
A tilt of the head facilitates social engagement - dnetesn
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-12-tilt-social-engagement.html
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twic
Hence the 'MacTilt' [1]:

 _The lateral movement of the head to an angle of 45° to the vertical by a
palliative care nurse specialist. It is intended to convey sympathy and
understanding. (Mac from Macmillan nurse — a specialist palliative care nurse
— and tilt.)_

[1]
[https://www.bmj.com/content/335/7633/1295#sec-12](https://www.bmj.com/content/335/7633/1295#sec-12)

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porjo
> The upper-eye bias is much weaker at a 90-degree rotation. "Ninety degrees
> is too weird," said Davidenko

No kidding! I'm trying to imagine someone talking to me with their head tilted
completely to one side.

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omeid2
I would be rather surprised if someone could tilt their head 90-degrees even
briefly, let alone hold a conversation like that. I think for most people
anything over 45 degrees starts to feel very uncomfortable.

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acct1771
Uh....are you overweight, by chance?

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vages
Perhaps I'm missing something, but the title seems to exaggerate the following
paragraph:

> Perhaps more importantly for people with autism, Davidenko found that the
> tilt leads people to look more at the eyes, perhaps because it makes them
> more approachable and less threatening. "Across species, direct eye contact
> can be threatening," he said. "When the head is tilted, we look at the upper
> eye more than either or both eyes when the head is upright. I think this
> finding could be used therapeutically."

Hope it's correct. Would be interesting to know if the effect persists when
the viewer tilts their head, not just the viewed.

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PavlovsCat
> Would be interesting to know if the effect persists when the viewer tilts
> their head, not just the viewed.

I just had to think of the equivalent of two people trying to make way for
each other on the street, and stepping to each side at the same time. Two
people wanting to put each other at ease in the same instant, both wiggling
their heads from one side to the other for a bit, then laughing politely and
settling on tilting their heads to different sides from one another.

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matte_black
Maybe this is also why a straight stiff neck and a head with very little
movement conveys unquestionable authority.

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bitwize
Maybe this is why dogs do it -- they figure out that it makes their human want
to pet. feed, or play with them more. Animals are superb at reading cues from
humans and adjusting their behavior accordingly.

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cma
> Canids tilt their heads to determine the vertical placement of a sound—how
> far up/down it is.

Human ears are shaped to cause frequency cutoffs that let us do vertical
spatialization more easily without tilting our heads.

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jasonszhao
Smarter Every Day explains this here:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oai7HUqncAA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oai7HUqncAA)

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personjerry
The tilting of the head notably exposes the neck, which is the most vulnerable
part of the body. As I recall from The Definitive Book of Body Language, this
demonstrates trust and reduces tension for better social engagement (and is an
especially attractive signal from a woman).

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Angostura
> exposes the neck, which is the most vulnerable part of the body.

This sounds entirely made up. Especially for that portion of the population
with external genitalia

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50656E6973
Is it not likewise considered an indication of trust to expose the genitalia
to someone?

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gerdesj
I prefer to start with a handshake.

~~~
code_duck
Indeed - genitalia exposure typically comes much later in the trust building
procession.

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viburnum
Ugh just be yourself, people are going to figure out the real you sooner or
later.

~~~
hombre_fatal
Your real self can completely defeat your goals. Look how many people struggle
with success in dating, for example. In such a position, you'll realize that
you're the constant in all the failures and you owe it to yourself to evolve.

