How you move your body gives an insight into your personality: Study

The way you walk, sit or eat food has a lot to do with your personality, a new study has revealed.

According to a new study, an individual’s mannerisms -- the way one walks, talks or sits -- are a dead giveaway about his/her personality. The results of the study also showed that people who display similar behavioural characteristics tend to move their bodies in the same way.

How one sits, walks or eats has something to say about one’s personality, says a new study.(Shutterstock)

Those who have similar movements will tend to display more organised collective behaviour. In addition, the people who move in a certain way will also react in similar ways when they are performing joint tasks.

Further, the people with comparable movement would also find it easier to coordinate with each other during interpersonal interactions.

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“Our study shows that movement gives an indication of a person’s behavioural characteristics,” said Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova, professor at University of Exeter, in Britain.

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The study showed that human movement gave an indication of a person’s behavioural characteristics. (Shutterstock)

Although human movement has been well studied, what is far less understood is the differences each of us displays when we move -- whether it is faster, or lighter, or smoother. Each person has an individual motor signature (IMS) -- a blueprint of the subtle differences in the way they move compared to someone else, such as speed or weight of movement.

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The IMS -- and how the person interacts with others -- can give an insight into their mental health condition, the researchers noted in the study is published in scientific journal Interface.

The team used a plain mirror game and two ‘players’ were asked to imitate each other’s movements.

The study opens up new pathways for health professionals to diagnose and treat people, especially with mental health conditions, by studying how they move and react to others.