Hand movements are often treated as a nervous tic to be suppressed, but a growing body of research suggests they are one of the most powerful tools a speaker has. Across lab experiments, large-scale ...

Whether you’re giving a presentation, pitching an idea or leading a meeting, you probably spend most of your prep time thinking about what you’ll say. But what about the ways you’ll move your hands? I ...

February 2026 issue of our print magazine, this collection spotlights fresh research from universities, consulting firms, and ...

Hands: so useful, yet so problematic! What to do with them? Shove them into pockets? Use them to clutch the sides of the lectern with last-lifeboat-off-the-Titanic fervor? Flick away invisible flies?

Everyone “talks” with their hands at least sometimes. Some people’s hand-talking or gesturing matches their message well. Other people have a tendency to make overly large gestures that can be ...