To be liked and adored - simply nod !

Look around any city of this world. You will see people hunched over their mobile phones. Lost in their own little worlds, no eye contact, forget smiles or even warm greetings.

Have you ever stopped to think what happens when you nod to show you agree with someone or shake your head to disagree? Does nodding make you more likeable or approachable?

There have been several studies conducted on the above and this is what they found:

 You reinforce my beliefs when you nod! In other words, when I speak and you nod, I assume you agree with me. At the same time, you are also silently implying, what I’m saying is right.

However, when you nod more, you may disagree more too! If you think I have a weak argument on my side or what I’m saying doesn’t hold water, you may end up nodding too much and end up disagreeing with what I said in the end!

Women nod more than men! Yes, there’s a gender angle to it as well. A woman ends up nodding a lot more than her male counterpart.

You will nod at your boss & his boss as well! This one comes as a no brainer. Cutting across gender differences, both men and women will nod at their boss and others of a higher status as well.

In a new study, two Japanese based researchers, Jun-ichiro Kawahara (associate professor at the Hokkaido University, Sapporo) and Takayuki Osugi (associate professor at Yamagata University, Yamagata) set out to test the effect of the two gestures: how nodding in approval and shaking head in disapproval can affect subjective likeability and approachability.

This study has been published in the psychology journal Perception. The researchers asked participants to rate the likeability of computer generated figures and here are their conclusions:

Bowing makes you seem attractive! When the computer generated female 3D figures made a bowing motion, they appeared more attractive to the viewers.

Become 30% more likeable & 40% more approachable instantly!

To test this theory, researchers asked 49 Japanese adults aged 18 and above to watch short clips of figures nodding, shaking their head or staying still. They had to then rate how attractive,approachable and likeable the figures were on a scale from 0 to 100. Those figures which nodded were perceived as being 30% more likeable and 40% more approachable in comparison to motionless figures or the ones that shook their head.

Nodding helps you transcend the body image! However you appear physically, when you nod, you are liked as a person and it has nothing to do with your appearance.