The Scientific Portal of Behavior, Body Language and Nonverbal Communication#

Search for

May 25, 2013

Nonverbal clues of Chess players

Recently, my three colleagues and I appeared in a quiz competition. It was based on general knowledge in area of science, geography, history and sports. There were three rounds and there were entirely different querying formats in each round. Most of them were really wonderful and challenging which I never heard about before.

Even if we were recalling our memory to tackle different sort of questions, we had to keep ourselves in a control and remain coordinated to avoid giving wrong answers in both excitement and uncertainty. Our faces and bodies were giving out some clues that we and others could easily pick.

Stroking chin, scratching head and touching different part of face was obvious.However, in such kind of team activities, it’s really hard to keep each other in sync for better performance. Both win and loss is shared by each team member so personal stakes are quite less. Throughout the competition, it gets reflected through body language of whole team members.

We all know that being in a team is really good to compete but what about competing on your own, all alone? In this situation, individual's own body language speaks at great volume. Those who are good observer can easily pick both distress and delight clues given away by the players.

Yesterday, I went to watch a chess competition organized by my company. It was a small competition and many friends were competing to make their challenge to the next round. Watching chess matches on television (which I never did yet) and in still photographs is entirely different than watching players in a close proximity.

When people you know from several years participate in any competition and face any challenging situation, it definitely occupies some space of your mind due to the relations developed with them over the period. It affects the emotional resonses of an observer and ultimately - its body language.

Probably, you might know that the game of chess was originally invented by Indians, during Gupta Empire (early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE). In ancient era, people of India used to call it as Chaturang(चतुरंग) which means means 'four-limbed' or 'four arms', referring to ancient army divisions of infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry.

It can be entirely mythical that Chaturang or Chess was used to be played with the real men in different characters standing on a large board (painted or marked on ground) and two competitors controlling their moves. Perhaps, today's chess board and pieces might be an exact replica of the same arrangement. Unlike poker or card game, playing chess takes lot of mental energy because both competitors can watch each other’s move.

Vishwanathan Anand (India)
Chess board has 64 houses and each player has to compete with the help of 16 pieces belonging of different characters and having various tactical abilities. Players have to keep their emotions under control (which is really a hard part) to remain into game without loosing concentration and tactical edge.

What exacly our brain needs to in the face of intellectual challenges? It direly needs more supply of blood, oxygen and suger to keep working until we win or give up. Body makes its arrangement itself by adapting a perticular posture to increase their supply to the brain.

We can easily figure out that a player is paying the great attention at chess board and also sitting (or choosing to seat) in a shrunken or submissive posture i. e. narrowed shoulders, one or both hands touching the face, leaning forward by torso (upper body) and the legs entwined at ankles.

Players has to engage themselves into getting visual clues wiz current location of pieces of its own and of the competitors and the number of pieces available (alive) for competition. We can call it as the Tactical Thinking posture. Players submit themselves to the game, keep anticipating next move of an opponent and juggling with tactics.

Mature and veteran players show very less emotions on their faces because they think an opponent might take unfair advantage by knowing their emotional responses. However, body gives away certain clues through alteration in posture, eye ball movements, self-touching, scratching of different body parts and face.

They unconsciously make macro, micro and subtle muscular movements on their faces which an experienced observer can easily pick and decode in given context. Since players have to concentrate on the positions and the tactics, they seem to pay less attention towards an emotional body language of their opponent. Audience not only watch the game but try to make predictions.

As players age and becomes mature, they give away less obvious clues. Their clues remain miniaturized, subtle and complex, often intermixed with displays related with cognitive or physical processes. Hence, it becomes really hard for both opponents to gauge or judge each other on expressional basis.

However, a seasoned or trained observer can systematically observe both players and accurately predict that who's going to win or loose the game. As players are deeply submerging in game, an observer has to pick both obvious and not so obvious clues by burying its eyes in their moves.

Related articles:
1) Observation is the key 2) Micro Expressions

May 01, 2013

Power of Handshake

Shaking hands for success
We’ve already discussed origin of hand shaking ritual and also few valuable tips to retain positive impression of hand shake (How a good hand shake should be?). Along with same, we’ve gone through different types of hand shakes and an unconscious message conveyed by each of them.

Now, we’re rethinking about hand shake through an entirely different perspective i. e. scientific experiment and conclusions. It’s definitely going to change the way you engage in hand shake from next time and every time henceforth.

What hand shaking is after all? It’s an intentional tactile contact (touch) between palms to two persons for certain amount of time. Also, by the norm, locked palms are moved up and down for 2 - 3 times in vertically by two persons. If palms are hold firmly (and not crushed) by both persons, dense nerve endings underneath of our skin receives great amount of soothing sensation.

Even if contact is not extended over long duration as part of formality, the effect is almost similar to comfort touching taking place between parent and child or two romantic partners. Harmless and tender touch is like a magic.

It’s really surprising to know the fascinating outcomes of an experiment that was conducted by a renowned institution. The conclusions not only underline positive evaluation of an individual through a hand shake but also approach or avoidance body language adapted or unconsciously given away by the same person during interpersonal encounters.

As compared to controlling (self-restraining) body language, both approach and avoidance stances are intensely evaluated by different key parts of our brain. Both stances are deeply connected with brain’s reward system and mutual benefits that can be gained through a social rapport.

Mutual touching conveys intentions.

Body language of social acceptance or approach is the way we convey to the other person by keeping posture open, making good eye contact, moving or standing close and exposing torso (upper body) towards the other person.

Avoidance is exactly opposite i. e. avoiding eye contact, standing away, moving body away from the other persons or going in opposite direction (in other words - showing your back or closing door on face of somebody). Controlling stance means to remain in closed (upper) body posture in front of the other person.
Typical evaluation scale

Hand shake can give you good ratings on three different evaluative scales i. e. Interest (in doing business), Competence and Trustworthiness. It can also diminish the negative evaluation or impression due to avoidance or withdrawal stance.

Mutual body contact or touching is important not only in social relationship but also in formal or business associations. It not only expresses your interesting for tie up but also the degree of aptitude and reliability required for conducting different tasks together.

This article is entirely based upon a research that was conducted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) about Neural Correlates of Evaluative Judgments in Observed Social Interactions in 2012.

The research included both fMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging) and skin conductance test that derived enlightening conclusion i. e. handshake has neurological basis for positive evaluation of personal approach especially during business deals.

This research had involved human subjects and short video clips (stimulus) were shown to them. Activities inside their brains were monitored in real time and they were also asked to give rating for each social interaction.

Related article:
1) Importance of Touch 2) Retaining positive impression of hand shake 3) What hand shake conveys about person? 4) What is hand shake?