A tilt of the head facilitates social engagement | Hacker News Reader

A tilt of the head facilitates social engagement

medicalxpress.com

83 pointsdnetesn32 comments

Hence the 'MacTilt' [1]:

The lateral movement of the head to an angle of 45° to the vertical by a palliative care nurse specialist. It is intended to convey sympathy and understanding. (Mac from Macmillan nurse — a specialist palliative care nurse — and tilt.)

[1] https://www.bmj.com/content/335/7633/1295#sec-12

> The upper-eye bias is much weaker at a 90-degree rotation. "Ninety degrees is too weird," said Davidenko

No kidding! I'm trying to imagine someone talking to me with their head tilted completely to one side.

I would be rather surprised if someone could tilt their head 90-degrees even briefly, let alone hold a conversation like that. I think for most people anything over 45 degrees starts to feel very uncomfortable.

Uh....are you overweight, by chance?

Perhaps I'm missing something, but the title seems to exaggerate the following paragraph:

> Perhaps more importantly for people with autism, Davidenko found that the tilt leads people to look more at the eyes, perhaps because it makes them more approachable and less threatening. "Across species, direct eye contact can be threatening," he said. "When the head is tilted, we look at the upper eye more than either or both eyes when the head is upright. I think this finding could be used therapeutically."

Hope it's correct. Would be interesting to know if the effect persists when the viewer tilts their head, not just the viewed.

> Would be interesting to know if the effect persists when the viewer tilts their head, not just the viewed.

I just had to think of the equivalent of two people trying to make way for each other on the street, and stepping to each side at the same time. Two people wanting to put each other at ease in the same instant, both wiggling their heads from one side to the other for a bit, then laughing politely and settling on tilting their heads to different sides from one another.

Maybe this is also why a straight stiff neck and a head with very little movement conveys unquestionable authority.

Maybe this is why dogs do it -- they figure out that it makes their human want to pet. feed, or play with them more. Animals are superb at reading cues from humans and adjusting their behavior accordingly.

> Canids tilt their heads to determine the vertical placement of a sound—how far up/down it is.

Human ears are shaped to cause frequency cutoffs that let us do vertical spatialization more easily without tilting our heads.

Smarter Every Day explains this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oai7HUqncAA

it's so cute when my dog does this (i immediately want to hug her to death), but i always saw it as just deeper interest and maybe a struggle to understand me, more than an invitation.

when my cat does it on the other hand i wonder what kind of mischievous he's cooking up.

when my cat does it on the other hand i wonder what kind of mischievous he's cooking up.

Heh same, I've observed when my cat strains his neck to tilt and lean, he's laser focused on something that's partially obscured, and then bolts across the room.

I've learned to let him go maul whatever ball of dust is tumbling across the floor in those moments.

What science won't say because of the subjectivity, which works for both human and animal is that a tilt of the head is an open emotional signal for contemplation, and can mean the subject is comfortable and even enjoying what they're looking at. It's seen as cute because often the subject itself is finding something to be cute, adorable. It can really send a strong but sophisticated sexual or affectual signal to look at someone like that, while the eyes will be the distinguishing factor between those two meanings.

The tilting of the head notably exposes the neck, which is the most vulnerable part of the body. As I recall from The Definitive Book of Body Language, this demonstrates trust and reduces tension for better social engagement (and is an especially attractive signal from a woman).

Also the left side of the neck which exposes it to the right (usually dominant) hand of the counter party.

> exposes the neck, which is the most vulnerable part of the body.

This sounds entirely made up. Especially for that portion of the population with external genitalia

You have your genitalia covered up during social encounters, do you not?

Not with a cricket box

Sound of crickets

Sure, but hip angle is obvious.

You can google "neck psychology" to verify.

Is it not likewise considered an indication of trust to expose the genitalia to someone?

I prefer to start with a handshake.

Indeed - genitalia exposure typically comes much later in the trust building procession.

I imagine it's not so much about how exposed it is in the moment (because evolutionarily we didn't have to worry about things like guns), but rather how quickly you can move to protect it when you're starting off vulnerable and someone has suddenly moved to attack you.

Protecting your genitalia, when standing/sitting, is as simple as bending forward slightly and pinching your thighs together. Protecting your neck requires, at the very least, rotating your whole upper body and leaning to interpose your shoulders between you and your attacker. Much harder to do in a third of a second when you see a kick flying at you.

Yes, good point! If you visit a slaughterhouse you'll see that none of the workers bother with the male animals' necks, because that would just be pointless. Death comes much more quickly and reliably when they are simply kicked in the balls.

Thinking of a more inquisitive/questioning head tilt, usually it also involves the chin going down, so I'd disagree.

The link between social tension and literal muscular tension is interesting.

Listen to Steven Pinker on Darwin's 'Principle of Antithesis':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPN2717RMLY

Ugh just be yourself, people are going to figure out the real you sooner or later.

You'd be surprised. Besides "yourself" could be a jerk. What's good with people, as opposed to a lot of animals and inanimate matter, is that they can learn and adapt and change.

Your real self can completely defeat your goals. Look how many people struggle with success in dating, for example. In such a position, you'll realize that you're the constant in all the failures and you owe it to yourself to evolve.

“The real you” also doesn’t know math, science, how to read, operate a computer, how to cook...

...learning isn’t a bad idea.

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