This is the body language of each personality type

March 31, 2024

Communicating is essential for the human being, being necessary to live in society and be able to understand and make us understand. Fortunately, we have a very useful tool for this: language. But there is no single language, but in our interactions with others we can get to apply different types of language.

In particular, body language is one of the most powerful communication tools we have. In addition, there is a link between our personality and the style of body language what do we use.

However, to understand this we must first bear in mind that language is capable of taking many forms and that our way of being is not only reflected in what we say literally through words.

Maybe you're interested: "The 5 big personality traits: sociability, responsibility, openness, kindness and neuroticism"

Much more than words

Although usually when we talk about language we usually think of speech and verbal communication, we understand by language all that system used by one or more individuals to transmit information through a series of symbolic elements or signs whose meaning is shared by both interlocutors, which may be said voluntary or involuntary information emission.

This communication is established with a specific objective, the act may have different functions such as informing, persuading, organizing their own behavior or socially linked.

The types of body language

The language can also be classified according to what type of elements are used in the communicative exchange.

As far as body language is concerned, it can be classified in this way:

Gestual or kinésico

The kinesthetic refers to the use of gestures and movements in order to transmit information , being especially useful to express the emotionality of the issuing individual.

Proxemic

It is about what our general position communicates and the separation between the different components of the communicative situation . In other words, it is about the meaning of distances.

The separation or proximity between people indicates different degrees of confidence and / or positions of power existing between individuals, as well as the relationship between what we say and what we intend with it (we get closer when we want to involve the other in what we say, for example). They distinguish between intimate, personal, social or public distances.

Maybe you're interested: "The 12 types of language (and their characteristics)"

The relationship between personality and body language

As we have seen, body language includes the gestures we make and the way we approach or distance ourselves of certain elements or people.

Taking into account this, we can talk about the style of gestural language associated with the main personality types:

1. Shy personality

In social situations, shy people are more likely to keep their arms and legs close to the vertical axis of their thorax. At the same time, show a tendency to look little in the eye of the people who relate to them.

On the other hand, they often keep their arms crossed in front of the chest or join hands below the navel . They tend to keep a prudent distance to people who do not know much and are anxious to be touched by them, although this does not happen in some cultures.

2. Open personality

This personality style is characterized by an openness to experience and the search for new stimuli. As regards the non-verbal language associated with this class of people, it is characterized by expansive expressiveness, which means that separate the arms and legs from the vertical axis of the trunk very easily and that, in general, your posture denotes the relaxation of your muscles. For example, when sitting, they can stretch and separate their legs a lot, unless they are in a very formal context.

Another characteristic of these people is that they show no qualms when it comes to looking in the eyes of other people, although they only do so to capture more data about them, not to communicate about themselves.

3. Dominant personality

Dominant people express their power through their gestures and postures. Frequently they perform fast and powerful movements , with the muscles tense, although it is not something that they do constantly, since in that case these actions would lose their impact. They also tend to get close to other people, and use their eyes in a calculated way to show determination and intimidate: they look into the eyes of intense and prolonged so that it must be the other person who sets it apart.

4. Friendly personality

The kind personality is typical of individuals who try to constantly express that their intentions are good and that it is not necessary to maintain high defenses. They tend to do this by expressing subordination , which can be real or apparent, such as tipping the trunk slightly to where the other person is and making slow and smooth gestures that go from the interlocutor to some point external to it, which denotes that they take the perspective of the other.

5. Neurotic personality

People with a neurotic personality style They express their emotions in a disorganized and almost "unfiltered" way . This means that they can mix several gestural and proxemic styles over a few hours, and also in a very marked and not very subtle way.

6. Emotionally stable personality

These people keep a body language that tends towards neutrality , which means that the style they use to express how they feel is as stable as their state of mind.