Many books and so-called "experts" on body language will tell you that touching your face is a "no-no". They explain that it means you are lying and people won't believe you.

There is little actual truth in much of what is written about body language. Vast amounts of the information are conjecture. There is research on the face touching "problem". But what it tells us is the fact that people will be more likely to touch their face when their skin has increased blood flow. Your skin blood flow rises when you are under stress; the skin heats up a bit, you get irritated a bit and you touch your face to reduce the irritation.

The "body language experts" then put two and two together to make five. They say that because you are under stress when you are lying, then you will "obviously" touch your face when you are lying and therefore people won't believe you. Well, for a start many people who lie are not under stress when they are lying. They lie deliberately and are under more stress when telling the truth. So, the face touching syndrome may well be when people are under pressure to tell the truth, rather than when they are lying. The body language "experts" could be telling us the reverse of what is actually happening because of their conjecture, rather than research.

Having said that, there are many body language specialists who have done research and they will tell you that in some situations a piece of body language means one thing, while in another instance, the same piece of body language means something else.

So what should you do if you are touching your face in a presentation? Best thing is to ignore it. You are probably stressed because of the presentation itself. Your audience will not automatically think you are lying. So just get on with your presentation and forget many of the so-called body language tips.

Labels: body language

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