Body Language
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50 free Body Language trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Long before anyone speaks, a raised eyebrow, a folded arm or a step backwards has already said plenty. Body language is the part of every conversation that runs without words, and most of us read it far better than we can explain it. This quiz covers the science and the stories: how researchers measure smiles, stares and personal space, why the same gesture can be friendly in one country and rude in the next, how animals signal to each other, and which famous poses from politics, sport and the screen changed what a gesture means. It suits students of psychology and communication, teams preparing for business abroad, and anyone who enjoys people-watching. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even from the ones you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Balkan country does shaking the head from side to side traditionally mean "yes" rather than "no"?
Bulgaria
Bulgaria flips the code most of the world uses: a sideways shake signals agreement, and a single upward jerk of the head means refusal.
Q 02Which wartime leader popularised the palm-out V sign as a symbol of victory during the Second World War?
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill took up the sign after Victor de Laveleye, broadcasting to occupied Belgium on the BBC, proposed V as a rallying emblem in 1941. Turned palm inward, the same gesture is a rude insult in Britain.
Q 03Which Star Trek actor based the Vulcan salute on a priestly blessing he saw as a boy in synagogue?
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy peeked while the Jewish priestly blessing was given, with hands shaped like the Hebrew letter shin. He borrowed the shape for Spock in the 1967 episode Amok Time.
Q 04The shaka, a friendly sign with only the thumb and little finger extended, is the official gesture of which US state?
Hawaii
Hawaii wrote the shaka into law as its state gesture in 2024. Surfers had long since carried it around the world, where it is often known as "hang loose".
Q 05Which candidate refused make-up for the first televised US presidential debate in 1960 and looked pale on screen?
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon was still recovering from a hospital stay, sweat showed on his face and his stubble stood out on black-and-white sets. He wore television make-up for the three debates that followed.
Q 06Which reptile names the "effect" in which people unconsciously copy a conversation partner's posture and gestures?
Chameleon
The chameleon effect covers speech patterns and attitudes as well as gestures. It shows up between friends and romantic partners alike, usually without either person noticing.
Q 07Which part of the eye, said to have been enlarged with belladonna drops for beauty, also widens with interest?
Pupil
The pupil grows when something holds a person's attention, not only when the light dims. Belladonna drops work by blocking the eye muscles that would normally shrink it.
Q 08Tommie Smith and John Carlos made which silent gesture on the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics?
Raising a fist
Raising a fist got both sprinters suspended from the US team. They shared one pair of black gloves because Carlos had left his in the Olympic Village, so he lifted his left hand.
Q 09Which naturalist wrote the 1872 study The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals?
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin insisted on illustrating the book with photographs, although his publisher warned they would "make a hole in the profits". It was his third major work on evolution.
Q 10Which insect shows nestmates the direction and distance of food by performing a figure-eight "waggle dance"?
Honeybee
The honeybee angles its run to match the food's bearing from the Sun, and a longer waggle means a longer flight. Nobel laureate Karl von Frisch was among the first to decode it.
Q 11Which term did anthropologist Edward T. Hall coin for the study of how people use personal space?
Proxemics
Proxemics sorts the space around a person into four zones: intimate, personal, social and public. Hall argued that the comfortable distance for each one shifts from culture to culture.
Q 12Which word for communication by touch also names the vibration feedback in smartphones and game controllers?
Haptics
Haptics in business mostly means the handshake. Researchers watching people talk found touching rare in England, France and the Netherlands compared with countries further south.
Q 13Ray Birdwhistell, who disliked the phrase "body language", gave which name to the study of posture and gesture?
Kinesics
Q 21In which Southeast Asian country is the wai, a slight bow with palms pressed together, the customary greeting?
Thailand
Thailand's wai comes in degrees: the higher the hands and the lower the bow, the more respect it shows. The same gesture also says thank you or sorry.
Q 22In which Himalayan region is sticking out the tongue a sign of respect, linked to a legendary black-tongued king?
Tibet
Tibet remembers Langdarma, a 9th-century king who persecuted monks and was said to have a black tongue. Showing a normal one is read as proof of not being his reincarnation.
Q 23The kowtow, kneeling and touching the head to the ground, was performed before the emperor of which country?
China
Kinesics was Birdwhistell's 1952 coinage, built on his view that body movements follow a grammar much as speech does. He reckoned words carry no more than about a third of a conversation's social meaning.
Q 14Which French neurologist gives his name to the genuine smile that crinkles the eyes as well as lifting the mouth?
Guillaume Duchenne
Guillaume Duchenne found in the mid-19th century that a true smile also tightens the muscle around the eye, forming crow's feet. The look has since been nicknamed "smizing", or smiling with the eyes.
Q 15Which American psychologist's research on facial expressions and lying inspired the Fox crime drama Lie to Me?
Paul Ekman
Paul Ekman worked as scientific consultant on the series, whose lead character Cal Lightman is based on him. Off screen he advised police departments and anti-terrorism groups.
Q 16Which basic emotion shows on the face as a wrinkled nose and a curled upper lip?
Disgust
Disgust is one of the expressions people recognise readily across cultures. Blind people pull the same face without ever having seen it, a sign that it is not simply copied from others.
Q 17Which psychologist devised the much-misquoted "7-38-55 rule" weighing words, tone of voice and facial expression?
Albert Mehrabian
Albert Mehrabian tested only how listeners judge a speaker's feelings when words and tone clash. Seminar slides turned that narrow result into the myth that words carry just 7% of any message.
Q 18Which comic-book superhero does Amy Cuddy use to illustrate the "power pose" she popularised in a 2012 TED talk?
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman became the poster figure for standing tall before a job interview. The science has not held up: by 2016 co-author Dana Carney had abandoned the theory after other labs failed to repeat the effect.
Q 19In a 1988 test of the facial feedback hypothesis, what did volunteers hold between their teeth to force a smile?
A pen
A pen gripped in the teeth pulls the mouth into a grin, and those volunteers rated cartoons as funnier. A rerun across 17 labs in 2016 failed to find the effect, casting doubt on a textbook result.
Q 20Which Shakespeare tragedy names the "error" of mistaking a truthful person's nervousness for a sign of lying?
Othello
Othello reads his wife Desdemona's distress as proof of an affair when she is telling the truth. The term dates from the 1985 book Telling Lies, a warning that fear of being disbelieved looks like guilt.
China reserved its grand version, the "three kneelings and nine kowtows", for the most solemn ceremonies. An Afghan envoy who refused to perform it in 1763 drew bitter complaints from the Qing court.
Q 24The head bobble, a wobble that can mean yes, maybe, okay or "I understand", is most associated with which country?
India
India uses the head bobble everywhere, and only context settles what it means. Most often it signals agreement or shows that the listener is following.
Q 25Scuba divers signal that all is well with the OK sign because, underwater, a thumbs-up tells a buddy to do what?
Ascend
Ascend is what a raised thumb orders underwater, so divers are trained never to use it for approval. The ring-shaped OK sign works as both the question and the reply.
Q 26Japan's maneki-neko figurine, a familiar sight near shop entrances, raises one paw to make which gesture?
Beckoning
Beckoning is done palm down in Japan, folding the fingers down and back, which is why visitors often mistake the pose for a wave. Some figures made for Western markets turn the paw upward.
Q 27The pinched-fingers gesture, a show of disbelief made an emoji in 2020, is mainly associated with which country?
Italy
Italy has no single name for it: locals call it the purse hand, the finger tulip or the finger pinecone. Emigrants carried the gesture to Argentina and Uruguay, where it means much the same.
Q 28In which European country is the moutza, an open palm thrust at someone's face, the traditional gesture of insult?
Greece
Greece traces the moutza to a Byzantine punishment in which criminals were paraded on a donkey with cinders smeared across the face by an open hand. Locals now take care how they signal the number five.
Q 29The "finger heart", made by crossing the thumb and index finger, was popularised by pop idols from which country?
South Korea
South Korea first knew the gesture in the 1990s as the "Timid V". It spread around the world with the Korean Wave in the 2010s and now has an emoji of its own.
Q 30Which Māori dance, performed by the All Blacks before rugby matches, features stamping feet and a protruding tongue?
Haka
Haka have opened New Zealand rugby internationals since 1905. Māori scholars reject the popular label of war dance: haka also welcome distinguished guests and mark funerals and great achievements.