Vanessa Van Edwards explains how people judge you in under a second. Tight spacing between your torso and arm signals discomfort or defensiveness, even if you're just cold or nervous. Your vocal quality in the first greeting shapes that instant impression just as much.
All that matters is the people who are watching you, they're making a very quick impression of you. Often happens, I'm sad to say, in less than a second. I can see space between your torso and your arm right now, and that is a very subtle signal of you're comfortable enough that you're not trying to block or protect your torso. Anytime we're tight to the side, that signals I feel a little bit of discomfort, I want to protect my vital organs, even if we're just cold. And so what I say to people is you could be doing this because you're actually nervous, but you could be doing it out of bad habit, and a lot of our nonverbal pet peeves are bad habits, or because you're cold, or because you're allergic. It doesn't matter your reason. All that matters is the people who are watching you, they're making a very quick impression of you, and our vocal first impression usually happens on hello. We see a lot of vocal flexibility in that very first word.
