Body language is often representative of a person’s feelings, whether they are nervous, excited, or trying to pass a lie as the truth, but a study at the University of Manchester found that a person’s feet often give off secret messages about their feelings.
Shoemaker Guy West paired up with Professor Geoffrey Beattie, Dean of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester to conduct the study. West said he’s always been fascinated with what shoes and feet say about a person, and Professor Beattie said he too was curious about the body language of the feet.
“[While] people might know what their facial expression or hands might be imparting, they will often have no idea whether their feet are moving or the messages their feet are sending out,” said Beattie. “We were delighted to team up with Geoffrey and uncover the science behind it.”
According to the research, everything from sexual attraction to personality type can be determined just by examining the subtle movements of the legs.
“The secret language of feet can reveal a great deal about our personality, what we think of the person we’re talking to and even our emotional and psychological state, they are a fascinating channel of nonverbal communication,” said Beattie.
Professor Beattie said it was illuminating to learn about the nonverbal cues given off by the feet, because people who wish to conceal their feelings usually concentrate on manipulating their upper body.
“The reason our feet may be giving us away is that they are part of the body from which we have the least internal feedback,” he said. “The weird thing about feet is that most people know what they are doing with their facial expression, they may or may not know what they are doing with their hands, but unless we specifically think about it, we know nothing about what we are doing with our feet.”
Below are some of the study findings.
- If a woman is attracted to a man and laughing, her leg will move away from her body and she will have an open leg posture.
- If a woman’s legs are tucked away or crossed, she isn’t attracted to the man.
- Men, on the other hand, do not signal sexual attraction with their feet.
- Liars keep their feet extremely still to draw attention away from their lie.
- Nervous men have a high level of foot movement, while nervous women keep their feet very still.
- Alpha males and females do not exhibit much foot movement because they desire to control the conversation as well as their bodily movements. Arrogant people also tend to keep their leg movements in check.
- Shy individuals have frequent leg movements.