Body Language Dictionary

Body Language Dictionary ::H::

Written by Christopher Philip

Topics: H

H – Non Verbal Body Language Dictionary:

Did we forget a nonverbal term? Suggest it in the comment box or e-mail it direct, and we’ll be ecstatic to add it! With well over 500 terms, the BLP dictionary is growing to be the largest free nonverbal dictionary in the world! Brought to you exclusively by The Body Language Project! Visit our homepage for more free learning.

Hall, Edward Twitchell: Born 1914, Hall was an anthropologist. He is considered one of the founding fathers of intercultural communication. He coined the terms “high and low context culture and “proxemics” in his book “The Hidden Dimension.” Other books by Hall include “The Silent Language” and “Beyond Culture.”

Halo effect: When people receive positive attributes such as being labeled intelligent or nice simply because they are physically attractive.

Handshaking: A handshake is a type of gesture that is used in greeting where two hands meet palm to palm and a pumping action takes place. There are three main orientations that can occur during a handshakes. They are palm down (superiority), palm up (submissive) and palm even (equality). Palm down handshakes emphasizes that a person wishes to control and dominant us, the palm up means someone feels subordinate and an even palm seeks an equal relationship.

Hair play: Can indicate basic grooming, a sexual cue, or that pacifying is taking place depending on context.

Hand on the chin: Indicates evaluation or that negative thoughts are being held.

Hand to face or hand to mouth: A gestural pattern that indicates timidity, shyness or lack of self confidence. Hands that cover the mouth while speaking or wrap around the lips or play with the side of the face or cheek are examples of nonverbal language that spells poor self confidence. Hand-to-face and hand-to-mouth are also sometimes attributed to lying body language although this is only sometimes the case.

Hammer fist: Made by balling up the fist and repeatedly and rhythmically batoning it against the palm of the other hand or the table. It is an aggressive method of emphasizing a point of view.

Haptics or touch: The study of touching and how it is used in communication. Handshakes, holding hands, kissing, back slapping, high fives, brushing up against someone or pats all deliver meaning and are included in haptics.

Happiness: Characterized by an upward movement of the corners of the lips and the formation of wrinkles in the corner of the eyes.

Happy feet: Happy feet are those that bounce up and down with joy or seem to have a spring in their step. This is gravity defying body language and is an honest indication of joy.

Hand rubbing gesture: Rubbing the hands signifies the expectation of receiving something. It has roots in washing the hands to accept goods with hands free of dirt.

Hands on hips: Having the hands on the hips has roots in evolution as it acts like the display of a peacock. It makes the body take up more space and hence appear larger which can be attractive to other men who seek leadership from them or to women seeking a healthy mate.

Hand steepling: A posture where the hands are propped by the fingers of each hand to form a bridge – like a church steeple. In this posture fingers are not interlocked and the palms do not touch. The steepler is someone that is confident, sometime overconfident, genuine, authoritative, and particularly evaluative of others around him. Confidence, in this case, is held in the power and control they possess and also in knowing things that other people do not, so steepling says “I have access to hidden information (and life experience) and this is the source of my power and control over you.”

Head shake: Occurs as a side to side motion and is normally perceived as maybe, but in reality this is a negative thought indicator. It is done when a person can’t get past a thought.

Head nods: A gesture done by moving the head up and down along the sagittal plane. Nodding has a widespread meaning used to convey acceptance or agreement but in other cultures it means disagreement.

Head back: Head back indicates confidence sometimes overconfidence and an authoritarian outlook.

Head bobble: A side to side motion across an arc. It means different things to different cultures. For example, in East Slavic it means disapproval and in India it means “okay.”

Head drop: A male pick-up cues that is done by first establishing eye contact, then lowering the head followed by quickly and deliberately snapping it backward as if to say “Hey you, come over here.”

Head lowered: The head down shows a judgment or negative internal emotion.

Head on: Indicates passive listening.

Heat tilt: This is a submissive gesture and normally performed by women. The head tilt happens by tilting the head at forty-five degrees and delivering eye contact in a come hither type look. It makes women appear more childlike and evokes protective feelings in men.

Height: Used as a way of establishing superior-subordinate relationships. These can be real differences as with short and tall people or circumstantial as in happens by modifying ones environment or posture.

Hidden mouth: Done by placing the hand over the mouth, in part, or whole and “talking through it.” It shows timidity, low self esteem and appears dishonest.

Hiding in plain sight: A nonverbal technique that usually involves a visceral response from the fright or flight system. This fear causes a person to freeze, either in whole, in extreme cases, or more minutely such as arm or leg freezes for the purpose of going unnoticed. Breath rate can be reduced, eyes may cease looking about the room, and the body may take up a less expansive profile. When children wish to avoid being called on in school, they will “hide in plain sight.”

High/low context culture: In a high context culture the rules for conduct do not have to be specifically outlined or verbalized because everyone already knows them. The cultural demographics are set and the countries demographics doesn’t vary widely from person to person. High and low context affects rules governing aspects of body language such as touching norms. High context cultures have a long standing history and practically everyone in the country understands the rules governing touching for example.

Americans come from a low context culture and those from the middle-east come from high context culture.

Honest feet: This is a term used to describe the fact that the feet are a more honest indicator of true feelings and hence body language than the rest of the body. Millions of years ago, we gave up quadrupedalism to walk upright leaving our feet to the dirt and while the hands were focused on higher order tasks through the neocortex, the limbic mind controlled the feet relegated to locomotion and fear response – the fight or flight response. When people are fearful, the feet respond the fastest by being pulled inward, when we are aggressive they kick or stomp and so forth.

Hostile body language: Gestures that are designed to intimidate through replacing a person with an action or object with which the action is intended. For examples, hostility can be displayed by pulling or pinching at one’s own ears, cheeks, hair, or face. Figuratively these are actions that the hostile persons wish’s to inflict against their agitator. The gestures are displacement signals meaning they allow for the release of hostile thoughts through peaceful means that avoid (for the time being) direct physical conflict. We might see foot jabs against the leg of a chair, against the floor or other object, a fist might be repetitively pound against the table with emphasis, or the classic fist to palm punch with some verbally threatening language such as “I’m going to smash your face in.”

Hip tilt: Hip tilt is pervasive in fashion and advertising because it is one feature that women have that men lack. Women can be seen slouching to one side forcing their hips out to emphasize their curves, or walk in an exaggerated way, bouncing their hips up and down as if on a pendulum – the cat-walk. Because the hips move about a center pivot, the eye is drawn front and center to the woman’s genitals which act as a beacon.

Hip-to-waist-ratio: A comparison of measurements that signify attractive qualities in men and women. Studies show us that men universally prefer a hip-to-waist ratio of about seventy percent in women, whereas women prefer men to have a hip-to-waist ratio to be about ninety percent.

The hugger: A gesture used while speaking to an audience where the arms are made into a circle in front of the body with the palms facing inward toward the speaker. The speaker wishes for the audience to accept his way of thinking or is trying to wrap his mind around his own hypothesis.

Hug-ender cue or tap out (the): Is a pat done toward the end of a hug when one party wishes to terminate.

Humour: The word humour comes from the Greek humoral referring to medicine (humours) that was thought to control human health and emotion whereas a sense of humour is the ability to experience humour. Humour is a social bonding tool. Humour also has many variations such as slapstick thought to be a rudimentary form, and satire which was thought to be a more educated version.

Hybrid expression: A term Charles Darwin first referred to in his book “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” first published in 1872. It describes a facial expression that combines two opposing meanings such as laughing to conceal a state other than happiness such as anger, shame or shyness. According to Darwin expressions such as smiles either real or pretend are often “blended with the expression proper to contempt, and this may pass into angry contempt or scorn.” Hybrid expressions tell readers to be careful to watch for cues in context rather than by themselves and to look for congruency between what is said and what is seen, as well as body language that happens in unison to uncover true meaning.

Hyperhydrosis: A medical condition characterized by an abnormal increase of perspiration independent of any requirement for regulating body temperature. As it relates to nonverbal language, it can be confused with negative connotations when no such connotations occur.

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If you are only picking up on what is being said, you are missing more than half of the message.

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