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  • Oh, can you pause it there?

  • She put her purse next to the guy, so she's coming closer towards his proximity.

  • Putting an object near somebody would not be happening on a first date.

  • And a trust signal too, because it's her wallet.

  • These three body language experts will watch these five couples going on dates.

  • Can they guess accurately how long these couples have been dating based only on their body language?

  • Let's begin.

  • What is intriguing to me is on footage one, the bag is on her chair.

  • And she's very close, there's a lot of close behavior.

  • And the guy as well doesn't look very comfortable.

  • So I would have to actually disagree with you that we're seeing discomfort in number one.

  • She's crossing her arms and making herself small, yes.

  • But she's also mirroring her partner who's doing the same.

  • They're coming together.

  • I think that they're actually really comfortable in each other's space.

  • I see a lot of reserved behavior there.

  • In number one, she is covering her ventral side.

  • He's sort of stoic with his arms crossed.

  • And I would want to look at more information.

  • Trying to discern from a video how long people have known each other, how long they've dated.

  • That's really tough.

  • Humans are very complex.

  • Any behavior that you see at any moment is really driven by context.

  • Number five was interesting because they were so animated.

  • And they seem to be in tune with each other.

  • Though they've not actually physically touched, we can see there's a lot of closeness.

  • One of the most well-supported indicators of interpersonal closeness is the degree of nonverbal mimicry between partners.

  • I want to see how close people get to each other, how comfortable they are in each other's space.

  • There's so much mirroring behavior.

  • They lean towards each other and they're smiling at the same time.

  • Kind of like a movement dance going on the whole time.

  • When you see a lot of mirroring behaviors, you tend to think, okay, they've been together for quite a while.

  • It's not a first date.

  • Yeah.

  • What I'm seeing here with number three is a direct contrast.

  • There's a lot of self-soothing displays.

  • She was literally grabbing the table.

  • My strategy would be to really focus on the details.

  • What are they doing with their hands, doing with their gestures?

  • Maybe they will touch objects to pacify themselves.

  • But that was a very specific behavior that stood out, that she grabbed the table like that.

  • To me, that could be a comfortable moment.

  • I see the man here, he's doing a lot with his hands.

  • It seems to be a lot of nervousness.

  • When I look at their legs, especially the woman here, her legs are tucked underneath her body and wrapped together.

  • She's not feeling negative so much because we're seeing some smiles here.

  • But in the lower body, I am seeing some discomfort that this might be the first date.

  • This is a direct contrast to what we're seeing in number two.

  • Rather than withdrawing into themselves, they're actually taking up each other's space very comfortably.

  • This maybe isn't a long-term marriage because there seems to be a lot of flirting going on, which does tend to die off as their relationship ages because there's less need to show attraction.

  • So we see some flirting going on.

  • We're seeing lots of kind of coy smiles here on number four.

  • The opposite side, we see some finger-picking.

  • When people are trait-anxious rather than dispositionally anxious, you see lots of picking of the fingers.

  • The person on the right, they still have their hands low between the legs.

  • That's very much a comforting behavior.

  • And even though the person on the left has both moved back and forward, there was no reciprocity.

  • In other words, we usually, if somebody smiles, we smile.

  • If somebody waves, we wave.

  • Reciprocity says, I really enjoy what we're doing here, but we're not seeing that.

  • Now this could be because one person has attraction and one doesn't.

  • Or maybe one person is feeling negative towards the other and the other is trying to get that person to engage.

  • All we can really tell from this is that there is an asymmetry here in feelings towards one another.

  • She may be trying to draw her out and her mind is somewhere else.

  • Interesting.

  • With number one, they are interacting, but they have a bit of a bigger distance.

  • They haven't really changed their positions that much.

  • Fluidity of action often speaks of high comfort.

  • If you notice, other couples have moved in and out of different positions.

  • It is very unusual to remain in the same position for this long.

  • So I'm just wondering if they're nervous around each other, if they're reluctant to move around too much.

  • Okay, can you stop number two?

  • What we just saw was, I would say, very intimate behavior.

  • She's taking the napkin and she's giving it to him.

  • So there was very close proximity.

  • While they're eating, she's taking care of him.

  • So definitely a longer relationship than a first date.

  • Number five, you just saw a head tilt.

  • There was a head tilt.

  • There is a head tilt.

  • We call that a clue, as you would say.

  • It's getting more and more interesting at number five, because there's a lot of flirting going on, I would say.

  • She's pacifying herself on her neck.

  • There's a little bit of a, you could say, courting maybe going on.

  • He's smiling, he's leaning forward.

  • That's interesting to look at.

  • What's interesting about number one is that we're seeing negative emotion, but we're not seeing any attempt to engage, which would suggest it probably isn't a first date.

  • And it probably is negative emotion rather than nervousness.

  • Because when I contrast this to number three, I see similar signs.

  • But in number three, I am seeing a lot of nervous displays.

  • Seeing some really heavy breathing here.

  • We can see her chest going up and down quite a lot.

  • She's taking quite deep breaths.

  • The emotion's positive, but we're seeing that discomfort at the same time.

  • And we see number one, we see a smile.

  • We see some positive emotion.

  • Maybe the food is coming.

  • Maybe he's apologized to something.

  • One would hope.

  • Okay, that's definitely a very important thing that we just saw.

  • So now there is a connection physically.

  • She's coming out of her shelf, so to say.

  • This is an intimate behavior, even though it's just the fingertips.

  • You have to remember that the fingertips are just plush with nerve endings that are very sensitive.

  • This is a very powerful sign here.

  • Interesting, when the food was brought over is the first time they're sort of smiling and so forth.

  • A lot of comfort displays here.

  • She's doing a little dance while she's eating.

  • Maybe they were just hungry.

  • And that's where that negativity is coming from, which I can completely understand.

  • You also see it in number one.

  • We're seeing changes in behavior.

  • I think they were just low on blood sugar.

  • Finally, a little bit more animated.

  • They're both nodding in agreement.

  • Even though they're slightly reserved, maybe because of filming circumstances, they look a little bit more comfortable now.

  • Stop right there.

  • Oftentimes, we can tell people really are enjoying each other because they move objects out of the way, so they have a clearer view.

  • Let's stop here.

  • Yeah, that's fantastic.

  • She lifts her ankle.

  • That's ventilating behavior as well.

  • A lot of people focus on the face, not realizing that the feet are actually more honest in revealing just how close we are.

  • We don't unveil our feet, and we certainly don't move them this close to the other person unless we're really comfortable around them.

  • Look how much more animated number four is now.

  • There's so much mirroring.

  • Even though their hands aren't exactly doing the same thing, their faces certainly show they're really into each other.

  • And number three, on the opposite side, his hands have barely left each other this whole time.

  • We're seeing lots of awkward displays, and we're seeing lots of touching of the menus.

  • The nose, it might be itchy, but in this case, we've seen a lot of discomfort.

  • You see the hand on her knee.

  • That's actually a pacifying behavior.

  • There may be a lot of nervousness there that we're still experiencing.

  • She's not just touching her knee.

  • She's gripping her knee.

  • She's actually starting to scratch, which might say that the discomfort level is actually increasing.

  • Number two, we're seeing comfort displays.

  • You're seeing him, you know, talking with his mouth full.

  • They're laughing while they're eating and speaking.

  • There's less perception management going on.

  • Number two, we literally see him picking her food.

  • So that's a very intimate gesture there.

  • He would not do that on a first date.

  • We see a similar behavior with number one.

  • And they just swapped plates.

  • They picked each other's and swapped.

  • Not only did they trade plates, but he was generous and he moved her glass out of the way.

  • I am starting to think that number one might be a longer-term marriage because they seem so comfortable in the negativity.

  • What's interesting here about number three is we're starting to see them loosen up.

  • We're starting to see a little bit more comfort, which is what you would expect as people get to know each other.

  • So we're kind of seeing progression here of their comfort levels.

  • In number one, even though she's leaning back, her foot is very close to his leg.

  • And that begins to talk to us.

  • We saw some of it in number five.

  • They never really touched, but they were willing to at least venture out that way.

  • And so far we haven't seen it in number three.

  • Look at number four, because this is critical.

  • It's called foot cradling.

  • We do it with babies.

  • We get their feet and we comfort them that way.

  • This is a high comfort display.

  • There's a lot of trust here.

  • When we look at number two, there's a lot of touching, but also longer touches.

  • You could look at the feet and say, yeah, but they withdrew their feet.

  • Well, I don't think that really matters.

  • Their feet for them are in a comfortable position.

  • Look at the other behaviors that say we're really comfortable around each other.

  • Here's what's interesting for all three of us is these behaviors, at what point do they become norm?

  • Do they become norm at three months?

  • Do they become norm at five months or 15 months?

  • People who get along really well within weeks maybe mirroring each other, maybe copying each other.

  • How long have they been together?

  • That's really tough.

  • That's really tough.

  • And now it's time to guess.

  • I'm heading towards them being married for years.

  • Four years.

  • One year.

  • I'm Jocelyn.

  • And I'm Jake.

  • We've been married for one year.

  • I'm not surprised by this, just because they seem so comfortable and they didn't seem to be engaging in any perception management whatsoever.

  • For the first few minutes, they just sat there not really moving, not really interacting.

  • It's interesting that now that we're looking directly at their faces, you kind of get a sense that, yeah, I can see this as a couple for a long time.

  • I'm torn between married four years or dating five.

  • Dating five years.

  • I'm Courtney.

  • I'm Mikey.

  • We've been together five years.

  • Five years.

  • I almost put five years for this one just because they seem so touchy.

  • Maybe it wasn't marriage yet.

  • Maybe this touching behavior will slowly start to fade in the nicest possible way.

  • To me, the number doesn't matter.

  • The fact is that you can tell immediately this couple really likes each other.

  • Of all the couples, they're the one that are closest to a first date.

  • I'm John.

  • I'm Lauren.

  • This is a blind date.

  • Blind date.

  • Oh, well.

  • Well done.

  • And with all those touching behaviors, finger touching, rubbing, that says to me, we're not really comfortable.

  • So I'm going to go with my gut, but I think I might be wrong.

  • My name is Dara.

  • My name is Mercedes.

  • I love you.

  • I love you, too.

  • Yeah, the lack of mimicry was saying to me that it wasn't super long term.

  • One thing you can tell, how much empathy is also displayed.

  • When one was reluctant to talk or was a little stoic, the other one helped to bring the other one out.

  • That's also a good sign of a good relationship.

  • I think it's a first date.

  • A good one.

  • Hi, I'm Brinda.

  • I'm Sahaj.

  • And we've been together for 14 years.

  • Married for four years.

  • I'm kicking myself with this one because prior to this, I said my strategy was look for the most mimicry.

  • They showed the most mimicry, and I just disregarded my strategy.

  • Okay, we want the PhD back.

  • Once again, as we look at this couple, yeah, we saw the mimicry, we saw the joviality, they were having a good time.

  • Whether it's a date or an experience, in essence, that's really what matters.

Oh, can you pause it there?

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