Body Language as a Form of Listening
Launch library · evergreen read
Listening is not only an activity for the ears. A shift in posture, a hand that stills mid gesture, a gaze that drops before a difficult sentence: all of it carries information alongside the words themselves, and an interviewer attentive only to audio misses half the available signal in the room.
None of these cues should be read as certain proof of anything on their own. A crossed arm can mean discomfort or simply mean the room is cold. The value lies in noticing a change from a subject's own baseline, established earlier in the conversation, rather than in reading any single gesture in isolation.
Over a video call or a phone line, much of this channel disappears, which is one reason those formats can feel thinner even when the words exchanged are identical. Interviewers working remotely often compensate by listening even more closely for shifts in tone and pace instead.