Our feet can talk a lot

But a British psychologist claims to have found a new body language-the feet movement that can talk a lot.

“Whilst 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,” says Geoffrey Beattie, a professor and dean of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester.

“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, who carried out the research on behalf of shoemakers Jeffery West.

According to his research, if a woman fancies someone and is laughing, her foot will move away from her body and she will have an open leg posture.

If her feet are crossed, or tucked away under her body then she isn’t attracted to you. Men on the other hand don’t signal sexual attraction with their feet, said Beattie, who was the resident psychologist on all the Big Brother shows in Britain.
As per his research, liars keep their feet unnaturally still, while those who are nervous show their feelings by increasing foot movement. Women however, do the opposite, and keep their feet still if they are nervous.

In the case of alpha males and females, the foot movement is seen less as they like to dominate and control the conversation and the same goes for their body.
Similarly, extroverts and arrogant people also keep their bodies more in check and use less foot movement, while shy people have frequent movements.
Beattie said: “Compiling this research has been a revelation. 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.”

“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.

“People can mask smiles, or mask what they are doing with their eyes, but feet are actually a bit easier to read because people don’t know what they are doing with them.”
“I think this study will make people more consciously aware of what they are doing with their feet now. It’s really interesting and studying people’s feet movement is actually very accurate.” Jeffery West co-founder Guy West said: “Shoemaking is our life and we’ve both been fascinated with what your feet and footwear say.
“It’s the first thing we notice when we meet people so we were delighted to team up with Geoffrey and uncover the science behind it.”
PTI