The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

THE BOOK OF TELLS
have high levels of trait anxiety, for example, tend to see
most situations as threatening.
When humans or animals are under attack there are
several strategies at their disposal - they can fight, flee or
freeze. 1 Each of these responses involves very different
actions - attacking or defending oneself against the
assailant, running away or keeping perfectly still. Although
they differ superficially, these strategies are all associated
with heightened physiological arousal, which involves
increased heart rate, breathing and palmar sweating. These
processes are automatic and involuntary - in other words,
people don't have any control over them - so they provide
a very reliable indication of emotions. One of the
distinguishing features of heart rate is that people don't
always notice small increases but they do notice it when
their heart starts pounding. In the case of sweating, people
are often painfully aware that their anxiety is apparent to
other people, and that is why they go to such lengths to
cover it up. Heart rate and sweating are united by the fact
that they're almost impossible to fake; breathing is
different because people can pretend to breathe faster or
slower than normal.
As a rule, we don't want others to notice our symptoms
of anxiety, because it shows that we aren't fully in control.
It also undermines our confidence and puts other people
at an advantage. Although we can't always control our
anxiety, we can take steps to ensure that other people
don't notice it. In fact it's often our attempts to conceal our
anxiety that reveal what we are really feeling.
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