural thing in the world, because every time you shake hands, you’re bonding, and that’s a good thing.
The end is very critical. Even if you feel like you didn’t do that well, you can still save it by closing strongly and confidently. Some people, when they feel they didn’t get it, they turn off. Instead, stay present and poised all the way to the end, because you still have a chance if you end strong.
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.
Celebrity Couples Body Language
Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner
Lautner's arched eyebrows show he's focused on Swift, according to body language expert, Patti Wood, who says the couple isn't in love but "in like." Still, he isn't totally giving himself to her. "He's withholding emotion," says Patti based on the actor's half-smile.
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/photos/fall-couples-who-will-last-2009411/sk/be
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.
Lautner's arched eyebrows show he's focused on Swift, according to body language expert, Patti Wood, who says the couple isn't in love but "in like." Still, he isn't totally giving himself to her. "He's withholding emotion," says Patti based on the actor's half-smile.
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/photos/fall-couples-who-will-last-2009411/sk/be
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 And Celebrity Couples
Body Language Reveals All
By ADAM STERNBERGH
Print
Each issue of US Weekly is chock-full of science. Yes, it's also chock-full of celebrities -- celebrities at premieres, celebrities nuzzling at after-parties, celebrities in sunglasses taking out the trash. But in US, and other star-tracking magazines like In Touch and Star, the photos of these celebrities now come accompanied with reams of analysis from experts in the science of body language.
In one typical issue of US this summer, Greg Cynaumon, a psychologist, analyzed a photo of Jennifer Lopez and her on-again-off-again fiance, Ben Afflack. And a few pages away, the body-language expert Patti Wood scrutinized a photo of Bob Guiney, the star of ''The Bachelor,'' whose hand was on his date's naked belly. (''Touching that spot,'' Wood noted, ''is usually a prelude to sex.'')
Wood, who is a consultant to both US and Cosmopolitan, says she ''reads'' photos by scouring them for ''body-language clusters'' and telltale physical ''cues,'' of which, she claims, there can be up to 10,000 exchanged during an interaction between two people.
For readers, these experts offer the promise, of hidden truths that the stars would not normally impart. As Janice Min, the editor of US, says: ''People think that with celebrities they're always getting spun. With these experts, they feel like the veil is lifted. And if the expert has a 'Dr.' in front of their name, it helps.''
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/magazine/14BODY.html
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.
By ADAM STERNBERGH
Each issue of US Weekly is chock-full of science. Yes, it's also chock-full of celebrities -- celebrities at premieres, celebrities nuzzling at after-parties, celebrities in sunglasses taking out the trash. But in US, and other star-tracking magazines like In Touch and Star, the photos of these celebrities now come accompanied with reams of analysis from experts in the science of body language.
In one typical issue of US this summer, Greg Cynaumon, a psychologist, analyzed a photo of Jennifer Lopez and her on-again-off-again fiance, Ben Afflack. And a few pages away, the body-language expert Patti Wood scrutinized a photo of Bob Guiney, the star of ''The Bachelor,'' whose hand was on his date's naked belly. (''Touching that spot,'' Wood noted, ''is usually a prelude to sex.'')
Wood, who is a consultant to both US and Cosmopolitan, says she ''reads'' photos by scouring them for ''body-language clusters'' and telltale physical ''cues,'' of which, she claims, there can be up to 10,000 exchanged during an interaction between two people.
For readers, these experts offer the promise, of hidden truths that the stars would not normally impart. As Janice Min, the editor of US, says: ''People think that with celebrities they're always getting spun. With these experts, they feel like the veil is lifted. And if the expert has a 'Dr.' in front of their name, it helps.''
Recommend
Sign In to E-Mail
Times Reader 2.0: Daily delivery of The Times - straight to your computer. Subscribe for just $4.62 a week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/magazine/14BODY.html
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.
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