TELL

Nonverbal communication is a largely universal language that crosses cultural, class, social group, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, political ideology, and personality boundaries. It can draw people toward us and push people away; it can get you a promotion or take you out of the running; it can signal fear, vulnerability, skepticism or confidence, power, and security.

Carney’s goal in writing TELL, is to help people develop an awareness that we’re all communicating using a hidden language, and once we’re able to identify it; we can learn to control it. The benefits are immense, in controlling our nonverbal behaviors, we’re better able to read the feelings and intentions of others and predict their future behaviors. We’re better able to gain the trust and respect of the people we love, of those in our personal relationships and be anointed with the power and status we deserve in our work lives.

Dana Carney has been at the forefront of the research in this area for twenty-five years as a social psychologist, and is one of surprisingly small number of scientists to have contributed to a growing body of research on nonverbal communication. After 60+ solid years of research, with many replications and failed replications, the science of nonverbal communication is finally sufficiently clear on which behaviors are meaningful and which are not. In TELL, Carney will reveal the breathtaking findings about what nonverbal behavior can and cannot tell us about ourselves and others. She is one of the very few actively doing work in the field who can (and who is willing) speak with real credibility about the science. And no doubt the only with an amazing TikTok account dedicated to teaching her growing followers about nonverbal cues (@danarcarney), among other promotional vehicles as you’ll see.

TELL promises to be a perennial seller that appeals to readers of books on the science of human behavior like THINKING FAST AND SLOW, NUDGE, and PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL. It also has practical value to readers in the vein of books like GRIT, QUIET, and DRIVE and will capture the higher end self-improvement market as well.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dana R. Carney is an associate professor at Berkeley Haas and an affiliate of the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology. She is also director of the Institute of Personality and Social Psychology (IPSR) and a Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow. She has been invited to share her research all over the world-- from Wall Street to biotech and pharma.