What makes someone look powerful?
A distinctive pattern of nonverbal behaviors characterizes high-status persons. A recent meta-analysis ( a study of many research studies) shows these three factors.
• facial expressiveness,
• greater bodily openness (what I refer to as open body windows)
• smaller interpersonal distances (that is high status people approach others at closer distances.)
Think about it this way - a boss, by virtue of their status can come into your cubical and interact closely. A lower status person might stand outside the cubical and ask to enter and stand further away. Powerful people come in and interact closely as behaviors that are characteristic of higher status persons (Hall, Coats, & LeBeau, 2005)
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.
