Dominant Body Language

Dominant Body Language

Dominant body language is closely related to aggressive body language but at a lesser emotional level. The ultimate goal of dominant body language is to impress power over another, but not necessarily in an aggressive manner, more so in an authoritative manner. A person demonstrating dominant body language will often try to make their body appear bigger then what it really is, especially men. Often times they will cross their arms with their hands under their biceps in an attempt to push them out more to give a larger appearance. Men and women will hold their hands on their hips with elbows out wide while standing chest out and chin up. You will see many mothers in this position when disciplining their children. A great example of using dominant body language over another is a detective over a suspect in an interrogation room. In interrogation rooms, you will often see the detective standing making the suspect sit to give them a dominating height over the suspect in an attempt to intimidate the suspect. The detective may pace the room, much like marking territory, designating where exactly the suspect is to sit also while walking around or coming up behind the suspect, leaning over the suspects shoulder and talking rather than sitting at the table with the suspect. By invading the personal space of the suspect they make the suspect feel uncomfortable with the added height and being talked down to, and the detective achieves a dominant stance as well as dominance over the territory. The detective makes a point to make sure the suspect knows they are on the detective's territory and working from the detective's rules. Social norms such as cussing and name-calling go out the window in a detective's attempt to dominate the situation. They will dominate the suspect in other fashions as well, such as having a folder in front of them, leaving the suspect to wonder what type of evidence the detective actually has against them. Tape recorders, although used in the line of any interrogation, are also another way to non-verbally dominate another by leaving the suspect knowing that anything they say is being recorded. You will also see a detective use facial expressions to taunt, control, and dominate the situation. It can be in the form of stare downs, rolling of eyes every time the suspect says something, yawning, squinting at the suspect while holding a stare down, as well as smirking at the suspect's responses.