The Ultimate Body Language Book

accurately judge a person. The rule of four calls on us to read cues alongside other cues commonly
referred to as “cue clusters” before drawing conclusions. The more cues that appear in association with
other cues, the more accurate one can be about the underlying meaning. It isn’t impossible to see cue
clusters in the six’s and sevens or higher. However, most agree that four independent signals is enough
to positively identify true meaning.
Sitting with arms tightly pressed against the chest can mean that a person is uncomfortable, but it can
also mean that a person is cold! Scratching the nose or face can mean that a person is lying or it could
actually have an obvious purpose; to alleviate an itch! However, touching the nose, wiping the mouth
in a down-stroke, avoiding eye contact and fidgeting tells us that something dishonest is probably going
on. Another example of a cue cluster is as follows: crossing the legs by bringing one foot over the
opposite leg (the figure-four leg cross), fingers interlinked together (steepling), leaning back in the
chair, and tilting the head back and looking down through the nose at others. This cluster shows
arrogance and superiority. However, just the figure four, which is a mild crotch display on its own,
means very little. The figure-four-leg-cross only tells us that the crotch has been put on display, but
does not necessarily attach meaning to the gesture and indicate arrogance. To some, this posture might
not even mean that, it just may be a comfortable way for them to sit.
In all cases, gestures are just gestures and nothing more. It is our targets, the creators, who, knowingly
or accidentally, attach meaning or emotions to gestures; it is the senders who are in charge of the
delivery phase, and we, as readers, who are in charge of the deciphering phase of the transaction. In
other words, it is the sender who is responsible for the message and the meaning entirely, the reader is a
passive entity that should never project meaning, especially from that which is not present. That’s not
to say that a reader would try to create emotions inaccurately, as this would be counterproductive, but
rather that it would be a mistake to bring a gestures to the consciousness of a target and then try to
persuade them that their intentions are different from that which is actually true. In many cases,
however, you may find that targets won’t be aware of their true emotions anyway and will generally be
uncomfortable to be made aware of their subconscious gestures, so reads are best kept to one’s self.
Just like you wouldn’t show your cards in poker game, you shouldn’t actively show off your body
language skills. Reads, and the skills in this book, are much more powerful if kept a secret.
Not all body movement has hidden meaning either. Sometimes our bodies are quiet and do no talking at
all. It is normal for novice readers of body language to immediately begin to see body language cues
creep into consciousness, but it’s a mistake to assume that all gestures suddenly have hidden meaning
and get carried away with reckless diagnosis.
Let’s take another cue cluster: arms crossed tightly over the chest, legs crossed, head down and
shoulders pulled inward. Our conclusion here is that our target is uncomfortable and is closing off the
outside world. As signals are removed from this cluster we can be less certain of their emotional
origins. Legs crossed with head down can mean just about anything, but even if we add in shoulders
pulled inward, it does not provide solid evidence of anything underlying. What we really need here is
the fourth, the arms pulled in tight against the body, to really give us enough information to justify a
conclusion. The other cues by themselves are closed body postures, but they can be due to other
factors. Leg crossing can sometimes even demonstrate interest, as is the case when they are crossed
toward a girlfriend or boyfriend (rather then away) for example. The rule-of-four says that we need a
“preponderance of evidence”, a term borrowed from the civil judiciary system. We have preponderance
of evidence, not when we have achieved absolute unquestionable or irrefutable data, but instead,
happens when we have superior weight in our favour and in this case, four independent cues is plenty
of weight.
This doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, or that we shouldn’t read people who only exhibit one or two
cues. Reason being that the damage that might occur from an inaccurate read is likely very small so