This seems to be a common practice in this country where I live, especially at crowded eating places. What I am talking here is the answers I get from people when I ask the following questions:
Is this seat taken?
May I sit here?
The strange thing about nodding and shaking heads to answer questions while people are in their midst of eating is that the answers are often inaccurate and frequently the opposite of what they intended the answers to be.
When I ask, "Is this seat taken?", I often get a response by people shaking their heads, which to me means 'no, the seat is not taken,' but they mean to say 'yes' the seat has been taken.
When I ask, "May I sit here?", I get a response by people nodding their heads, which to me means 'yes, you can sit here,' but they mean to say 'no, the seat is taken.'
When I ask, "Is this seat taken?" and they nod their heads, I sometimes have to ask again to make sure the seat is taken because often they mean the opposite, as in "Sure, go ahead and sit".
When I ask, "May I sit here?" and they shake their heads, I often have to ask again, because they may mean, "No, nobody is sitting here".
With these kinds of responses frequently taking place, I am often led and misled in getting a seat, and walking around to find a seat to sit down and eat is no easy task, especially when you are eating alone.
The puzzling and confusing gestures people make in answering questions are often unreliable, and if I am asked the same questions and I do not wish to open my mouth to answer, I choose to do none of the abovementioned gesture, but simply use my hands to motion a welcome to tell the asking party, "You're welcome to sit here."
For a study on this subject, please read article, Nodding Or Shaking Your Head May Influence Your Thoughts, by Ohio State University (OSU) Research News.
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