OPEN BODY LANGUAGE
Elangovan, October 22, 2018
Image by Igor Link from Pixabay
‘You are an extremely open person’, you night have heard it said. Or, it can alternatively be said that you are a very closed person. While this may be a reference to your character as much as to your body language, it is important to note that a significant part of being either open or closed, is in the act of opening or closing.
Opening or closing signifies a change in the way you are thinking or feeling, and this change is usually in response to what the other person is saying or doing.
But this is a discussion on open body language, so let us discuss what exactly is meant by openness, before deciphering what it means to be truly open!
Intro to Openness
When you are open, you are accessible, and you lack restriction. While your arms and legs may move in a variety of ways, your arms and legs are basically not crossed in any way.
Another way of defining openness is a lack of concealment or a lack of secrecy, and also frankness.
As a side note, openness is not just a reference to body language, but it is used to some extent in IT. The definition is the same though, and whether you are discussing computing or systems, openness is the degree of accessibility!
What then is truly open behavior?
True Open Behavior
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Truly open behavior is as much about appearance as it is about body language. For example, when you wear relaxed clothing, that is clothing that hangs loosely, you are likely to appear more open. You may loosen clothing yourself too, such as unbuttoning a collar, or removing a jacket.
Eye contact is also prolonged and relaxed, meaning that you can either look around, or directly at the other person.
Your legs and arms will also be open. Palms are relaxed, and expressive. Arms are not crossed in any way, and they are likely to be animated, moving in sync with what is being said. You may also hold your arms wide. Your legs are also likely to be parallel, and they could be stretched apart. Interestingly, your feet are likely to be pointed forwards, or towards something or someone of interest!
Can openness be feigned, though?
Fake Open Behavior
Let us discuss first the reasons for openness, before we decide whether it can be faked. You need to look at the transitions as the body opens, and also the triggers that bring about these changes.
A primary reason is that the body could just be at rest. Open body language could just be a sign that you are relaxed and comfortable.
Other reasons for openness include:
- Supplicating: Holding your palms upward, and perhaps lowering your body, could be signs of pleading. Like a dog rolling over to show that it is not threatening, supplication could be a person’s way of saying “You can hurt me if you want,” or “Please don’t hurt me!”
- Passive Threat: Casually exposing yourself to a threat is a way of saying that you are more powerful than your attacker. Men who keep their knees apart are engaging in a crotch display, saying to other males that their penis is bigger.
- Aggression: Significant aggression is shown where tension exists in the open body, especially where the fists are clenched. The open body could be in preparation for a fight.
- Accepting: Rounded arms with sideways palms could be a mock hug, giving the impression that you care for the other person. The slower gestures might symbolize gentleness.
It is possible, therefore, from the reasons for openness, to fake this type of body language. This is because the gestures that indicate openness are simple to emulate. Look at the following examples.
Short Examples
Companies fake openness by joining openness consortium, creating arbitrarily open standards, re-branding existing features and buying into existing open standards. People are not that different.
When you are in a situation where you are in the company of a few people that you don’t like, even though you like the majority of the group, social convention dictates that you feign openness so as not to make the majority of the group uncomfortable. This is like buying into existing open standards, where you assume the openness of the rest of the group.
You re-brand existing things about yourself, for the moment at least, and you can offer mock hugs, pretending that you care more for the people that you are hugging than you actually do.
Alternatively, when one of the people you don’t like says or does something that really makes you angry, your openness can morph into aggression. While you may physically still appear to be open, your openness will be tinged with tension, and you may clench your fists.
Your openness, therefore, can start out as fake, and then quickly morph into true. This is the sliding scale of openness, showing how easy it is to slip towards either one extreme.
Conclusion
Openness and transparency are often said to be the same things. More often than not, however, these are two sides of the same coin. Genuinely open people expose themselves to others, making them vulnerable. People who fake openness are less transparent, though, masking their true intensions.
You can casually expose yourself to threats because you genuinely believe yourself superior to the other person, or you might be faking it in an attempt to convince the other person of your superiority.
Supplication may be a genuine plea, for forgiveness, or to ask somebody to give you what you are asking for. It could also be a rouse to get what you want.
Hugs too may be fake embraces for the sake of appearances, or genuine displays of affection.
Openness, therefore, is a very fluid form of body language. You can come across as truly open, even when you are not, and you might not even know it. The nuances of fake openness are tricky and often undetectable.
You would do well to keep your eyes open!
References
Collin Currie, What Is Openness, Anyway, (March 26, 2009)
Terrence Russel, Four Tricks Companies Use To Feign Openness, (Jan 10, 2008)
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