COMMUNICATION: How To Flirt, Start Conversations And Keep Them Going? In Depth Guide to Approaching, Flirting and Dating | Page 48

signals in your partner, you can control the impression you are
making by using more confident, 'distal' gestures.
As with posture, the greatest involvement and harmony is
achieved when gestures are synchronised – when the
movements of one person are echoed or reflected by the other.
You may have noticed that this tends to happen naturally
between people who like each other and get on well together.
Watch pairs of lovers in a bar or pub, and you will see that they
often tend to lift their drinks and take a sip at the same time,
and that many of their other body movements and gestures will
be similarly synchronised. Psychologists call this 'interactional
synchrony' or 'gestural dance', and some of their research
findings indicate that the timing of matched gestures may be
accurate down to fractions of a second.
Although this synchronisation normally happens without
conscious effort, you can use it as a highly effective flirting
technique. If you feel the conversation is not flowing easily, or
you and partner seem awkward and uncomfortable with each
other, try to be more sensitive to the patterns of his/her gestures
and body movements, and to reflect these in your own body
language.
If your partner spontaneously begins to synchronise his/her body language with yours, this is a sign that he/she feels
comfortable with you. Men should not assume that it necessarily indicates sexual interest, however. Women can avoid
creating this impression by reducing synchronisation, adopting a more 'closed' posture and avoiding the use of
gestures which are specifically associated with flirtatious behaviour. In experiments, female hair-flipping and headtossing were among the (non-contact) gestures most often regarded as sexually flirtatious, along with repeated legcrossing and movements designed to draw attention to the breasts.

Facial expression
An ability to 'read' and interpret the facial expressions of your
partner will improve your chances of successful flirting, as will
awareness of what you are signalling with [