The Secret Language of Business: How to Read Anyone in 3 Seconds or Less

Chapter 2. The Power of the Secret Language of Business

It is difficult to overestimate the power of body language. Those who pretend to be experts throw around figures such as 75 percent, 85 percent, even 90 percent when they try to define how much of a message is communicated nonverbally rather than verbally. It actually differs from context to context and individual to individual. There is no fixed number or even an average. The bottom line is the power of even the very best verbal communication pales in comparison to the power of body language and nonverbal communication.

Why Should You Care about Body Language?

Stinky people.

They bother me.

I confess it, here and now.

I'm "smell sensitive."

I can tell someone what they had for lunch, whether they had alcohol, were near a cigarette, and whether I can stay within meters of them because of their body's scent.

So at the conscious and probably nonconscious level you and I are aware to a greater or lesser degree of scent, and it causes us to form opinions about people.

But sometimes all of this happens at the nonconscious level ...... and sometimes the result of scientific research is a little scary.

Research shows that females are far more attracted to males with other females' scents on them.

Notice that it is not the scent of perfume, which obviously covers scent, but the scent of another female.

It appears that evolution has supplied females a yardstick with which to measure males. Females have an olfactory sensitivity about 10 times ...