The Ultimate Body Language Book

to the world around us, and the stimulus it contains. Behaviours produced by the limbic brain, over say
behaviours that are controlled by the neocortex, are a true honest response. In other words, the limbic
brain controls emotional body language so it’s our best gauge to indicate what the body is really
feeling. It is the limbic brain that controls the arms, feet, hands, heads, and torsos when someone is
feeling embarrassed or ashamed, sad, fearful, excited or happy. The limbic brain is hardwired into our
nervous system and goes back in time with us through our evolution.
While our neocortex can at times suppress the limbic brain, it can only do so when it is no occupied
doing other things. The neocortex is in charge of doing complex conscious tasks (like calculus,
engineering, and so forth), so when it is overwhelmed or turned off entirely, the body accidentally leaks
emotional body language for others to read. The neocortex, because it is under conscious control, is the
least reliable and least honest part of the brain. Research shows that the neocortex is the most active
part of the brain during deception which is why it has been called the “lying brain.” Cheats might be
able to control the words they use to describe their thoughts, but they can’t control their visceral
reactions to these words, nor can they control their expressions stemming from this motivation. This is
exactly how and why we can catch liars, read fear, stress, sadness, anger and so on.Chapter 1 - Why
The Study Of Body Language Is Important
Faking Body Language And Microexpressions
Is body language a “learnable skill” and can it therefore be faked? The answer is yes and no. The vast
majority of the more prevalent body language can be learned. For example, keeping your hands out of
your pockets or using the hands expressively to remain honest and open, or keeping the hands away
from the face to come off as more confident as easily learned through conscious thought and repetition.
However, a new area of study reveals that there is a whole new set of cues that are much more difficult
to control, if not impossible.