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"The author is more concerned with cracking/breaking people than making them comfortable." Incorrect. The author is retired FBI Agent, Joe Navarro, [0] an expe
by bootload 11y ago
"The author is more concerned with cracking/breaking people than making them comfortable."
Incorrect. The author is retired FBI Agent, Joe Navarro, [0] an expert on reading and interpreting non-verbal body language. One of the cornerstone of non-verbals, explained in WEBIS, is the comfort/discomfort paradigm. [1],[2]
Is a person comfortable? Why not? Is there a mismatch between verbal communication and non-verbal actions? This is where rapport comes in, the ability to make someone feel at ease and something taught by the FBI when interviewing. They don't "break" people, they charm them by putting them at ease, let them drop their guard and inquire further. The earth shattering point of WEBIS is everybody exhibits these body language responses and I consider it to be a sort of human response API regardless of country, age or sex.
As for eye contact. Hold too little contact and you appear submissive. Too much and you may be signalling to another person you are aggressive.
[0] backgrounder by Octavio Blanco "This former FBI spy hunter fled Cuba at age 9" ~ http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/27/news/economy/joe-navarro-cuban-refugee-fbi/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/27/news/economy/joe-navarro-cub...
[1] Navarro, 2007.
[2] read Charles Fifield, "Setting the Sale Through Persuasive Communication"
http://www.baylor.edu/business/kellercenter/news.php?action=story&story=158003 http://www.baylor.edu/business/kellercenter/news.php?action=...
- sleazebreeze 11y agoThanks for the links, I'm reading them now. I appreciate the informative correction to my previous post. I confess I must have misread his points because many of the stories are about criminal interrogations (although there are plenty of business stories too). I just bought his other book Louder Than Words and I will be reading that looking for the charm/rapport aspect instead of "breaking".
- kingkawn 11y agoThis kind of analysis feels flawed because people from different cultures have different body language.
- andrewflnr 11y agoThere are differences, but there are also some [near-]universals. Have you read the book?