Seduction: 10 Gestures and what they reveal

Fabienne Broucaret

23 Dec 2014

mis à jour le 4 May 2019 à 04:56

Running your fingers through your hair, crossing your arms, playing with your eyes…these gestures may prove significant during a first meeting or a date.

1/10
The art of playing with your hair
While men tend to puff up their chests and pull in their stomachs, women prefer instead to play with their hair for two to six seconds, observes Barbara and Allan Pease. By moving their hair back they reveal their neck. This "capillary parade" would have, according to these psychologists, the advantage of exposing their underarms, allowing pheromones to spread out.
2/10
The wrist gesture
You are open and available sensually when you hold your right wrist in the left hand.
You are hostile when you hold your left wrist in the right hand.
3/10
A matter of distance
When you start flirting, the distance between you and the partner plays an important role. Open your eyes and observe the distance he maintains, or doesn’t, between you. It is generally very revealing.
The best distance? A little less than a meter. Any closer and you enter the zone of intimacy which is reserved for lovers, for family and for close friends.
4/10
The loving index fingers
When index fingers are stuck upright in front of the mouth in a context of seduction, this gesture would mean "I want you". But be careful, this message can be cancelled out by a discouraging crossing of the legs.
5/10
The glasses on the tip of the nose
It is a hackneyed classic! In a context of seduction, it indicates a man pretending to be a seducer without really being one. A teasing man, as a matter of fact.
6/10
The hand on shoulder
The right hand placed on the left shoulder and the left cheek supported on the latter. The message is crystal clear except for the blind seducers who believe that their crush suffers from a sudden degenerative osteoarthritis of the left shoulder.
7/10
It’s all in the eyes
The academic, Michael Argyle was among the first to study the way men and women looked at each other or avoided doing so. When you look at a person who attracts you, but you don’t want him to realize it, you look away. Then, out of the corner of your eye, you wait for him to look at you: it will be the sign to tell that he is interested in you.
8/10
A resemblance game
A positive sign: the other party adopts a similar posture to yours, under the influence of his mirror neurons. It is the most important sign of affinity.
9/10
Head movements
Experiments have shown that women often tilt their head to one side when the man has made a favourable impression on them, indicating an openness towards the man they have met.
10/10
The signs of refusal?
He turns in another direction, crosses his arms, rubs his neck by pointing his elbow in your direction. If he turns his head toward you while keeping the rest of the body turned in another direction, it is also a negative message.

Numerous psychologists are interested in body language, specifically to decode the hidden meaning behind the movement of our eyes, legs or the way we place our arms. Their aim is to assign meaning to each gesture and movement in the same way that a dictionary assigns meaning to words. In Psychology Today, Monica Moore (1995) noticed that women resorted to 52 different non verbal behaviours associated with seduction: an evasive smile, pouts, laughter, movements of the head to reveal a part of the neck and raised eyebrows. These signs, according to her, "give rhythm to the dance". What are these gestures, often unconsciously made, that betray our will to seduce? How do you recognize when a man is attracted by you? Find out more in the slide show above.

Fabienne Broucaret

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