If someone has a chauffeur-driven Bentley or is draped in diamonds and furs, it is fairly easy to guess their socio-economic status. But a study by Michael Kraus and Dacher Keltner, psychologists at the University of California, suggests another cue: body language. The results, reported in the Psychological Science journal, showed that wealthy participants displayed more disengagement behaviours such as doodling or fidgeting, and fewer engagement behaviours such as nodding, laughing and eye contact.

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