Human movement shapes trust, emotion, and connection before words are spoken.

Movement may be one of humanity’s oldest forms of social intelligence.

Tiny movement cues can dramatically shape first impressions.

Most of us think intelligence lives in the mind. We associate it with reasoning, memory, language, problem-solving, or emotional awareness. But long before human beings spoke their first words, we communicated through movement. A shift in posture could signal danger. A soft lean toward another person could express trust. A quickened pace could communicate urgency. Human beings moved meaningfully before they spoke meaningfully.

Until now, psychology has paid surprisingly little attention to this ancient language of motion. My colleague George Goethals and I have proposed a new concept called Motional Intelligence (MI), which refers to three abilities:

The ability to use body movement intentionally to influence others

The ability to accurately read the movements of others

The ability to regulate one’s own movements in response to changing social situations

In short, MI is the intelligence of movement in social life. It is not the same thing as emotional intelligence, which centers on the perception and regulation of feelings. MI focuses on the body in motion: our posture, gestures, pacing, orientations, timing, rhythm, stillness, spatial positioning, and synchrony. But MI is more than just moving effectively; it also includes effectiveness in perceiving others' movements and in regulating our body motions.

The more we........

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