Body Language for Pride and Shame is Just Natural

Posted by Miss Cellania in Science & Tech, Sports on August 12, 2008 at 8:31 am


When a person tastes victory, such as Michael Phelps winning the gold at the Olympics, he will raise his hands and puff out his chest. Apes and monkeys do this, too. And you don’t even have to learn how to do it!

Scientists from the University of British Columbia and San Francisco State University looked at thousands of photographs of judo matches taken during the 2004 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games in Athens, for such classic in-your-face victory moves as clenched fists, thrown-back heads and outstretched arms.

The images of the 140 blind and sighted athletes from 37 countries revealed that Paralympic athletes blind from birth struck the same triumphant stance as sighted Olympic athletes. Since the blind athletes could not have learned the victory dance by watching others, the scientists concluded that the behavior was innate.

They found that the dance was the same for all, regardless of what culture or country they came from.

The converse gestures of slumping shoulders and downcast face when experiencing a defeat is also innate.

Blind athletes across all cultures slumped their shoulders and narrowed their chests, a posture that signals shame in humans and submission in other primates. Sighted athletes from most parts of the world did the same.

However, athletes from some countries tend to hide their feelings of shame in defeat by putting on a brave or nonchalant front. Researchers speculate this is a learned response. Link -Thanks, Geekazoid!

(image credit: Mark J. Rebilas/U.S. Presswire)


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8 comments to "Body Language for Pride and Shame is Just Natural"

  1. smfr
    August 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am

    > Since the blind athletes could not have learned the victory dance by watching others

    Why do they think that blind people are so isolated from the world around them? It's easy to imagine teammates or trainers grabbing the winner's hands and raising them up, making this a learned response.

  2. Baggy
    August 12th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    I'm not sure why you would think this wasn't a natural response. It seems to be pretty universal across all primates.

    It's an instinctual way of expressing dominance and submission after victory/defeat.

    It's a pretty awesome realization, and I think it totally makes sense.

  3. DOJ
    August 12th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    literary descriptions of victory/defeat are plenty, and blind people can read.

  4. Idil
    August 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pm

    Aww thats cute.

    And when you do the same thing even if you didnt win anything, you feel victorious.

  5. Kare Anderson
    August 12th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    With that in mind, what parts of a face most influence first impressions?
    http://sayitbetter.typepad.com/say_it_better/2008/08/what-make-us-wa.h tml

  6. leongsoon
    August 12th, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    I have a feeling people around the blind athletes could have raised their hands and taught them that. But yea, I'll still agree raising hands and puffing chest is kinda natural, hmm.

  7. kevin
    August 12th, 2008 at 11:41 pm

    also,
    this just in:
    laughing in response to humour proven universial by 5.7 million dollar international study

  8. sigh
    August 13th, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    I can't believe we pay for people to research things like this.


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