The Ultimate Body Language Book

ecome more uniform, so too does the body language. Even a country kid knows how to act in a
congested downtown city core from what they’ve seen in movies and on television. Even isolated rural
cultures including native tribes, absent of modern media are seeing more and more visitors via tourism
every year serving to assimilate their gestures.
Chapter 3 – Cultural Differences
High/Low Context, Culture And Touching
Leaning away is a signal that personal space is being invaded.
The term “personal space” was first used by psychologist Robert Sommer in 1969 to describe the
comfortable zones that people like to keep around them. His observations stemmed from the uneasiness
experienced by hospital patients when he encroached on them. Further research into personal space has
found that closeness tolerances vary by culture, and so too does touch. For example, Americans tend to
prefer large amounts of space whereas Latin Americans, Italians and Middle Easterners require far less.
Americans come from a culture with what is called “low context” and those from the middle-east come
from “high context” cultures. In a high context culture the rules for conduct do not have to be
specifically outlined or verbalized because everyone already knows them. Thus, in a high context
culture the rules are set and the countries demographics doesn’t vary widely from person to person.
High context cultures have a long standing history so practically everyone in the country understands
the rules of touching. In a low context culture, where the individual is valued more than the that of the
whole, touching is far less frequent or tolerated. In a low context culture the content of speech is
delivered through words instead of touching. Examples of low context cultures where touching is
infrequent includes America, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and Australia. High context countries
where touching is more frequent includes the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Italy, Latin America and South
America. Middle ground countries include France, China and India.
A business man from Australia visiting Italy or France can be shocked to have a potential business
partner touch over coffee to emphasize a point. Those unaware of their host’s cultural norms could