One of the biggest mistakes people make when reading and analysing body language is not establishing baseline first. Baseline refers to a person’s “normal” behaviours. It gives us something to compare to. While it is much easier to know a person’s normal behaviours if you know them well, baseline can still be used with someone you have just met. 

How to establish baseline

A great example of this is during a police interview when the officer chats with a suspect prior to asking the hard hitting “where were you last night?” questions. However our aim here is to provide examples you can really use. A more real-life example is meeting an acquaintance for the first time. You notice the way they gesture, stand and look at others during introductions and small talk. You think about their speech and voice patterns. Do they have any quirks in their normal behaviour that could be interpreted as unusual when looking for mismatches? 

Well done, you’ve established their baseline! If these behaviours start to change when the topic of conversation changes, there is a good chance that they are having some sort of emotional reaction (negative or positive) to what is being discussed. 

Ensuring you establish baseline improves the precision of your analysis. Once you have a good read on a person’s baseline behaviours you should be able to tell whether they are naturally a fidgetter. This could be due to excess energy, not a sign that they are nervous. Or you may notice they touch their nose a lot. This might be because their glasses are rubbing, not an indicator that they are lying. It is worth noting that it is much easier to observe someone when you are not directly interacting with them. If possible, withdraw from the conversation a little while you attempt these observations. 

Impact of nerves

Remember nerves can impact on a person’s behaviour (such as in a job interview). Make sure you pay attention to context when considering whether what you are seeing is true baseline behaviour. For example a person in a job interview will react differently to that same person relaxing with friends. In a stressful situation you are likely to see people showing more pacifying behaviours. 

Pacifying behaviours are movements or actions that we do to soothe ourselves. Good examples are someone hugging or stroking themselves. It also includes neck or head rubbing, stroking the arms and fondling the face. Pacifiers offer the person comfort, protection and reassurance as well as creating a subtle barrier. 

Real life example

One of the best examples of using baseline to make comparisons occurred in a meeting I had with a project manager. He was there to tell us all about the benefits of a project he was managing. Throughout the spiel on the project, apart from some minor gestures his movements were not overly unusual for someone in this situation. However, once we began to ask questions about the benefits to us (and he got off the promotional script) he began to regularly place his hand in front of his mouth. 

After he left, I remarked to my colleagues that his movements raised a red flag for me.  I explained that it may have been because he suddenly realised he hadn’t brushed his teeth that morning.  However, it was as though he was covering his mouth as he didn’t feel comfortable with what he was saying. We eventually discovered that he really had no understanding of what was expected of his project and ultimately it was abandoned.  

Check out 9 Cues a Person is not being Genuine for more signs and signals of deceit. 

Baseline behaviours as cues

The final point to remember is that the normal behaviours that you observe when determining baseline can still be used as cues when reading body language and shouldn’t be completely disregarded. These gestures can become either more or less pronounced during interactions indicating heightened emotions. A good example of this is ring twiddling. I, like many others, can often be seen playing with my rings. In a normal situation it can mean I am bored or thinking, but once I get nervous the ring twiddling happens much more vigorously.

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