What Every Body Is Saying (PDF)

WHAT EVERY BODY IS SAYING: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People by Joe Navarro

“For twenty-five years, JOE NAVARRO was an FBI counterintelligence special agent and supervisor specializing in nonverbal communications. A frequent lecturer, he serves on the adjunct faculty at Saint Leo University and the FBI. MARVIN KARLINS received his Ph.D. in psychology from Princeton University and is senior professor of management at the University of South Florida. He is the author of twenty-three books and most recently collaborated with Joe Navarro on Phil Hellmuth Presents Read ‘Em and Reap.

“The man sat stoically at one end of the table, carefully crafting his replies to the FBI agents inquiries. He wasn’t considered a major suspect in the murder case. His alibi was believable and he sounded sincere, but the agent pressed on nevertheless. With the suspect’s consent, he was asked a series of questions about the murder weapon:

“If you had committed this crime, would you have used a gun?”
“If you had committed this crime, would you have used a knife?”
“If you had committed this crime, would you have used an ice pick?” “If you had committed this crime, would you have used a hammer?”

One of the weapons, the ice pick, had actually been used in the commission of the crime, but that information had been kept from the public. Thus, only the killer would know which object was the real murder weapon. As the FBI agent went down the list of weapons, he observed the suspect carefully. When the ice pick was mentioned, the mans eyelids came down hard and stayed down until the next weapon was named. The agent instantly understood the significance of the eyelid behavior he had witnessed, and from that moment forward the “minor” suspect became the primary person of interest in the investigation. He later confessed to the crime.

Chalk one up for Joe Navarro, a remarkable human being who, in addition to unmasking the ice-pick killer, is credited with catching scores of criminals, including “master spies,” in a distinguished twenty-five-year career with the FBI. How was he able to do this? If you asked him, he quietly would say, “I owe it to being able to read people.”

Joe, it turns out, has spent his entire professional life studying, refining, and applying the science of nonverbal communications—facial expressions, gestures, physical movements (kinesics), body distance (proxemics), touching (haptics), posture, even clothing—to decipher what people are thinking, how they intend to act, and whether their pronouncements are true or false. This is not good news for criminals, terrorists, and spies, who, under his careful scrutiny, usually give off more than enough nonverbal body signals (“tells”) to make their thoughts and intentions transparent and detectable…”

Foreword: I See What You’re Thinking
Acknowledgments