MYTH OR TRUTH - WHAT DOES CROSSING ARMS REALLY MEAN?

Anyone who thinks that body language is always clear and perceived and understood by all people in the same way is mistaken. Crossed arms are not without reason one of the topics in the field of body language that repeatedly leads to discussions. Every person has standard body language behaviors, known as the baseline. In the context of nonverbal communication, the baseline refers to the behavior that a person exhibits in a relaxed situation, that is, at rest, on a neutral topic. Assuming that crossing your arms is part of your baseline and you try to constantly control or even change your own body language in a sales or business conversation by consciously suppressing crossing your arms, this will affect both your concentration and receptivity as well as your focus in the conversation. Lack of focus on your customers leads to not perceiving or only belatedly perceiving the sales signs and therefore missing the opportunity to respond appropriately. This hinders or risks building trust with your customers in you or your company, which in turn will have a negative impact on the development of loyalty, customer satisfaction, and significantly on the purchasing decision. To be able to holistically read changes in the baseline body language of your customers, there are a total of eight channels through which you can capture them: 1. Facial expressions, 2. Head position, 3. Gestures, 4. Foot and leg behavior, 5. Body posture, 6. Psychophysiology, 7. Voice, 8. Interpersonal movement behavior. The goal of analyzing the body language of your counterpart is to consciously perceive changes in body language simultaneously through multiple channels. If you notice such a change, it is crucial to empathetically and emotionally intelligently identify and address it. While you may suspect what triggered the change in body language, without your counterpart's confirmation, you cannot definitively say that you have understood the actual meaning and its origin; you may be wrong in your interpretation. The following motives may lead customers to cross their arms in a sales or business conversation: A. Crossing arms can be an expression of a submissive and/or defensive body posture. Here, the counterpart withdraws externally and internally from the conversation. B. Customers also display this body posture when feeling proud. Crossing arms is used to signal superiority in terms of focusing on oneself and one's own strength. C. Crossing arms can also be observed when customers have a high cognitive load (concentration) or when they experience strong cognitive focus when solving challenging tasks. D. The emotion of disgust can also lead customers to adopt this body posture. Crossing arms in combination with the emotion of disgust indicates rejection and disinterest from the counterpart. This is due to internal distancing and expresses isolation. In summary: Crossing arms may, but does not necessarily mean, distancing or rejection. Rather, it is a possible interpretation of various motives that lead customers to adopt this body posture in a sales or business conversation. Comparing it with your customers' baseline is crucial. Additionally, the context in which you find yourself is to be considered, including medicine, film, radio and television, as well as young professionals in the event industry.