Body language experts Barbara and Allan Pease have been researching this domain for over thirty years. In their book, The Definitive Book of Body Language, they reveal what many of us fail to recognise and understand when others try to communicate with us.

The Mirror Neuron

Research has identified a Mirror Neuron which attributes this behaviour to a physiological phenomenon. We are wired to mimic the reactions of those we interact with on a daily basis.

Unsurprisingly, scientists call this effect mirroring. It also works the other way around—a frown may yield a frown from the other party. Researcher Ulf Dimberg conducted experiments on 120 volunteers, measuring their facial muscle activity while viewing pictures of both happy and angry faces. When told to do the opposite of the pictures (e.g. smile while looking at a picture of an angry person) their facial twitching suggested that they were unconsciously trying to mirror the same reaction as the picture they were viewing, even though they were told to do the opposite.

While smiles are infectious, so are frowns and angry faces. After a long gruelling day of research it’s important for us as researchers to put on a happy face as best we can, even if it pains us to do so. Any hint of discontent might rub the participant the wrong way, making them feel bad or, even worse, neglected.

Strategic Gestures

Strategically smiling—knowing that the participant will likely smile back—sounds like you might be leading them, the way you are told not to when running a research session. But the tendency for humans to mirror one another’s gestures is so powerful that whether you remain neutral-faced or smiling, you’ll be leading them regardless.

The last thing you want a participant to do is to tell you what you want to hear. As a moderator, one of your primary goals is to make your participant feel comfortable enough to speak their mind about “the good, the bad, the ugly.” Gesturing positively builds the rapport required to get them feeling more at ease. Ultimately this will enable them to provide more truthful (and useful) information than they would if they were not relaxed.

Smiles reveal deeper aspects of human emotions. Not all smiles are created equal. Body language experts Barbara and Allan Pease describe 5 different types of smiles. Each of these has a different MO. Two of these smiles in particular may be useful to identify to help redirect UX research sessions.

The tight-lipped smile

The tight-lipped smile is when a person’s lips are stretched tight across their face in a straight line concealing their teeth. When you see this smile, there is a good chance that the person has a secret that they are unwilling to share with you.

During a UX research session, when you encounter this gesture, you might want to ask gently: “is there anything else you would like to share with me that you haven’t already mentioned?” This last part is important. It implies that as a keen observer you suspect there is something else that they are reluctant to share with you. Always reassure them whatever they share with you will not go beyond the research project.

Consider meeting them at their level by mirroring their facial gestures. This will demonstrate empathy for their situation. They will feel like they are being heard and understood. Making gestures that oppose their own could run the risk of coming across as antagonistic and apathetic. If they are smiling, you smile. If they are frowning, then frown with slight concern demonstrating your empathy and willingness to listen. Worst case scenario, they reject your request. Best case, they feel more comfortable sharing.

Always be mindful of them trying to please you as you empathise with their cause. Revert to a neutral stance whenever you feel like you are losing the candour from mirroring them.

The drop-jaw smile

Another common type of smile you may come across is the drop-jaw smile. This smile involves the person deliberately dropping their jaw to give the impression to others that they are laughing or are happy. It is commonly used by politicians to get votes, or actors to get a laugh from their audience. The drop-jaw smile is intended to get a positive reaction from its recipient.

One of the things I insert into my research protocols before beginning the main parts of my interview guide is requesting the participant tells me what they see, think and feel, not what they think I want to hear. Participants who deliver a drop-jaw smile might be trying to tell you what you want to hear. When you see this gesture during a session, do a sanity check with your participant. Make sure what they are telling you is their opinion and not someone else’s. They might say something like: well, I think people in my field would love to have a feature like this! Redirect and make the conversation about them: while it’s interesting to know that others would use this. How about you? How would you use a feature like this in your daily work?

Micro-gestures can tell us how a person really feels

According to body language experts it is very difficult to fake body language for long periods of time. Eventually the truth reveals itself in the form of micro-gestures. These are the body’s unconscious actions revealing themselves as a person’s conscious effort to conceal their authentic self weakens. It might be pupil dilation, facial muscle twitching, accelerated blinking, sweating, blushing, a momentary sneer. Research has shown that these micro-gestures occur within a split second and are very difficult to catch. As elusive as they are, the may provide some flag to a researcher that further investigation might be warranted.

During UX research sessions, look for changes in facial expressions.

Those brief flashes of concern or stress that sail across their face disappearing (as fast as they showed up) might suggest they may have more to share. It might be a pain point that could provide insight for your research effort,or an interesting anecdote that reveals an insight for your final report. Tread carefully though. Don’t acknowledge that you’ve picked up on the cue. Use it as a speed-bump to slow down. Wait for them to come forward with more info if they feel like it. Embrace any awkward silences that come your way. Those deliberate pauses give their micro-gestures a chance to breathe.

Understanding your participant’s body language ultimately allows you to build a better rapport and achieve a deeper level of empathy. View the signals offered up by gestures as opportunities to broaden your view of their reality and gain insights for your research.

References;

Dimberg, U., Thunberg, M., Elmehed, K., “Unconscious facial reactions to emotional facial expressions,” Psychological Science 11 (2000).

Pease, A., & Pease, B. (2006). The Definitive Book of Body Language. New York: Bantam Dell Pub Group.

The post Understanding Body Language In UX Research Part II appeared first on UX Mastery.

This will give you an enhanced awareness of what to look for so that a potentially wasteful session could make for a more productive one…

A participant that you’ve been moderating a session with is sitting upright with his ankles locked next to you. His fingers are interlocked and his lips pursed. He answers your question with a head nod reassuringly, but succinctly, “Yeah sure. I’d use this tool if it were available to me.”

As soon as he finishes speaking he begins to scratch the back of his neck. He touches his nose.

In this example, should we believe what the participant is saying? Is he being forthright? He nodded his head, didn’t he? But what did he mean by scratching his neck? Maybe he was just anxious. Maybe he wasn’t. It’s very difficult to tell based on all of his gestures. You will soon find out there is more to reading body language than looking at a couple of gestures.

According to body language experts Allan and Barbara Pease, authors of The Definitive Book of Body Language, gestures must be viewed in combinations called clusters in order to be accurately interpreted; the context of these gestures also need to be considered.

The everyday gestures that we use are windows into how we are truly feeling. They give us suggestions as to whether or not someone is lying or telling the truth, interested or bored, stressed or relaxed, feeling intimidated or wanting to intimidate.

Most of the time when doing in-person UX research sessions, we ignore body language in favour of the spoken word.

As a UX researcher I admittedly spend much more time listening to the words of participants rather than reading their body language. When we listen to their opinions we try to assess whether they are truthful. Observing their actions also helps us evaluate their credibility. Reading the words on a page gets easier as we age, interpreting body language doesn’t; we get stuck in the learning stage of what psychologist Martin Broadwell calls unconscious incompetence.

It tends to get nestled into our unconscious mind, making itself inaccessible and upstaged by what we hear. We simply don’t know what to do with the information. We might visually recognise that a person is reacting to something we say but we don’t necessarily invest enough time interpreting whether these gestures actually mean anything.

Should we? Some would argue that we shouldn’t. But several studies have shown that we can reliably improve our understanding. Can we use what we learn from reading someone’s cluster of gestures to our advantage when it comes to moderating UX research sessions?

Two research-based insights that have important implications for moderating UX research sessions are:

• A persons gestures and emotions bidirectionally influence one another
• A key place to look when someone is not being forthright is the face

According to body language experts, a person’s’ gestures and emotions bidirectionally influence one another.

Research on priming proves this. Professor Daniel Kahnemann, in his modern classic book about heuristics and biases, Thinking, Fast and Slow indicates that actions and emotions can be primed by events people aren’t even aware of. To prove that actions and emotions can bidirectionally affect one another, an experiment with college students was conducted where students were asked to hold a pencil between their teeth for a few seconds forcing their mouth either into a smile or a frown while reading The Far Side cartoon and rating its humour. The students who found the cartoons funnier were the ones whose face was forced into a smile.

If changing a person’s facial expression primes them into changing their sentiment while reading a comic strip, could we not do the same in UX research sessions?

How can we prime a participant in such a way that they would be inclined to disclose more information

We would need to identify when they might be holding back information from the moderator. What stance might they take when unwilling to be as open about themselves during a session? According to body language experts, people may cross their arms or legs to form a defensive barrier between themselves and others. They may keep their palms closed and facing down.

By recognising the clusters; in this case the defensive poses. The context; in this case their unwillingness to provide more information during a session. The moderator can then find a way to prime them into a more open position.

If there is a stimulus or artefact as a part of the research protocol, use this as an opportunity to get them to hold it in their hands. If it’s on a computer, then have them move closer to the computer. They may be forced to unfold their arms or change their posture so that they can see the screen. Their palms may be opened suggesting a willingness to engage more openly. Once they change their posture participants are more likely to provide more feedback to the moderator making for more fruitful research insights.   

Body language experts suggest a key place to look at when a person is not being forthright is the face.

According to their research, we are likely to cover our eyes, ears or mouth with our hands when we hear or speak lies. A study of nurses in a role-playing situation were told to lie to their patients. The nurses who lied showed more hand-to-face gestures than those who didn’t. Those common lying gestures include: covering of the mouth, touching of the nose, rubbing of the eye, grabbing of the ear, scratching of the neck, pulling of their collar, or putting finger(s) in their mouth. Recognising these signs along with incompatible dialogue will help you weigh whether or not to consider excluding participant data.

Consider double-downing on your inquiry by rephrasing questions differently and see if the same answer is achieved. Seek clarification when body language tells you otherwise. Read back to the participant their earlier response and follow up with questions like “can you tell me more about that?” or “what did you mean when you said…?” If they respond differently than what they said earlier then there is a good chance that their gestures were revealing the truth about their lies.

In part II we will examine other gestures that hint at a person not being honest. Stay tuned!

References
Pease, A., & Pease, B. (2006). The Definitive Book of Body Language. New York: Bantam Dell Pub Group.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Navarro, J., & Karlins, M. (2008). What Every Body Is Saying. New York: HarperCollins.

Strack, F., Martin, L., and Stepper, S., (1988). “Inhibiting and facial conditions of the human smile: a non-obtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54.

Valentine, J., Best Practices for Equity Research Analysts (2011). New York: McGraw Hill.
“Conscious Competence Learning Model.” (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/conscious-competence-learning-model-63/#toc-9

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