Clue in the language of touches

WHAT we saw in Singapore were two “Alpha males” sizing one another up.

There were no overt displays of instant friendship.

Here, we saw the two men remain formal. However, they maintained a close proximity which spoke of their desire to do business.

Throughout the meeting, the number of small touches between the two did increase. Trump took the lead here, but Kim reciprocated with an arm touch and backpatting.

It was the subtle mirroring signals that gave the strongest sign of the type of relationship these two men might forge.

When we use body language mimicry as these two did it often displays a desire to appear like-minded.

The last handshakes for the cameras were more social and less about pomp.

Trump suddenly used his “shake and yank” technique where he shakes the other person’s hand before suddenly pulling it towards himself in a yanking movement.

This shake has looked like power play in the past.

But in this context it looked like a desire to display that heightened levels of rapport might have been created.