Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, 38, centres much of her charitable work on helping young children and families and yesterday visited a baby bank in Sheffield that’s been helping vulnerable parents during lockdown.
During the Duchess’s visit to Baby Basics, she wore a pretty floral face mask by London children’s brand Amaia.
While people across the country are still getting to grips with communicating wearing face masks, the confident Duchess has it down to a tee, a body language expert has claimed.
Body language author and analyst Judi James examined a handful of photos from Kate’s visit yesterday and claimed Kate seemed more confident than ever as used “compensatory gestures” to make up for her mouth being covered.
Judi told Express.co.uk: “Kate’s signature body language gesture is her dazzling, pitch-perfect smile, but as she masked-up to set an example on her visit yesterday she also illustrated the use of what are called compensatory gestures to make up for the fact that her mouth was hidden.”
“Interestingly, without her smile on display, Kate’s body language appeared to show raised levels of confidence as she seemed to feel it was up to her to take the lead in normalising the mood of the visit.
“The mouth smile is one of the most powerful signals we use and it provides a kind of non-verbal shorthand to create rapport and to look approachable and connected to other people.
“With the mouth covered from view, it’s important to re-design our body language as Kate is doing here to ensure all those positive expressions of emotion and empathy are still on display.”
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Holding court from afar
In one photo Kate is shown creating empathy from a distance as she chats to a group of people outdoors.
Judi said: “Social distancing provides another potential hurdle to effective communications but again Kate uses compensatory rituals here to create empathy and intimacy as she chats.
“Her hands are at waist height to become a very active part of the conversation and her newly-emphatic gesticulation provides a range of illustrative gestures to help make her points.”
Powerful gaze
Kate’s body “strong eye contact” signals she is asking a question in a photo that shows her helping unpack donations.
Judi said: “Kate’s whole pose here signals engagement and she shows she is asking a question, with one hand on the box and the other raised.
“Her eye expression is also more dominant now, with some strong eye contact.”