The expressions, gestures and other body language that people may use, without
necessarily realising it, can be important cues as to what they really think.
Communication is not just imparting information: if often involves, or needs to involve,
understanding people’s attitudes and feelings which are not always clearly
expressed in words. In some cases people may even feel obliged to say the opposite of
what they really think. It is not uncommon, for example, for a person to say ‘how
interesting’ but in a tone of voice which indicates that they are in fact bored. An adage
which makes the point that people sometimes accidentally misrepresent themselves is
‘listen to what I mean not what I say’. As words can be an inadequate, or even a
misleading, guide as to what people really think, it can be important to look for other
cues as to people’s thoughts. A catalogue could be prepared of what particular physical
cues could mean¬fidgeting, that a person has other things on his mind; a glazed
expression, that a person doesn’t understand, and so on.
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