Vanessa Van Edwards shares body-language moves that keep strangers away: phone in hand, AirPods in, no eye contact, torso angled away. Crossing your arms feels protective but signals defensiveness and actually hurts creative thinking, research shows.
How do you guarantee that you never get approached? Look at your phone all the time. Always have it in your hand. Never put it down. Put AirPods in both ears. Do not make eye contact with anyone. Angle your body away from people and keep your feet closed. Don't have your feet ever in croissant position. If you're going to glance at people, glance at them furtively like this. Ugly. No one's going to approach you. Oh, and close your body. I know crossing our arms, it's comfortable. It's because it's safe. It's protective. But if I were to sit in my entire interview like this, you would literally see me as more defensive. It also, interestingly, they found that if you cross your arms, you are less creative. You come up with less creative ideas when you're forced to sit in this position, even by yourself or even in a meeting. You will have better ideas if you sit in open body language and you look more open and creative. There's a fine line between socially aggressive and charismatic. I always think of the amount of space you take up should be proportionate to your context.
