
Body Language Reveals Wealth - abl
http://www.livescience.com/culture/090210-body-language.html
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ecuzzillo
I should point out that the conclusion of the linked study is complete
bullshit. It claimed that poor people are more polite than rich people. What
it should have claimed was that poor people _who went to Berkeley_ are more
polite than rich people _who went to Berkeley_.

Poor people who go to Berkeley are likely to be moving up in the world
relative to their families; their eyes are being opened to a whole new world
of knowledge and power and all that, and they are humbled by it.

Rich people who go to Berkeley are likely to come from prep schools, and feel
vindicated by having been admitted to a top school, and therefore are snooty.

The conclusion doesn't jibe at all with my personal experience, either, and I
think this is why.

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Tichy
Also they only studied people who got rich by having rich parents. It would be
more interesting to study people who became rich through their actions.

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Erf
Yes, I do hack my body language, though not in the ways described in the
article.

Through college, I had a weak posture, submissive body language, and tended to
fidget/move around. I often looked goofy.

About six months ago, I decided to improve all that. I consciously developed
an upright, chest-out posture. I cut down or eliminated unnecessary motions. I
keep my hands extended and parallel to the arms, instead of close-fisted and
angled inwards. I keep my chin up and my gaze high. I keep my legs outward
and, when comfortable, spread apart.

By now, it's all become second nature. And it works. Women react much more
strongly to me (in a good way). I feel more confident. My body image has
greatly improved.

As software developers, most of us spend a lot of time seated in chairs and
have less than Adonis-like physiques. I highly recommend body language
hacking.

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abl
The reason I posted this to HN, is because I am curious as to how many people
here hack at their own body language, and whether you tend to focus on
"improving" it, or just let it be "natural", whatever that means. And if you
are "improving" it, what are your considerations for particular situations? Do
you try act as if you are from a lower SES, to try to level yourself with your
listener, or the other way around - try to increase the perceived importance
of your SES in order to put down your listener?

~~~
Alex3917
There are some good papers on perceived IQ, and how perceived IQ correlates
with actual IQ. It turns out that pIQ is mostly a function of body language,
eye contact, rate of speech, and things like that; what comes out of your
mouth doesn't actually matter all that much. Some of the factors you are able
to fake and boost your pIQ, but most you aren't. So if you are into that it
would pay off well to figure out what those are. :-)

~~~
wallflower
Social skills can be hacked. Remember unconscious incompetence -> conscious
competence.

RE: Body Language.

Move slow, talk slow, be an approval giver (not a seeker). We all have the
capacity to be at the level of Bill Clinton or other legendary communicators -
we do it on first dates, job interviews - he does it all the time. One of my
most networked/outgoing friends consciously goes into certain situations like
'she owns the venue'. Also if you talk to everyone, you can hide the fact that
you are interested in not everyone. You might also try videotaping your body
language when you are with friends/familiar situation vs strangers/safe
situation. You will have to try this to realize the power of this - but if you
really, really want to talk to a group or even a cute female who is seated
alone/together, drag a chair over from the other side of the room (noisily if
possible) and sit down with them. That demonstrates commitment and is an
opener all-in-one.

RE: Peer ratings

They are a form of social proof (raters do not exist in a bubble).

"Similarly, a person who has been unemployed for a long time may have a hard
time finding a new job - even if they are highly skilled and qualified.
Potential employers attribute wrongly the person's lack of employment to the
person rather than the situation. This causes the potential employers to
search more intensively for flaws or other negative characteristics that are
"congruent" with or explain the person's failure and to discount the
applicant's virtues."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof>

RE: SES

One of the more clever and disturbing ways to gain 'power' over an individual
is to play the student in the master-student role. E.g. by having them teach
you something - which is doing _you_ a favor, _you_ can gain their favor.

Ben Franklin: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=145544>

~~~
brandnewlow
re: last point - Sounds like every girl who ever asked me to help her with her
homework...

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tokenadult
Years ago the author of Dress for Success reported a study noting that women
say they like men who are "confident," which asked men to go into bars to
start up conversations with women, who then rated the men. If the men were
prompted to act confident, the women didn't like the men much. But if the men
were prompted to act arrogant, they got much higher ratings from the women.
Hmm.

~~~
rudyfink
All communication is on the part of the receiver. I automatically substitute
"what the other person perceives to be" in front of everything that has to do
with communication, especially emotive communication.

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andreyf
I guess if you title your paper "Rich people tend to act like assholes", it's
harder to get funding for your next research project.

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scott_s
The data is that more fidgeting and grooming correlated with higher SES, and
more nodding, agreeing and eybrow raises correlated with lower SES. There's no
link to the study itself, but there's no support in this article how they
established causation, and further, even with causation established, that the
behaviors are for the reason they give.

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anuraggoel
I don't. Even the thought is a bit repulsive to me. Regardless, I don't think
it's worth the effort, because people are less likely to infer my wealth from
my body language; even if they know nothing about me, they have other (more
reliable) sources to go by - my clothes, my accent, my hair etc.

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fraying
This is absolutely true in my experience. I never connected it to SES, though.
I just thought the fidgeter/groomer was probably just a jerk.

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Silentio
All seems very subjective to me. The research, I mean.

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jwb119
it would be interesting to know how the body language changed over time.. i.e.
is the arrogant body language a cause or effect..

