{ "model": { "rank": 6587, "code": "thing-q477298", "model_id": "vr.tr.body-language", "name": "body language", "purpose": "Let an agent explain body language, relay research on nonverbal communication, cultural variation and limits from psychology sources with attribution, describe the named topics, caution against overconfident lie detection, and distinguish body language from sign languages, paralanguage, microexpression claims and animal communication generally.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q477298/", "tier": 2, "score": 59, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Paralysis (sexuality)", "miming", "body language of dogs", "tell" ], "aliasCount": 4, "merged": 4, "knownIn": 59, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.body-language", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q477298", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q477298", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T20:16:40Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q477298", "registryId": "vr.tr.body-language", "name": "body language", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q477298/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.body-language", "name": "body language", "purpose": "Let an agent explain body language, relay research on nonverbal communication, cultural variation and limits from psychology sources with attribution, describe the named topics, caution against overconfident lie detection, and distinguish body language from sign languages, paralanguage, microexpression claims and animal communication generally.", "definition": "Nonverbal communication through posture, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact and movement, which conveys emotions and attitudes alongside speech, varying across cultures, individuals and neurotypes, and including deliberate performance such as mime, animal signals such as the body language of dogs, and tells in games such as poker, involuntary cues that may reveal a player s hand; popular claims about reading lies from body language are not well supported by research. The registry alias Paralysis (sexuality) could not be matched to this concept and appears misfiled.", "what_it_is_for": "Communication without words.", "affordances": [ "explain research with attribution", "relay cultural variation and limits", "describe named topics", "caution about lie detection myths" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Nonverbal", "Culturally variable", "Often ambiguous", "Overstated in popular media" ], "appearance": "Postures, gestures, facial expressions and movements.", "visual_identification": [ "Nonverbal bodily communication", "Paralysis (sexuality), miming, body language of dogs, tell", "Sign languages are full languages; paralanguage is vocal tone; microexpression lie detection is contested; animal communication is broader" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "Mehrabian studies", "typical_range": "1967", "unit": "year", "note": "often misquoted 7-38-55 rule" }, { "quantity": "lie detection accuracy from demeanour", "typical_range": "about 54", "unit": "percent", "note": "Bond and DePaulo meta-analysis 2006" }, { "quantity": "Darwin The Expression of the Emotions", "typical_range": "1872", "unit": "year", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "facial expressions", "gestures", "posture and proxemics", "eye contact", "performed mime", "animal body language", "game tells" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "nonverbal communication", "why": "in general terms" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "gesture", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "sign language", "why": "" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "tell (poker)", "why": "" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Evidence standards limiting demeanour-based lie detection in courts and security settings" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Overconfident lie detection", "Ignoring cultural and neurodivergent differences", "Unmatched alias Paralysis (sexuality)" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What body language is.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is body language, and how does it differ from sign language, paralanguage, microexpression claims and animal communication?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about everyday communication, dogs, games, interviews or detecting lies?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "topics", "name": "Topics", "description": "Named topics.", "findings": [ { "id": "topics-finding", "name": "Topics", "description": "Topics.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are mime, dog body language and tells, and what might Paralysis (sexuality) refer to?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific topic?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "research", "name": "Research", "description": "Research.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "evidence", "name": "Evidence", "description": "Evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-finding", "name": "Evidence", "description": "Evidence.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does research show about nonverbal cues and emotion, with findings attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "lies", "name": "Lies", "description": "Lie detection.", "findings": [ { "id": "lies-finding", "name": "Lies", "description": "Lies.", "questions": [ { "text": "Why do meta-analyses find people poor at detecting lies from demeanour?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation free of overstated claims?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "variation", "name": "Variation", "description": "Variation.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "culture", "name": "Culture", "description": "Cultural variation.", "findings": [ { "id": "culture-finding", "name": "Culture", "description": "Culture.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do gestures and eye contact norms vary across cultures?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "neuro", "name": "Neurodiversity", "description": "Neurodivergence.", "findings": [ { "id": "neuro-finding", "name": "Neurodiversity", "description": "Neurodiversity.", "questions": [ { "text": "Why can autistic people s body language be misread, as autistic advocates and researchers describe?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits double empathy problem?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Applications.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "dogs", "name": "Dogs", "description": "Dog body language.", "findings": [ { "id": "dogs-finding", "name": "Dogs", "description": "Dogs.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can people read dog body language to prevent bites?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits dog bite prevention?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "poker", "name": "Poker", "description": "Tells.", "findings": [ { "id": "poker-finding", "name": "Poker", "description": "Poker.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are tells in poker, and how reliable are they?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits poker?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should the body language of dogs be a separate entry?", "How should psychology research be linked?", "The registry alias Paralysis (sexuality) could not be matched and should be reviewed" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "language", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a body language, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain body language, relay research on nonverbal communication, cultural variation and limits from psychology sources with attribution, describe the named topics, caution against overconfident lie detection, and distinguish body language from sign languages, paralanguage, microexpression claims and animal communication generally.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Paralysis (sexuality), miming, body language of dogs, tell.", "4 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 59 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a body language, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Recognised from text or speech by script, vocabulary and grammar - and script is the weakest of the three, since several languages share one." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Paralysis (sexuality)", "miming", "body language of dogs", "tell" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 59 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 4 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one body language from another, and a body language from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a body language, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a body language, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a body language is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a body language, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a body language, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a body language is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a body language sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a body language, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a body language, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a body language is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a body language from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a body language, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a body language, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a body language is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a body language passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a body language between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a body language, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a body language, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a body language is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a body language, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a body language is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a body language, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a body language, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a body language is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "speakers-and-standing", "name": "Speakers, communities and standing", "description": "Who speaks body language, how many, and what status it holds where they live.", "rationale": "Speaker numbers move, and legal standing changes without the language changing. Both are claims with a date and a source, never properties.", "layers": [ { "id": "speaker-populations", "name": "Speaker populations", "description": "Counts by kind of speaker, each with the year and the method behind it.", "findings": [ { "id": "population-estimates", "name": "Population estimates and their basis", "description": "First-language and second-language counts, who produced them and how.", "questions": [ { "id": "population-estimates-q01", "text": "How many first-language and second-language speakers of body language are claimed, for which year, and by whom?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "population-estimates-q02", "text": "What method produced that estimate - census, survey, projection - and what does it systematically miss?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "official-standing", "name": "Official standing and policy", "description": "Where body language is official, taught, or barred, and under which instrument.", "findings": [ { "id": "legal-status", "name": "Legal status by jurisdiction", "description": "The status held in each place, with the law or treaty that grants it.", "questions": [ { "id": "legal-status-q01", "text": "In which jurisdictions does body language hold official, regional or minority status, and under what instrument?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "legal-status-q02", "text": "What follows practically from that status - schooling, courts, signage - and what does not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "varieties-and-writing", "name": "Varieties, registers and writing", "description": "The forms body language takes, and the scripts and spellings used to write it.", "rationale": "A language is not its script and a standard is not the whole language. A model that conflates them cannot say which variety a text is in.", "layers": [ { "id": "varieties-and-continuum", "name": "Varieties and the continuum", "description": "Dialects, standards and the cuts drawn through a continuum that has none of its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "variety-inventory", "name": "Varieties and who separated them", "description": "Named varieties, their relation to the standard, and the authority behind each split.", "questions": [ { "id": "variety-inventory-q01", "text": "Which varieties of body language are distinguished in practice, and who drew each boundary?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "variety-inventory-q02", "text": "Which neighbouring lect is treated as the same language by one authority and a different one by another?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "script-and-orthography", "name": "Script and orthography", "description": "Writing systems in use, competing spellings, and reform history.", "findings": [ { "id": "writing-systems", "name": "Writing systems and orthographies", "description": "Scripts body language is written in and which spelling convention applies where.", "questions": [ { "id": "writing-systems-q01", "text": "Which scripts and orthographies are in use for body language, and where does each apply?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "writing-systems-q02", "text": "What identifies the orthography of a given text, and what should an agent do when it cannot tell?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "codes-and-alignment", "name": "Codes and external alignment", "description": "The identifiers that name body language across systems.", "rationale": "Language codes are how every other system will refer to this, and they disagree with each other in known ways.", "layers": [ { "id": "identifier-schemes", "name": "Identifier schemes", "description": "ISO 639 parts, Glottolog, and the granularity each assumes.", "findings": [ { "id": "codes-and-granularity", "name": "Codes and the granularity they encode", "description": "Which code refers to this language and which refers to a group containing it.", "questions": [ { "id": "codes-and-granularity-q01", "text": "Which ISO 639-1, 639-2 and 639-3 codes apply to body language, and do they refer to the same extent?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "codes-and-granularity-q02", "text": "Where do the schemes disagree about whether this is one language or several?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a body language came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a body language and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a body language, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a body language, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a body language is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a body language is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a body language, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a body language, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a body language is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 13, "questions": 34 } } } }