Episode 167: Power and Body Language (re-release)
/“You take a normal body and you make it even more compact and that’s a sign of “femininity”, and it’s also a sign of low power.”
Photo: Stocksy
“Quite often I get pulled in for a kiss...I think some men find it awkward to shake a woman’s hand because they think a handshake is something you do with men, and kisses are something you do with women.”
In this episode we re-visit the topic of body language in the workplace. We look at hunching, spread legs, eye contact, and kissing - all in a business setting.
I speak to Yale psychology professor Marianne LaFrance about how men and women play up their power, or lack of it, through non-verbal communication. And Financial Times journalist Elaine Moore talks about how she deals with unwanted male kisses at business meetings.
This show originally aired six years ago. I suspect a lot hasn’t changed, but some things have. After all, we’ve had both the #MeToo movement and a global pandemic. So much of our non-verbal communication today is being observed through a screen. I’d like to re-visit some of these themes again in 2021.
You can also read a transcript of the show.
Further reading: If you haven't seen it, here's Amy Cuddy's famous 2012 TED talk on body language shaping who you are.
Here's Elaine Moore's FT piece, A plea to high finance: Can we give kisses a miss?
Marianne LaFrance is the author of Why Smile - The Science Behind Facial Expressions.
And here’s the blog post I wrote about Marianne’s work on smiling, and how that intersects with power.