What is steepling fingers

There is also a bouncing steeple motion where the fingers are separated and then brought back together. That would usually indicate impatience on the part of the listener, so if you see this, immediately give the other person the floor. You may have noticed that Donald Trump is often seen using the steepling technique as well as the bouncing steeple to indicate impatience. His gestures are very marked. For example, Donald often sits with his arms crossed. It looks uncomfortable when wearing a suit, but it is how he habitually demonstrates his power.

I will discuss arm crossing in a future article. Some people use the steepling gesture a lot and others rarely use it. When you see it being done, it provides clues into what the other person is thinking.

Steepling is rarely seen from a person in a lower status when talking with a superior. If you see this, some form of a coup is likely being attempted. Test to see what may be happening. Excessive use of steepling will lower the trust between people because it represents a kind of power play. Try to use this gesture sparingly in your relations with others. In fact, people who are confident, superior types or who use minimal or restricted body gestures often use this gesture, and, by doing so, they signal their confident attitude.

Managers often use this gesture position when giving instructions or advice to subordinates and it is particularly common among accountants, lawyers, managers and the like. The gesture has two versions; the raised steeple Figure 42 , the position normally taken when the steepler is giving his opinions or ideas and is doing the talking.

The lowered steeple gesture Figure 43 is normally used when the steepler is listening rather than speaking. Nierenberg and Calero noted that women tend to use the lowered steeple position more often than the raised steeple position. When the raised steeple position is taken with the head tilted back, the person assumes an air of smugness or arrogance.

When the person brings down their elbows, they open up their upper body, maintaining the steeple at a lower position. In addition to confidence, this gesture conveys a cooperative attitude.

Knowledge of the meaning behind the steepling hands gesture can be very useful in teaching, debates, discussions, and negotiations. For instance, when a teacher or educator adopts this gesture, it tells the audience that something thoughtful is being said that needs some pondering on. In debates and discussions, watch when people make this gesture as they are talking and note the corresponding points and topics.

These are their strong points. But most people are far from open-minded. If you want to project superiority and confidence put your hands behind your back and grip one hand with the other. Look at prominent male members of royal families around the world.

Observe senior military personnel, police officers patrolling their beats, or the headmaster of your local school striding through the corridors. They all adopt this position of authority. They are showing no fear of exposing their vulnerable necks, hearts, or stomachs to potential threats and hazards.

The next time you're in a stressful or uncomfortable situation, adopt the palm-in-palm-behind-the-back stance. Note how your feelings change from frustrated, insecure, or angry to relaxed and confident.

As the grip moves up the arm, though, the meaning changes. You can bet that if someone is gripping her wrist behind her back rather than just her hand she's holding back frustration. This gesture is a way of maintaining self-control, as if the hand is holding the wrist or arm to keep it from hitting out. The farther up the back the hand goes the greater the level of frustration. By the time the hand reaches the upper arm this person may have moved from frustration to anger.

This gesture is also a sign of nervousness and is an attempt at self-control. This gesture is common among leaders and royalty and is used by the policemen patrolling the beat, the headmaster walking around the school playground, senior military personnel and anyone in a position of authority.

The emotions attached to this gesture are superiority, confidence and power. The person exposes their vulnerable stomach, heart, pelvis, and throat in a subconscious act of fearlessness. Our experience shows that, if you take this position when you are in a high-stress situation, such as being interviewed by TV reporters or waiting outside a dentist's surgery, you will begin to feel confident and even authoritative, as a result of cause and effect.

Research with law enforcement officers showed that officers who do not wear firearms use this position regularly and often rock back and forth on the balls of the feet when standing to gain additional height.

Police officers who wear firearms seldom use this gesture, preferring to let their arms hang by their side or to have their thumbs tucked into the belt. The firearm gives the officer sufficient power that Palm-in-Palm behind the back is not a necessary display of authority. It is a signal of frustration and an attempt at self-control.

One hand grips the other wrist or arm tightly behind the back, as if in an attempt by one arm to prevent the other from striking out. The higher up one hand grips the opposite arm, the more frustrated or angry the person is likely to be. In the first image below we see moderate self-control while in the second, the gentleman is showing a progressively greater attempt at self-control than in the previous picture, because the hand is gripping the upper arm, not just the lower arm or wrist.

This gesture shows the origin of the expression, 'Get a grip on yourself. It's an attempt to disguise nervousness or self-restraint and, if you catch yourself doing it, change to the Palm-in-Palm behind the back and you will begin to feel more confident and in control. Why, among all the primates were Homo Sapiens able to make extra-ordinary progress? A major contributing factor to human progress is the presence of an opposable thumb i. Most primates chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys and some other animals also have opposable thumbs but they can't move their thumb as far away from the hand as humans.

The thumb is also physically the most powerful finger in the human hand. Due to this superior opposability of the thumb, human beings were able to make tools, weapons, and complicated structures. It also enabled us to write; hence language was born. Language led to mathematics, science, and literature and the complexity of culture we know today.

Thumbs up: The thumb up position generally denotes agreement. But be careful using this gesture as in some cultures it's perceived as rude and highly offensive. Thumbs protruding from a person's pockets: This gesture demonstrates dominance and self-assuredness. Although both men and women use this gesture, it's the rare woman who adopts the position of holding her jacket lapel with the thumb exposed, whereas men often do. Gesturing towards another person with your thumb: When you use your thumb to point towards someone else, you're being dismissive, disrespectful, or ridiculing the other person.

Andrew had the unfortunate habit of ridiculing Jane, his wife, in front of their friends. When they were in company he would often refer to her as 'the little woman' gesturing in her direction with a closed fist, using his thumb as a pointer. Although Jane told him how irritating she found this gesture, as well as the accompanying remarks, Andrew took no notice.

He did notice, however, when after several years of rude and disrespectful behaviour Jane divorced him. As mentioned earlier, se of thumbs denotes superiority. In palmistry, the thumbs represent strength of character and the ego, and body language signals involving the thumbs also show self-important attitudes.