Seven hand gestures guaranteed to get people to listen to you

No matter what they’re talking about, the best speakers have one thing in common: they use hand gestures.

And they do it in a controlled, yet natural way.

Psychologists say that hand gestures are a critical part of human communication. In fact, behavioral researcher Vanessa Van Edwards discovered that speakers whose TED Talks went viral used an average of 465 hand gestures, versus the 272 used by speakers whose talks weren’t as popular.

So the next time you want to make sure that your audience is engaged in what you’re saying, throw in a few of the tried-and-true gestures we’ve animated below.

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