Posture, like location, conveys a myriad of non-verbal messages. Psychiatry professor Albert Sheflin proposes the concept of “structures”. He is convinced that when we interact – we talk, for example – we “structure” our activities in space and time, located in a certain way.
Albert distinguishes three types of frames: counterpart, nearby, completion marker (a signal that the communication is over and it’s time to return to your business). Perhaps what this concept points to is the mutual orientation of our shoulders in negotiations. It is interesting that men and women in personal conversations behave fundamentally differently in this sense.
When women communicate with each other, they position themselves so that they can see each other’s faces (as in cases where people of the opposite sex interact). At the same time, they often look into the eyes of their interlocutors. According to Deborah Tannen, they are also more direct, leaning forward, nodding, smiling and touching.
Men, on the contrary, are more likely to stand side by side during a confidential conversation. They avoid prolonged eye contact, more often non-verbally signal strength, power and independence. They are also less likely to engage in spontaneous conversations with other members of their gender. Eye contact for them often means a challenge.
Sociologist Harry Broad believes that shoulder-to-shoulder orientation is a way of experiencing male emotional intimacy. “A number of studies have established that for males, mutual trust is expressed in a pose next to each other, and for females, on the contrary. Men inherit the concept of intimacy from competitive practices, where they kind of play on the same team, ”he sums up.
