The Ultimate Body Language Book

on the spot, and in real time.
Chapter 2 – The Basics Of Understanding Body Language
A Caution About Biases During The Baselining
Process
Self hugging can mean that he’s shy or just a place to put his hands.
We also have inherent biases which we must be careful of when try to read other people. Our dislike of
certain people could influence us to read their language in a less then favourable light. Knowing that
this bias is an inherent possibility, can at least protect us in terms of accuracy, and set up conditions that
avoid possibly destructive fallout. This is only one factor to be careful of while reading people as it
relates to baselining. Reading lying body language, by example, is very difficult and not having
anything to compare it to essentially makes it impossible.
Poker is an excellent game that hones our nonverbal analysis of people, and the best modern day poker
players will, with the advent and popularity of televised poker, review thousands of hours of video on
their opponents. While some of the time they are watching to pick up on specific “tells” they are also
developing their baseline. By doing so, even prior to meeting them they can have some players pegged.
They can then use their baseline to determine actions, especially novel ones, that are out of the
ordinary. If you’ve ever walked into a new poker group, you understand exactly what I mean. You
might know some of the people, but usually there are others that you haven’t yet met add to this a novel
context and you’ve got your work cut out for you. Since you don’t know the other player’s baselines
you naturally end up being cautious and if you know poker cautious being “tight” can be just as bad as
being “loose”. Over time you build their character and they start to “make sense”. In everyday life we
call this process “getting to know someone” but in the body language world, we are formulating their
baseline. Baselining is really about having the ability to compare someone to themselves.