Vanessa introduces herself as a recovering awkward person and how her past led her to a career in human behavior.

• Vanessa reflects on her past social awkwardness.
• She credits her awkward years for leading her to a career in human behavior.

Vanessa and her team analyze TED Talks to understand why some talks become viral and discover a pattern involving hand gestures.

• The research team analyzed thousands of hours of TED Talks.
• They examined body language, hand gestures, vocal variety, and outfit choices.
• A pattern emerged showing that popular TED talkers used more hand gestures.

Vanessa discusses the importance of hand visibility in establishing trust and comfort in interactions.

• People instinctively look at hands first to assess safety.
• Hidden hands make people uncomfortable and distract attention.
• Visible hand gestures can indicate friendliness and underline spoken concepts.

Vanessa explains how emotions and facial expressions can be contagious, influencing others around us.

• Emotions like fear and confidence are contagious.
• Microexpressions are universal and reveal our emotions, which others can catch.
• Genuine happiness expressions are more infectious than fake ones.

Vanessa presents an experiment showing that happiness and confidence can be communicated and detected through voice alone.

• Different versions of 'hello' can convey happiness or anger.
• Participants rated 'happy hellos' as more likeable.
• Happy vocal tones make individuals more memorable and likeable.

Vanessa discusses how certain conversation starters can trigger excitement and dopamine in the brain, making interactions more memorable.

• Common conversation starters often lack excitement and fail to trigger dopamine.
• Positive reframing of questions can lead to pleasure and memorability.
• Asking exciting questions can flip a conversation from autopilot to optimism.

Vanessa shares a study demonstrating that reframing nervousness as excitement can improve performance and suggests using this technique in our lives.

• Anxiety and excitement are similar but differ in mindset.
• Reframing 'I'm nervous' to 'I'm excited' can significantly improve performance.
• She challenges the audience to think about how they want to affect others emotionally.