All people who talk to other people—whether in business negotiations or social conversation—have a tremendous advantage if they have an understanding of the messages being conveyed by the gestures of the participants. Gerard I. Nierenberg, a prominent New York attorney and a founder of the General Semantics Foundation, has written a book, “The Art of Negotiating” (Hawthorne, $7.95) which, among other things, discusses the significance of ordinary, often unconscious, gestures. He points out that Darwin was aware that facial expressions and body gestures can be traced step by step from ancestral animals to the everyday conversations of man. In this series of photos by Laurence Cox, Nierenberg demonstrates some common gestures and explains what they can mean.

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