Aping Around with Gestures

Many of our gestures and emotions are universal across cultures, but is this limited to just our species? In an exciting new study by Dr. Kirsty Graham of the University of York, researchers found surprising patterns among gestures utilized by bonobos and chimpanzees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Not only did they find…

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Framing a Reciprocal Interview

What is the impact of offering an interviewee a bottle of water? This seemingly innocuous question actually delves into major questions both with regard to communication but interviewing techniques more specifically. By looking at this basic question in a recent study, Humintell’s Drs. David Matsumoto and Hyisung Hwang were attempting to look at the notion…

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Body Posture Is Important Part of Nonverbal Communication

While research into cross-cultural non-verbal communication often focuses on facial expressions, body posture is also an important consideration. This may seem intuitive, as we all have experienced the role that body posture has in communicating emotions, but it has been neglected in most research, at the expense of its valuable potential for effectively reading people.…

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Reading People Can Help Aid in Detecting Deception

While reading people can help in better communicating, it can also help in detecting deception. It was for this purpose that Humintell’s Dr. David Matsumoto and Dr. Hyi Sung Hwang worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigations to develop a rubric for how to effectively tell if you are being lied to. Here, they focus…

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