The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

THE BOOK OF TELLS
laughter - in fact a third of the volunteers who took part in
the experiment produced nervous laughter and smiling.
When the learner made a mistake, the experimenter
would instruct the subject to give the learner an electric
shock, each time increasing the voltage. When the subject
complied and flicked a switch, the learner would scream
in pain, cry out for help, complain that he had a weak
heart, or go completely silent. These cries of pain and
pleas for help caused the subjects a lot of distress, but that
didn't stop them giving the learner an even bigger shock a
few moments later, and then laughing when they heard
him screaming. When they were interviewed afterwards,
the subjects could not explain why they had burst out
laughing. At first glance it appeared that they were amused
by the pain they were inflicting. But that was not the case
- their laughter was simply a nervous reaction to the
punishing regime that they had created with the help of
the experimenter.
When people are feeling anxious they tend to reduce
the amount of time they spend looking at others. They also
spend more time searching for 'bolt holes' and 'escape
hatches'. Indeed, the gaze of anxious people often focuses
on how they can get out of a situation, rather than how
they can make a positive contribution to what is happening.
Anxious people are more likely to look away when
they're in a conversation. This is largely because they're
worried about the negative consequences of disagreement.
In fact anxious people don't necessarily differ from
confident people in terms of how much time they spend
looking at the other person during a conversation - so long
as there are no disagreements. However, as soon as there's
any sign of disagreement, anxious people start to reduce
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