body. We make quite a few movements whether we like it or not. Especially these subconscious movements are the 'traitors'. If the other they can 'read' them, s/he knows what you feel or think, however you do your best to hide it. Incidentally, many learned gestures seem difficult to influence because they are deeply integrated after many years. In fact, you don't recognise those gestures when looking at yourself. Students often know the fixed gestures of teachers betters than teachers themselves. These gestures usually form the basis for imitating someone.

Based on Mehrabian's percentage body language is more important in conveying a message than substance and tone, but most of us do not come much further than a certain facial expression or hand gesture, perhaps a knee under the table.

Body language is also getting more and more attention. Some people are better in reading and using body language (encoding and decoding) than others and generally women are better at it than men; nature and

nurture? Reading the body language of older people is generally more difficult than that of younger people, because the muscles of older people function less.

The various gestures, movements and postures need to be seen in conjunction and in the context of the conversation. Otherwise, you can quickly make a mistake. Suppose you see someone sitting hunched on a bench on the street. You can think of a defensive posture, but if you see the bus stop and realise that it was a cold day, the attitude is just a reaction to the temperature.

In order to prevent miscommunication in a short written text like an e-mail body language may be reflected in communication by using smileys or emoticons. However, be careful when using emoticons across borders, because research has shown that culture affects the use and 'reading' of emoticons.