ABSTRACT
The mere fact that someone has difficulty in expressing something verbally may in itself constitute a finding of paramount importance. Every experienced moderator will be familiar with the feeling that the group is saying what it feels. Mike’s words and actions provide one immediate and vital piece of information; he is somehow searching ‘visually’ for information. Back in the mid 1970s Richard Bandler and John Grinder studied the pattern of people’s eye movements as they thought spoke. Auditory people tend to look from side to side more and tilt their heads in the ‘telephone postures’. Kinesthetically dominated people tend to look downwards, often they will encircle their knees with their hands. Check for these cues and tendencies among your friends and colleagues. As a rule, opening up or relaxing of the posture indicates emphatic positive response to stimulus material, whereas closing up indicates disagreement, reserve, even disapproval. Inactivity usually connotes uninterest, whether in stimulus material or another’s point of view.
