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Michael Probst / AP
No one wants to see their broker doing this.
We've seen the facepalm in the now all-too-familiar images of woeful stock brokers, hands on their faces as they receive news of the plummeting stock market. (There's even a Tumblr, The Brokers With Hands on Their Faces Blog, devoted to cataloging images of, well, brokers with hands on their faces.) We witnessed it when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton covered her mouth as she watched Navy Seals execute Osama bin Laden (although she blamed it on allergies) -- and we even see this gesture when beauty pageant contestants are crowned.
When humans are scared or shocked, we tend to put our hands over our mouths, hold our foreheads or place our hands over our cheeks. But why?
“It’s called the pacifier gesture,” says Janine Driver, president of the Body Language Institute in Washington, D.C. “It’s like a kid sucking his thumb. When our hands go up and touch our faces, it’s saying to ourselves ‘It’s OK, it’s safe.’ It’s like our mother giving us hug. It says we’ll get through this.”
Driver explains that when we witness a terrible accident, hear bad news or are in disbelief, putting our hands over our mouths is physically expressing that we can’t emotionally take anything else in.
But as common as it seems, body language researchers have found not everyone around the world covers their mouths when they are shocked, scared or surprised, and women tend do palm their faces more than men.
"The softer version of this is a man in the boardroom who puts his pointy finger over his lips and his hands on his chin,” says Driver, who became a body language expert while working as an investigator for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and is the author of the book "You Say More Than You Think."
Other gestures expressing fear or surprise include grabbing our wrists like Martha Stewart did each day as she went to trial or covering our top lip with an index finger and putting our hand over our chin.
But the body language gesture universally used around the world when we are scared is opening our mouths in an oval shape and raising our eyebrows, Driver says.
“This is in our DNA,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white or Hispanic, from Iraq, Zimbabwe or Chicago.”
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Let's hope more Wall Street brokers pee in their pants and lose their shirts. Those greedy fat cats have made their fortunes by screwing main street and deserve to lose their unearned wealth.
Unfortunately, the brokers make money regardless of what direction stocks go. They get the same commission whether they are selling a stock for a gain for the owner or for a loss. The blood suckers get their cut no matter what. All they need to get rich is to convince people to keep buying and selling; they make their money off the churn. They do not produce anything and risk none of their own money. They make money by moving other people's money between investments.
Maybe you'd like to live in a communist country instead. Sounds like you'd fit right in.
JS:
What you described fits the politicians to a T. Instead of pushing securities- the politicans push social programs which always cost twice as much as they sell it to us for- yet this is okay???
MSN- Please run a story looking at all Politicans in Washington today why is seems these "smart" people always seem to have their heads up their asses. This would be more informative than why do stockbrokers always seem to have their hands on their faces.
I am sure the results will be very intersting with these self serving "important" people.
This isn't a psychology comment, but I'd like to know why all those smart money guys couldn't evaluate the consequences of the two outcomes of the debt ceiling fight, a default or budget cuts, both of which would slam the markets. What's wrong with the foresight of these money wise guys?
John - they did. They begged and pleaded, wrote letters to Republicans and Tea Party Republicans begging them not to take us to the edge. The Wall Street brokers did and so did the Large Corporation Executives. They even said they would be willing to see corporate taxes raise. But their pleas fell on deaf ears and hard heads.
Not all brokers and heartless criminals. Some brokers are actually trying very hard to protect and grow their clients hard earned money. It is easy to always blame some nameless schmuk for the problems we face it is a convoluted and ugly ball of mistakes that have landed us in this mess.
I'll bet they would rather pay higher taxes without loop holes than lose money like they're doing now. Ha ha ha ha ha! Greedy bastards!
"You Say More Than You Think", hmmmm. Looks like a book worth picking up.
"execute Osama bin Laden" poor choice of words. Maybe "executed the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden
....and we do not know exactly what the SecState was watching when the picture was taken. Poor journalism.
Is anyone here remembering that when the stock market loses such a tremdous amount of value, so do the 401ks of millions of Americans struggling to remain in the middle class?
These guy's spent 6 months in 08/09 with their hands on their faces. Then, much to our surprise, things started to rebound and these people were back to their old ways. Hopefully a few more hang themselves.
The last time I remember seeing someone like that with his face in his hands was back in college, 40 some years ago when this really brilliant lab partner of mine asked the Nuclear Engineering Professor how something could be true and he put his head in his hands for what seemed like 15 minutes and came out of it and said "It just is."
I'd been wondering about the hands-over-mouth gesture because it seems to happen a lot. Win the lottery, get surprised, witness something scary -- or wonderful -- and up they go, especially with women. I had assumed it was people embarrassed to have everyone staring at their gaping mouths/teeth. Now, it turns out, it's a natural reaction. Interesting!
I have an aunt with bad teeth who has the lifelong habit of putting her hand in front of her mouth whenever it's open, but I don't recall ever seeing a beauty queen with bad teeth.
How about this. If an account makes money they get paid. If an account makes nothing they get nothing. No commissions, etc. If an account looses money then they also get zip. And until the account grows back to where it was before all the BS games they played, then their pay should be minimum wage until all is corrected. These jokers will always do what is best for them in the long run and not what is best for their client. They will say that your interests are the core and if you do well they do well but they will always steer you to what will make the most money for them...PERIOD.
I hope that the other 1/2 of the expert are wrong, big money jumping back in to buy up at rock bottom prices, it can go allot lower, I don't think the bleeding has stop of what I'm getting out of the financial experts hope there wrong will see either you see the glass 1/2 full or you see it 1/2 empty , an some expert say that gold an silver will be the next bubble again will see good day
You notice that only during these up and down market cycles do they show these traders doing the " pacifier gesture?" The rest of the time when they're stealing your life savings the pacifier gesture is one's thumb up one's arse.
KapeKodder, if the brokers bother you, then don't play the market.
A couple of days ago I took a crap and after I noticed that thing was at least 18" long, I placed a hand over my mouth in shock! That thing also slapped my rear end as it fell out! Amazing!
That might have been a record at one time, but since obama has been POTUS he has definitely got you beat.
obey the law: that was just too visual...lmao!
bickie girl, you would've been amazed too! lol!
ObeyTheLaw, I have a feeling that it was most likely your chin that was slapped and not your rear end!
No Doug, that thing would've had to be about 4.5' long to reach my chin! lol
Doug, I could only let out a turd that's 4.5' long on a good day. After all I am an optimist! lol
ObeyTheLaw, I think what scares me the most about your posts is the fact that you seem to have spent a great deal of time in measuring things!!!!
Kimberly, do know what a facepalm is? Methinks not. It has nothing to do with doom & gloom of stocks. Clinton didn't facepalm. And it's not what that Poindexter said about being a "pacifier gesture". It's what someone does when confronted by pure idiocy.
*facepalm*
Seriously? This is an article?
So us poor working slobs should we hold are hand over our ass to tell Washington we had enough ?
I cannot believe that a person could find themselves emotionally disturbed over the loss of money. Get over it, if you find yourself depressed because you have lost your money you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that it is not your money just look at the money , It does not belong to you any way it says so right on the front,of the money it belongs to the federal reserve. When it has your name and or picture on it then worry.
They put their hand to their faces because they know the people they manage money for will be calling and giving them hell for losing their money AGAIN.
When you are stealing money from your clients, of course, gotta find a way to hide the guilt....