When it comes to reading body language, many people focus on the most obvious and easy-to-read areas; the eyes and the arms.

And while both areas are extremely important, you wouldn't believe what you could learn about a person by paying closer attention to their legs and there are a few reasons why.

Firstly, people tend to be less conscious of their leg movements. Even though the face and arms can give away a lot about a person, they can also be tougher to read; especially if you're dealing with a person who is very conscious of their body language and will make it their business to try to hide their emotions.

Even some novices are capable of putting on a fake smile in front of their boss even though deep down inside they may despise him/her.

The legs however, are a whole other story. I fact, when it comes to parts of the body that people who are trying to hide their emotions pay attention to, the legs take a back seat to the face, arms, hands and chest.

This means that a even a person who maintains complete composure in the face may be giving away important clues through their legs without even realizing it.

Secondly, humans are hard wired to use to legs to move closer to what we desire and to move away from what we don't want. You see, originally the legs only served 2 purposes: to get food and to run from danger. This basic instinct still resides within us and will come out during certain emotional states.

For example, when a person maintains open or uncrossed legs, they are showing an open or dominant attitude whereas crossed positions reveal uncertainly or closed attitudes.

According to psychologist Paul Ekman, leg movements can also help detect liars as people tend to increase lower body movements when they lie and observers can also expose a person's lies more easily when they can see the liars entire body.

There are many different positions that a person can take using their legs and at some point, I'll probably touch on all of them but for now, just know that the legs can be equally - if not more - important as the face arms when reading someone.