Review of
Summary of What
Every Body Is Saying An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People by Joe
Navarro and Marvin Karlins
Five out of five stars
This is a summary
that is probably better than the book. Drawing definitive conclusions from body
language is difficult, yet in this book at times it appears that the technique
is sound and then shortly after there is a strong disclaimer of the technique.
This starts in
the overview, where the following sentences appear early. “Body language can
reveal concealed feelings and uncover lies because it is more difficult to lie
with body language. Non-experts can learn to identify and interpret body
language cues to become more effective communicators.” Yet, at the end of the overview
there are the sentences, “However, detecting a lie is extremely difficult and
body language cues can be an unreliable indicator of intention. This means that
context is still important.” When the word “can” appears often, it is clear
that the technique is unreliable.
There is one
paragraph that puts the book in perspective. It appears in the “Author’s Style”
section at the end.
“Navarro and Karlins sometimes cite outside sources
when describing the science behind their assertions about body language.
However, the most significant assertions are supported only with anecdotes and
Navarro’s assurances that he has witnessed a particular behavior and its
alleged meaning many times in his professional career.”
This is a
polite way of saying that what is being described in the book is considered
pseudoscience. I applaud the author of this summary for expressing skepticism
of the assertions in the book. We must always keep in mind that FBI agents are
producing suspects for criminal behaviors based on the information related in
this book. Healthy skepticism remains essential.
This book was made available for free for review
purposes.
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