The twitch of an eyebrow. A slight tension around the mouth. Nervous shifting.

There are social cues out there at all times, just waiting for us to lap them up.

Some are intentional signals, while others are given off purely by accident, betraying the thoughts and feelings of their owners.

But one thing’s for sure – you need to have a decent amount of perception to pick up on them, and you need to be empathetic to be able to understand what they mean.

These things are happening non-stop wherever people meet, yet not everyone is astute at picking them up.

In fact, here are nine subtle social cues that highly perceptive people almost always notice while most other people miss.

1) Mirroring

This is a behavior that people usually do completely unconsciously. 

Mirroring is when you’re with another person, usually in a conversation, and you start to adopt the same postures, positions, and facial expressions that they’re making.

This seems to be a way of putting the other person at ease and showing them that you’re in the same group and therefore they can be comfortable with you.

If you want to increase how much people trust you or think you’re agreeable, you can also mirror them intentionally.

Incredibly, neuroscientists have found brain cells they’ve called mirror neurons. These specialized cells actually help you to copy other people, and they seem to be the neural basis for empathy.

The next time you see two people sitting together in exactly the same posture, you can read the situation as these people really communing and feeling unified.

2) Face touching

We humans use our hands to do just about everything.

They’re our main connection to the physical world, just like a dog’s nose or a bat’s ears.

We touch things all the time, so why would face touching be any sort of social cue in particular?

It turns out that face touching is a very common unconscious habit. And it almost always reveals nervous energy, especially nose touching or pulling.

Why a person is nervous is up to you to interpret, however. 

They may be shy and awkward in social situations. They may be lying to you, or they might just be a generally nervous person.

But if you notice this subtle cue, you can be sure that the person you’re observing isn’t feeling very comfortable.

3) Speaking quickly

When someone speaks quickly, they can be hard to follow. Sometimes, they even trip over their own tongue.

But how would you necessarily notice if a person is speaking quickly?

Don’t we all know some excitable people who talk a mile a minute and others who are chilled out and really slow at laying down their words like tiles?

The clue is to know their normal talking speed.

Then, you can compare their baseline to how fast they’re talking now and notice if things are extra speedy.

So what could make people talk faster than usual?

Nerves due to lying is one big reason, but this can also be a sign of positive excitement.

Maybe they’ve just had a major experience, or they’re tremendously interested in the topic of conversation.

Either way, you’ll need to be highly perceptive to notice this speed change before you can interpret what it means.

4) Mouth covering

Here’s a social cue that’s impossible to ignore.

People cover their mouths for all sorts of reasons, and it takes some precise power of perception to understand the particular reason why.

Of course, we have normal mouth coverings like when you cough, sneeze, or burp.

Those don’t mean anything more than that the person is trying to be polite and keep their inside stuff from getting out!

But then there’s covering the mouth when laughing, which usually indicates nervousness or even low self-confidence.

There’s the classic side cover to keep others from hearing when secrets are told.

And then there’s the liar’s mouth cover.

This is when a person repeatedly puts their hands up so that one or both cover their mouth. They might be ostensibly covering a cough that doesn’t come or touching their face.

But if they do it again and again, it can be a sign of lying – it’s almost like a part of their subconscious is helping to keep the truth hidden inside!

5) Lip licking

I mean, when people lick their own lips, of course. If someone is licking your lips, that’s hardly a subtle social cue!

Hydration is hugely important, but many people don’t pay enough attention to their thirst to know that they should drink enough water.

Many people reach for sugary or caffeinated beverages when they’re thirsty as well, though both of these types of drinks are actually diuretics. They’ll make you pee out more water than you take in!

So you’ll find many people licking their lips unconsciously when they’re dehydrated, and the more they talk, the more frequent it becomes.

But that’s not the only reason.

Licking lips can be a huge sign of nervousness, which, of course, can have many different causes.

A person may be nervous because they’re not great in social situations, or they find the people they’re with intimidating.

However, it can also be because they’re lying.

If you catch other signs like face touching and mouth covering along with lip licking, lies are likely!

6) Fidgeting

Kids fidget when they’re young and not well-practiced at being quiet and sitting still.

They want to spend that energy!

But when adults fidget, it’s usually, but not always, a whole lot more subtle.

They might change their position often. They may keep clasping their hands in different ways.

They might even stand up and sit down repeatedly.

They won’t necessarily squirm like kids do, but over time, you’ll notice them moving a lot more than normal.

What’s going on here?

Again, this is a sign of either excitement or nervous energy.

The person is probably expecting something quite good or quite bad to happen, so to tell the difference, you’ll have to look for other clues as well.

7) Bowing or crouching

Bowing, crouching, or even stooping your neck is a common way to show deference or respect for elders across most of Asia.

Kids are taught to do it from a very young age in many societies.

In the West, though, this phenomenon also happens but in a less obvious, almost imperceptible way.

If you watch people carefully, you’ll see them lower their heads, slump their posture a bit, or even make the tiniest of bows at certain times.

What’s this all about?

Believe it or not, this can also be a sign that the person is deferring to someone who’s more socially powerful, like an elder or a boss. You can also see it even more pronounced when a person is afraid of someone nearby.

We might not think we do it because it’s so subtle, but people with perfect powers of perception will almost always notice these things.

8) Dilated pupils

Just to clarify, everyone’s pupils dilate or open up in lower light and contract or close down when lights get bright.

This is a normal and almost completely unconscious reaction your eyes have to the level of light around you.

Oddly, this is even true if you look at a drawing or cartoon of a sun or a light. Weird, huh?!

But there are other reasons why people’s pupils might seem more dilated than usual or seem bigger than other people’s in the same light.

One big reason is excitement and arousal.

This includes when people are highly interested in something, very stimulated, thinking hard, or sexually aroused. If you look at people’s eyes carefully, you can really tell when their pupils are dilated.

But only highly perceptive people will probably notice this subtle social cue, and only highly empathetic people will be able to interpret the reason for it.

9) Making non sequiturs

“Non sequitur” is Latin for “does not follow,” and we use this in English to describe things people say that don’t really follow what’s going on in a conversation.

These are phrases that don’t seem to make sense or don’t seem related to what went before them.

A simple example of a non sequitur is if someone says “Hi!” and you answer with “Yeah, alright.”

While this may pass over many people’s heads, a highly perceptive person would notice that the response to the greeting here isn’t actually related.

And what does that mean?

These sorts of non-sequiturs typically mean a person is highly distracted or stressed or that they really don’t care for the person they’re talking to.

They, therefore, say things that don’t follow from the conversation because they’re not really paying attention.

Are you familiar with these nine subtle social cues that highly perceptive people almost always notice?

If so, you probably have not only great perception but also a lot of empathy and social intelligence to be able to interpret the meanings behind these signs.