Body Language - Unintentional Gestures

Unintentional Gestures

Beginning in the 1960s, there has been huge interest in studying human behavioral clues that could be useful for developing an interactive and adaptive human-machine system. Unintentional human gestures such as making an eye rub, a chin rest, a lip touch, a nose itch, a head scratch, an ear scratch, crossing arms, and a finger lock have been found conveying some useful information in specific context. Some researchers have tried to extract such gestures in a specific context for educational applications. In poker games, such gestures are referred to as "tells" and are useful to players for detecting deception clues or behavioral patterns in an opponent(s).

There is also a huge interest in learning to avoid any unintentional gesture that might leave a negative impression on the onlookers. A large number of people are starting to attend special sessions on controlled body-behaviour and take advice from expert sociologists. Learning good body-language, such as living styles of foreign people, is important during interaction in any sort of global community.