The first way we learn to communicate is through body language — our facial expressions, our gestures and, when we’re older, our postures. Even after we figure out how to speak, this non-verbal communication still exerts a powerful and often unconscious influence over our interactions, people’s first impressions of us and even our impressions of ourselves.
A Learned Body Language?
David Matsumoto, a San Francisco State University psychologist, led a 2008 study to determine whether body language is innate or learned in childhood. He and his team examined Olympic and Paralympic athletes from over 30 countries. Specifically, they studied judo competitors who could see and those who’d been blind since birth. It turned out all athletes made similar gestures when they won — arms raised wide, chest out, head tilted back. But because the blind athletes had always been blind, they couldn’t have learned those expressions. Another point for arguing that body language is innate? Just like those who can see, people who are blind gesture when they talk, even to others who are blind.
