Definition
A baseline is the set of behaviors a particular person displays when relaxed and unstressed — their habitual speech rate, posture, gestures, eye contact, and emotional tone. It serves as the personal reference standard against which later behavior is compared.
Reading behavior without a baseline produces false conclusions, because no gesture means the same thing for everyone. Crossed arms may signal discomfort in one person and simple comfort in another. Meaning lives in the deviation from the individual norm, not in the gesture itself.
Why it matters
How it works
An observer first watches the person in low-pressure conversation, noting their characteristic patterns. Once the baseline is established, the observer introduces topics of interest and watches for clusters of deviation — a sudden drop in eye contact paired with a faster speech rate and a self-soothing touch.
Single deviations are unreliable; clusters that arrive together and align with a specific question carry more weight. Even then, a deviation indicates stress or cognitive load, not necessarily deception — the cause must still be inferred carefully and ethically.