23 Body Language Tricks That Make You Instantly Likeable

You send people signals all day, without paying attention to them. The way you move your eyes, the way you shake a hand and so on. There are things you can do to send subconscious signals using body language that make people like you better, or at least give you the benefit of the doubt. Whenever I discuss techniques like these there are always one or two people who feel uncomfortable with ‘influencing’ someone with psychological tricks.

Manipulation is not negative

Influencing is changing someone’s behavior or mind
Manipulation is intentionally influencing

When you hear the word manipulation, you may immediately think of negative things. Please don’t.

Manipulation is not bad. People with bad intentions are bad.

Example 1: Manipulative sneaky person

Bad people are bad. Bad people who manipulate are problematic. An example of this:

Mean Girl wants to reduce the social standing of Sweet Classmate
She tells the other classmate this person did something horrible
The class likes Sweet Classmate less
Sweet Classmate feels sad now

Example 2: Friendly manipulation

Manipulation can make everyone in a situation better off.

Party Person is an experienced manipulator
Party Person bumps into another person
Party Person smiles disarmingly and apologizes, even though the other person was wrong
Party Person doesn’t get into a fight and has a great night

The problem with the Mean Girl example is not the manipulation, the problem is bad intentions and lying.

My request: Have good intentions

I’m assuming you will use these tricks with good intentions. Please do so.

Section 1: Attitude & body language

The human mind is judgmental, it’s what it does. It is what kept us alive during evolution.We make judgments in split seconds:

Is this person a threat?
Is this person attractive?
Is this person useful to my (social) survival?

Pay attention to this instinct, but never act on it without knowing the person better. The tricks below will trigger you to behave in ways that are perceived well.

This section is not strictly about body language, but these attitudes will subconsciously influence your body language.

Feel secure and project confidence

This one is so important it requires its own article, and you can never do this 100% of the time. Plus, there are certainly cases where not seeming confident can gain you likability points, but on average, the above holds true.

There are two things to consider with this point:

Try to remove things that make you uncomfortable
- For me bad skin was an issue, which I solved like this
- Another was clothing choice, which I solved by bringing along a girl when shopping
Train yourself to help you feel secure
- I learned a lot from self-help audiobooks I downloaded
- For me staying in shape helped a lot. Read the 4 Hour Body or its summary

Everyone is a friend, unless proven otherwise

Why burn bridges before you’ve made them in the first place? It makes no sense:

You have everything to gain
You have nothing to lose

You will notice soon enough if this person would/wants to be a good friend.

Everyone deserves respect, unless proven otherwise

Again, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by treating people with respect. That doesn’t mean you should kiss boots all day; it means you shouldn’t dismiss anyone or make them feel unimportant.

Like everybody, until they don’t deserve it

Strangers deserve to have the benefit of the doubt. In our world anyone can be anything, without looking like it. I’ve met douchebags who looked kind and billionaires that behaved like excited children. Look at the cover of the book, but read a few pages before judging.

Neither the douchebag or billionaire are ‘better’ than each other. But being around one made me feel unhappy, and the other made me feel gusto and enthusiasm.

Always think about what you can do for others

When you meet someone, don’t think ‘what can they do for me?’ but rather ‘what can I do for them?’ Helping people is the best way to make them want to help you, and everybody wins.

Note that I’m not saying you should give unsolicited advice to make yourself seem smart. Help people if you genuinely and truly believe this person’s life would be better with the knowledge/help/contact that you can offer.

Offer help, but don’t insist. Keep it short and let them decide.

Section 2: Posture

Your body is constantly signalling the people you meet. Posture influences the snap second judgement people make about you, but also what you think about yourself. In addition, proper posture is good for your back, what’s not to like?

Stand up straight, but relaxed

To find positive posture, try the following:

Stand with your feet as wide as your hips
Make yourself as tall as possible, imagine being pulled up by the top of your head
Now keep that feeling of being tall but relax your shoulders
Relax your neck and angle your head so you don’t have to look up or down to look an average person in the eyes

Some tips:

Relax as much as possible while maintaining your posture
Don’t puff your chest, it should be flat as if you are lying on a floor
Pull your shoulders back very slightly

Sit up straight, but not rigid

When you start sitting up straight, you will notice how small most people make themselves. You will instantly feel quite tall when sitting at a table. Keep your back straight, but relax as much as possible.

Always have some tension in your core

Your abs, back and general core should never be flaccid/floppy when you stand or sit. Keep your abs and core in general under some tension. Not only does it reflect well upon your posture, but it also makes it easier to move with grace.

Position your feet at about hip width apart

The stance of your feet says a lot about you. It’s not an exact science, but putting your feet closer together generally signifies insecurity, whereas a wider stance indicates confidence.

Both holding your feet too close together and too far apart can reflect badly upon you. Try to aim for a position where your feet are at hip width or slightly wider apart, but not much.

Section 3: Entering a Room

The moment you enter a room is the moment you expose yourself to the judgement of the people in that room. Make sure to make use of that.

Some would recommend more extreme techniques like peacocking, but that doesn’t apply to all situations.

Smile like you are happy to be there

Regardless of whether you are, smile when you enter a room. Smile like you really like what you are seeing. Don’t overdo it, don’t laugh out loud. Smile like you stepped outside and noticed the sun was shining.

Greet the crowd

Not explicitly. Don’t shout “HEY!” or draw explicit attention unless these are people who appreciate such behavior. Otherwise take a moment to stand still or walk slowly while looking at the people in the room.

Make eye contact

Don’t glance over the crowd like it’s an object. Look people in the eye and if anyone holds your gaze smile at them. Make people feel like a positive influence just entered this room.

Take your time

This shows confidence, but also signifies an open attitude.

Wave to (imaginary) friends

Humans are hard-wired to like and/or respect people with friends. When you walk into a room and do your usual ‘greet the crowd’ routine, follow it up by waving to your friends and mouthing something along the lines of “I’ll be right there”.

Here’s the thing, feel free to do this to imaginary friends. I do this all the time at bigger events. Keep in mind that people don’t see 360 degrees. If you wave to an non-existent person behind them they don’t know you are just waving to empty air.

This has a number of effects:

People assume you know people
You have more time to calmly look around
You will feel more confident

The trick here is to do this in full confidence, don’t timidly wave. Wave like your best friend is across the room and you are trying to communicate to them that you’ll be there soon.

Section 4: the Handshake

Use a firm but gentle handshake

Men, especially, are sensitive to the way you shake a hand. A weak or ‘dead fish’ handshake will instantly lose you likability points.

Don’t just ‘offer’ your hand, a handshake is teamwork
Use the pressure you would use to grab the stick of a heavy pan
If a person is offering you a ‘dead fish’ handshake, don’t squeeze too hard

Make eye contact as you shake hands

Looking away automatically signifies negative things:

You don’t have attention/respect for the other person
You have something to hide

Look into someone’s eyes long enough to memorize their eye color. Don’t stare, just observe for a moment.

Smile like they made your day

When looking into someone’s eyes during the shake, smile as if you saw something in their eyes that makes you happy.

Don’t laugh out loud, just smile.

Section 5: Positioning

How and where you position yourself makes a difference in how you are perceived. Positioning combined with posture is very powerful.

Open your stance

When you are talking to someone, position your body in such a way that you are open to them. Preferably position yourself in a ‘vulnerable’ way. Don’t cover your chest with your arms, don’t slouch etc. This signifies trust and comfort.

Angle yourself towards the person you are speaking to

It is a subtle change, but making sure that your body is ‘pointing’ to your conversational partner makes a difference. Angling away can signify fearfulness, insecurity and mistrust.

Don’t lean on or against objects

Leaning on/against an object (e.g. a wall) signifies passivity and possibly insecurity. Whenever you can stand up with good posture. Using the tips from the posture section, try to develop a comfortable ‘neutral stance’.

When you do lean, use posture

If you do have to lean against something for whatever reason, keep good posture. Don’t slouch.

Section 6: Your Face

Your face is an area with a lot of signalling. In fact there is a lot of research into micro expressions people make subconsciously. People project a lot of information without knowing it. You can use your face to signal information about yourself to people.

Make your neutral face a happy face

Ever heard of ‘resting bitch face syndrome’? Some people claim their face at rest looks annoyed/angry, which makes people perceive them as a social danger. You preferably wouldn’t talk to a person with that kind of an expression on their face.

It says nothing about the actual person though. But it does disadvantage them.

Make sure that your face at rest (e.g. when you are working on a laptop) looks relaxed, if not happy. An easy trick is to have a look on your face like something is mildly amusing to you.

Don’t break eye contact instantly

People have a habit of looking away if they meet a person’s eyes. Try not do do this. Keep eye contact, and smile. Often people will look away, though some people will hold your gaze.

Doing this has multiple effects:

People perceive you as more open
You will feel more confident

Please note that when you hold someone’s gaze, be sure to smile. Looking impassively can be very creepy…

How to smile

There is a very simple trick to smiling: imagine you are seeing something you really like.

Smiling is not about moving your face in a certain way, it is about feeling a happy feeling and letting your face express it.

Read more about how to smile in this Buffer article..

Section 7: Techniques and habits

Here I cover some things you can do that often involve some measure of interaction with your conversational/communication data.

Mirror your posture

A powerful technique that has been researched a lot is mirroring. This means people feel more comfortable around you and like you better if you stand the way they do. For example:

They have their arms crossed? Cross your arms
They are leaning on their right leg? Lean on your right leg
Are they holding a drink? Hold a drink

The key here is not to be obvious. The moment they notice consciously what you are doing, the technique loses power.

Mirror movements

As with the above point, you shouldn’t be obvious. But little things can go a long way:

You are having a coffee, they pick up their cup to drink? Do the same
If they smile, smile back (that’s an easy one)
Are they stepping a bit closer to you? Do the same

Again, don’t be obvious and don’t be a creep. This technique should be used in an unobtrusive manner, but frequently.