Basic Practice

Early into my research I discovered the following details:

1. Your appearance influences other peoples moods
2. Other’s moods affect their behavior
3. Their behavior affects your behavior

By extension, how you appear will affect your behavior in a social environment. The characteristics that matter most are:

1. Your expression: If you look happy others will often feel happier. If they feel happier they might look happier. If they look happier you will naturally feel better! Your expression can have a great impact on the social atmosphere around you.
2. Your posture: If you look tired others will be less considerate of what you have to say and may even start to feel tired themselves!
3. Eye contact: If you don’t look at someone who is talking to you they will view that as a lack of interest and might get offended.
4. Your level of engagement in the situation: By looking at your phone while someone is talking to you you are quantifying the importance of what they have to say as lesser than your phone. This can cause them to be offended or lose interest in talking to you.

I personally tired looking happy and engaged the other night when I was hanging out with some upset friends of mine. I saw a gradual upswing in their moods and we all had a great night out. This result has encouraged me to experiment more with my body language.

To follow up and experiment more I utilized the Oxford happiness questionnaire. The Oxford happiness questionnaire is a measure of happiness that is well regarded by psychological professionals. I tried measuring my happiness after 3 PSY 331 classes where I briefly interact with others.

The first was just a sort of control measure where I acted normally and then tested my happiness level. I measured between two and three points(closer to three)- I was somewhat unhappy.

The second was a day where I actively utilized knowledge about body language to a positive end. After PSY 331 I took the test and scored between a four and five- I was somewhat happy, though much happier than the day before.

The third was a day where I actively utilized knowledge about body language to a negative end. After PSY 331 I retook the Oxford happiness questionnaire and found my score to be in between an two and three (almost two)- I was less happy than the first day.

Though this test was not really scientific or empirical it helped me personally realize the effects of my attitude and body language on myself and others.

This is the questionnaire if you are interested in taking it.