What Every Body Is Saying Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

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Brief Summary

What Everybody is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People by Joe Navarro is a practical guide to interpreting body language and nonverbal cues. Written by a former FBI counterintelligence officer, the book teaches readers how to read people by understanding the subtle signals they send through their posture, facial expressions, gestures, and movements. Navarro explains how to detect deception, gauge emotions, and build rapport by analyzing nonverbal communication. This insightful guide is valuable for improving personal and professional relationships, helping readers better understand what others are thinking and feeling without the need for words.

About the Author

Joe Navarro is a Cuban-born American author, public speaker, and former FBI agent and supervisor. He specializes in non-verbal communication and body language and has written many books. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Justice Administration and then earned a Master of Arts in International Relations from Slippery Rock University. He worked as an FBI special agent and supervisor in the area of counterintelligence and behavioral assessment for 25 years. He is one of the founding members of the FBI’s elite Behavioral Analysis Program and served as SWAT Team Commander and Bureau Pilot. He has lectured many times at Harvard Business School. Since 2003, he has served as a consultant to the State Department and is a fellow with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research.

Topics

Self Development Psychology

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Key Insights

Wouldn’t it be great if you could tell if someone was being truthful just by looking at them?

Well, you can! FBI agents use body language every day to determine whether someone is lying or being truthful.

“Just as careful listening is critical to understanding our verbal pronouncements, so careful observation is vital to comprehending our body language.”- Joe Navarro

In, “What Every Body Is Saying,” by Joe Navarro, you discover the tips and tricks of how to read someone’s body language in order to figure out their true intentions and feelings.

Nonverbal Communication is Reliable

Approximately 60-65% of communication is nonverbal. And, this nonverbal communication is vital to understanding a person’s true feelings.

Nonverbal communication consists of things such as facial movements, hand gestures, posture, and tone of voice.

Human communication is much more than the spoken word. It is made up of many pieces and you must look at all of it in order to get the full picture.

In fact, nonverbal communication is so strong it can create friendships even if the two people do not speak the same language.

Nonverbal gestures are actually stronger than the spoken word because people perform them instinctively and subconsciously. There is a lot of truth to be found in body language.

For example, when interrogating a suspect of a crime, you might ask them the direction they were traveling. Their mouth may say one direction, but their hand gesture might say another by pointing right instead of left. This would indicate that they are not being truthful because the body language and their words do not match up.

All About The “Honest Brain”

The brain has three parts: the limbic brain, the stem, and the neocortex.

The limbic brain or the “honest brain” communicates information that our words do not express.

The limbic brain is responsible for our survival and it’s always working. It is in charge of all of our survival responses. This part of the brain reacts to all of the things around us instantly, so there is no time to filter reactions before they are expressed.

When the “honest brain” reacts to something, it connects with the nervous system to emit an automatic response. This causes our bodies to show our true feelings through body language without us even being conscious of it.

The “freeze, flight, or fight” response is a popular one. Oftentimes, people freeze if they are caught doing something they know they’re not supposed to be doing. This is actually an instinct hardwired into the nervous system that is supposed to protect us from predators who might be preying on us.

Today, fight or flight are not necessarily used in the literal sense. We don’t often try to fight and we don’t often run away from harmful predators. However, this instinct is still very much present in our behaviors.

The fight response nowadays would be insulting someone or being sarcastic towards them. Or, maybe even teasing them.

Today, a flight response might be ignoring a text from someone you don’t want to talk to.

The actions that are expressed stemming from the limbic...