In such cases, you might feel offended and annoyed. Things get interesting when this gesture is done by someone who has the same authority as you, lower authority than you, or whose higher authority you don’t accept. Of course, you feel good as a receiver of this gesture because you accept their authority over you. They feel a little ego boost when they do it. When your senior pats your shoulder in a “Well done” manner, they’re asserting their superiority over you. The key thing to note about this meaning is that it’s a dominance gesture. It’s done by a superior to their subordinate.įor example, a boss may pat the shoulder of their employee who’s done splendid work. While getting a pat on the back is a common gesture signaling, “Well done”, patting someone’s shoulder often conveys the same meaning. To signal the first technician to disengage, he taps him on the back, communicating: Another technician grabs a tool and wants to have a go at it. Imagine a technician trying hard to fix a machine. In this context, they don’t want your attention they’re asking you to finish the job and leave. The customer behind you gets impatient and pats on your shoulder. When the cashier gives you back your change, you spend too much time counting it. Imagine you’re in a line, checking out at a store. Sometimes people tap on others’ shoulders just to get their attention. This is the simplest meaning of this gesture. So we do the next best thing- we pat them on their shoulder. If someone’s not looking at you, patting their head to get their attention would be weird and too aggressive, albeit successful in gaining their attention. Let’s look at the possible meanings behind this gesture: 1. Front and behind are more common than sideways. After that, we’ll discuss the meaning of a closely related ‘resting hand on someone’s shoulder’ gesture.Ī person’s shoulder may get patted from the front, behind, or sideways. In this article, we’ll explore all the possible meanings of ‘pat on the shoulder’ body language gesture. Who does it and when determines what it means. This body language gesture is highly context-dependent. Patting another person’s shoulder is common in social interactions.
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