Your body language sometimes lies

Many people think that they can ‘read’ a room.

They spot the crossed arms, the averted gaze, the forced smile, and they draw conclusions.

Yet, reading someone's body language is incredibly difficult, because whilst some body language is deliberate, some isn't. 

Indeed, a review found that many nonverbal cues are faint and unreliable, and that people are mediocre room readers when they pay attention to body language alone.

This is where empathy breaks down.

The person slumped in their chair might be disengaged. Or they might have a bad back. The colleague who won't meet your eyes could be hiding something. Or they may find looking directly at someone uncomfortable.

Reading body language without empathy is assumption disguised as intuition.

It’s important to know the difference.