The key ideas

What Every BODY Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People

Joe Navarro, Marvin Karlins, 2008

During a murder interrogation, a suspect’s eyelids lowered at one word, changing the course of the case. Former FBI agent Joe Navarro shows how the body reveals comfort and discomfort through feet, hands, and gestures around the neck. He also warns that this is no lie detector, but a clue to what to ask next.

Who it is for

For anyone who wants to become better at noticing when another person feels uncomfortable, in negotiations, at work, or at home, without jumping to conclusions about people.

There is not a single behavioral sign that indicates deception, not one.

About the book

A murder interrogation. The man at the table is not the main suspect: his alibi is plausible, and he speaks calmly. With his consent, an FBI agent asks unusual questions: “If you had committed this crime, would you have used a gun? A knife? An ice pick? A hammer?” Only the investigators and the killer knew the weapon.

At one word, the man’s eyelids lowered and stayed down until the agent named the next object. Which word it was, and what this actually implies, will become clear toward the end.

The agent was Joe Navarro. He served in the FBI for 25 years, in counterintelligence and counterterrorism. He wrote the book with psychologist Marvin Karlins. An honest framework from the start: this is the author’s field experience and model rather than laboratory science. Navarro himself warns that the body is no lie detector. It may suggest where a person feels calm and where they feel uneasy. The reason will have to be established through conversation.

Idea 1. The boy who did not speak English

Navarro was eight when his family emigrated from Cuba to the United States. He did not speak English, so at his new school he read what he could: faces and postures.

He recalls noticing fairly quickly that classmates and teachers who liked him raised their eyebrows slightly when he appeared. Those who felt less warmly toward him squinted slightly. Squinting, partly closed eyes, a hand near the eyes: the author calls this eye blocking, as though the body were shutting out something unpleasant to see.

The book’s central idea grew from this childhood experience: observation can be learned. Navarro says it is like a muscle, strengthened by exercise and weakened without it.

You enter a room where an argument is happening and notice who is sitting tensely and who is leaning back before anyone speaks.

In the author’s framework, reading people is more a skill of attention than a gift. We probably see many signals without managing to notice them.

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About the author

Joe Navarro is a former FBI special agent who worked in counterintelligence and counterterrorism for 25 years. He emigrated with his family from Cuba to the United States at age eight. Marvin Karlins is a psychologist and the book’s coauthor.

All books by this author: Joe Navarro, Marvin Karlins

Terms from the book

  • Limbic system
  • Freeze, flight, fight: The sequence of responses to a threat in the author’s model: freezing first, then withdrawing, and only then attacking. The book’s framework rather than a diagnostic tool.
  • Pacifying behaviors: Touching the neck, face, hair, or thighs and similar movements through which, according to Navarro, the body may reduce tension. They indicate discomfort but not its cause.
  • Eye blocking: Squinting, partially closing the eyes, or placing a hand near the eyes in response to something unpleasant. The author’s term; it does not by itself prove guilt or deception.
  • Baseline: A particular person’s usual behavior when calm. According to Navarro, this is what signals should be compared against.
  • Cluster of signals: Several signs appearing together or in sequence. In the author’s framework, a cluster can offer slightly more support than a single gesture, but it remains a hypothesis.

All terms

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