This is thought to originate from Roman times when a thumbs-up signal would mean a gladiator should die. However, in other parts of the world, it has negative meanings. In western society, thumbs up hand gestures mean that everything is ok or a sign of approval. 8 hand gestures with different meanings around the globe Now, it’s time to examine hand gestures around the globe. So identifying people who belong to our group is especially important, and that’s where specific body language traits, such as hand gestures, can help us. Knowing whether someone is a friend or foe could mean the difference between total annihilation of your family or the survival of your genes. In our ancestors’ times, these decisions would have meant life or death. We can pick up on the tiniest differences and this is important because as we go through life we have to make instant decisions. Now, experts know that their body language is also an indicator. The clothes they wear and the way they speak. There are many things that help us identify these strangers or outsiders. So it is important to recognise these outsiders to our group. Therefore, they could be dangerous, unpredictable, or a threat. Outsiders to our group are foreign and unknown. We don’t have this luxury with outsiders. This is because we like to be able to predict the actions of others and belonging to a group enables this. Humans gravitate to those people who are members of their own group. We will even go to war to fight for our group. At the same time, we feel pride in the symbols that identify our group. We trust them, they protect us, and they share the same values and beliefs as us. We are safer in a group, we feel more comfortable with members of our own group. Belonging to a group is beneficial to its individual members. Why hand gestures are an important survival toolĪuthor of ‘ The Human Swarm‘, Mark Moffett, describes our need to belong to a certain group. These nonverbal accents are the physical equivalent of that. It’s a little like how we use the regional accents of spoken language to determine where a person is from. More to the point, we can recognise hand gestures and body language clues of our fellow countrymen and women. However, did you know that hand gestures also have different meanings depending on where you were born? We speak using the language of our country.

Zesture meaning