ABSTRACT
In 1971, Professor Albert Mehrabian conducted a ground-breaking study into the relative strengths of verbal and nonverbal messages in face-to-face encounters, from which he devised a communication model that has come to be regarded as a template for how derive meaning from someone’s message. His research showed there are three elements in any communication message: body language, voice (or paralanguage) and words. ‘Humans and other animals express power through open, expansive postures, and they express powerlessness through closed, contractive postures’ and open body language can also have a direct effect on confidence and feelings of assertiveness. In general, the high power poses are open and relaxed while the low power poses are closed and guarded. Throughout history, the open palm has been associated with truth, honesty, allegiance, submission, and being unarmed. One of the most valuable clues to working out whether someone is being open and honest is to look for palm behaviour.
