Sam Diener Body Language Analysis

An interesting concept in society would be that of body language and communication. We all have different habitus when it comes to body language and communication yet we may see that there are patterns both among the two dynamics of gender as well as among different cultures. For example you may see different body language among males and females when it comes to walking.
For the most part what I have noticed when observing people is that men tend to walk in a straight linear direction whereas women tend to walk more gracefully rhythmically swinging their hips and taking smaller steps. Though this may not be true for every individual it is the pattern I noticed. Furthermore, I was able to notice that men take longer strides having their legs

We could point out that the way people greet each can be dramatically different across the world. As the case with handshakes it is the general understanding that “Indian, Asian and Arabic cultures may continue to hold your hand when the handshake has ended. Germans and French give one or two pumps followed by a short hold, whereas Brits give three to five pumps compared with an American's five to seven pumps”. This shows that there are different habitus for each nationality and that they are obviously learned in that society. Another subconscious behavior among different cultures that is based on learning in society would be personal space when greeting. As pointed out in the article “Body Language In Different Cultures” by Sam Diener people tend to have differing ways of approaching people. For example “In China, if someone is doing business it is widely accepted to have NO personal space at all. Strangers regularly touch when standing near each other. On the other hand, some cultures require much more space than in America. Keep in mind, that personal space will differ for everyone based on their upbringing”. Here we see that greeting people is learned at a subconscious level is learned through what people see in society. Each society would therefore have a different style of greeting based on the behaviors that are taught