What Is Non-Verbal Communication?

Non-Verbal Communication Modes

What is non-verbal communication?

Definition “nonverbal communication involves those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source [speaker] and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or receiver [listener]. Basically it is sending and receiving messages in a variety of ways without the use of verbal codes (words). It is both intentional and unintentional. Most speakers / listeners are not conscious of this. It includes — but is not limited to:

touch
glance
eye contact (gaze)
volume
vocal nuance
proximity
gestures
facial expression ? pause (silence)
intonation
dress
posture
smell
word choice and syntax
sounds (paralanguage)

Broadly speaking, there are two basic categories of non-verbal language:
nonverbal messages produced by the body;
nonverbal messages produced by the broad setting (time, space, silence)

Why is non-verbal communication important?

Basically, it is one of the key aspects of communication (and especially important in a high-context culture). It has multiple functions:

Used to repeat the verbal message (e.g. point in a direction while stating directions.
Often used to accent a verbal message. (e.g. verbal tone indicates the actual meaning of the specific words).
Often complement the verbal message but also may contradict. E.g.: a nod reinforces a positive message (among Americans); a “wink” may contradict a stated positive message.
Regulate interactions (non-verbal cues covey when the other person should speak or not speak).
May substitute for the verbal message (especially if it is blocked by noise, interruption, etc) — i.e. gestures (finger to lips to indicate need for quiet), facial expressions (i.e. a nod instead of a yes).

Note the implications of the proverb: “Actions speak louder than words.” In essence, this underscores the importance of non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is especially significant in intercultural situations. Probably non-verbal differences account for typical difficulties in communicating.

Cultural Differences in Non-verbal Communication

General Appearance and Dress

All cultures are concerned for how they look and make judgements based on looks and dress. Americans, for instance, appear almost obsessed with dress and personal attractiveness. Consider differing cultural standards on what is attractive in dress and on what constitutes modesty. Note ways dress is used as a sign of status?

Body Movement

We send information on attitude toward person (facing or leaning towards another), emotional statue (tapping fingers, jiggling coins), and desire to control the environment (moving towards or away from a person).

More than 700,000 possible motions we can make — so impossible to categorize them all! But just need to be aware the body movement and position is a key ingredient in sending messages.

Posture

Consider the following actions and note cultural differences:

Bowing (not done, criticized, or affected in US; shows rank in Japan)
Slouching (rude in most Northern European areas)
Hands in pocket (disrespectful in Turkey)
Sitting with legs crossed (offensive in Ghana, Turkey)
Showing soles of feet. (Offensive in Thailand, Saudi Arabia)
Even in US, there is a gender difference on acceptable posture?

Gestures

Impossible to catalog them all. But need to recognize: 1) incredible possibility and variety and 2) that an acceptable in one’s own culture may be offensive in another. In addition, amount of gesturing varies from culture to culture. Some cultures are animated; other restrained. Restrained cultures often feel animated cultures lack manners and overall restraint. Animated cultures often feel restrained cultures lack emotion or interest.

Even simple things like using hands to point and count differ.

Pointing : US with index finger; Germany with little finger; Japanese with entire hand (in fact most Asians consider pointing with index finger to be rude)

Counting: Thumb = 1 in Germany, 5 in Japan, middle finger for 1 in Indonesia.

Facial Expressions

While some say that facial expressions are identical, meaning attached to them differs. Majority opinion is that these do have similar meanings world-wide with respect to smiling, crying, or showing anger, sorrow, or disgust. However, the intensity varies from culture to culture. Note the following:

Many Asian cultures suppress facial expression as much as possible.
Many Mediterranean (Latino / Arabic) cultures exaggerate grief or sadness while most American men hide grief or sorrow.
Some see “animated” expressions as a sign of a lack of control.
Too much smiling is viewed in as a sign of shallowness.
Women smile more than men.

Eye Contact and Gaze

In USA, eye contact indicates: degree of attention or interest, influences attitude change or persuasion, regulates interaction, communicates emotion, defines power and status, and has a central role in managing impressions of others.

Western cultures — see direct eye to eye contact as positive (advise children to look a person in the eyes). But within USA, African-Americans use more eye contact when talking and less when listening with reverse true for Anglo Americans. This is a possible cause for some sense of unease between races in US.A prolonged gaze is often seen as a sign of sexual interest.
Arabic cultures make prolonged eye-contact. — believe it shows interest and helps them understand truthfulness of the other person. (A person who doesn’t reciprocate is seen as untrustworthy)
Japan, Africa, Latin American, Caribbean — avoid eye contact to show respect.

Touch

Question: Why do we touch, where do we touch, and what meanings do we assign when someone else touches us?

Illustration: An African-American male goes into a convenience store recently taken over by new Korean immigrants.He gives a $20 bill for his purchase to Mrs Cho who is cashier and waits for his change. He is upset when his change is put down on the counter in front of him.

What is the problem? Traditional Korean (and many other Asian countries) don’t touch strangers., especially between members of the opposite sex. But the African-American sees this as another example of discrimination (not touching him because he is black).

Basic answer: Touch is culturally determined! But each culture has a clear concept of what parts of the body one may not touch. Basic message of touch is to affect or control — protect, support, disapprove (i.e. hug, kiss, hit, kick).

USA — handshake is common (even for strangers), hugs, kisses for those of opposite gender or of family (usually) on an increasingly more intimate basis. Note differences between African-Americans and Anglos in USA. Most African Americans touch on greeting but are annoyed if touched on the head (good boy, good girl overtones).
Islamic and Hindu: typically don’t touch with the left hand. To do so is a social insult. Left hand is for toilet functions. Mannerly in India to break your bread only with your right hand (sometimes difficult for non-Indians)
Islamic cultures generally don’t approve of any touching between genders (even hand shakes). But consider such touching (including hand holding, hugs) between same-sex to be appropriate.
Many Asians don’t touch the head (Head houses the soul and a touch puts it in jeopardy).

Basic patterns: Cultures (English , German, Scandinavian, Chinese, Japanese) with high emotional restraint concepts have little public touch; those which encourage emotion (Latino, Middle-East, Jewish) accept frequent touches.

Smell
USA — fear of offensive natural smells (billion dollar industry to mask objectionable odors with what is perceived to be pleasant ) — again connected with “attractiveness” concept.
Many other cultures consider natural body odors as normal (Arabic).
Asian cultures (Filipino, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Indian) stress frequent bathing — and often criticize USA of not bathing often enough!

Paralanguage

vocal characterizers (laugh, cry, yell, moan, whine, belch, yawn). These send different messages in different cultures (Japan — giggling indicates embarrassment; India – belch indicates satisfaction)
vocal qualifiers (volume, pitch, rhythm, tempo, and tone). Loudness indicates strength in Arabic cultures and softness indicates weakness; indicates confidence and authority to the Germans,; indicates impoliteness to the Thais; indicates loss of control to the Japanese. (Generally, one learns not to “shout” in Asia for nearly any reason!). Gender based as well: women tend to speak higher and more softly than men.
vocal segregates (un-huh, shh, uh, ooh, mmmh, humm, eh, mah, lah). Segregates indicate formality, acceptance, assent, uncertainty.

Nonverbal Communication 1.

1. Do you agree with this statement: "One cannot not communicate?”

Silence is a form of nonverbal communication.

What does that communicate to me?

If you’re silent, what could that be communicating to someone?

Silence can symbolize contentment, when intimates are so comfortable they don’t need to talk.

Silence can also communicate awkwardness, like when you try to keep a conversation going with a new acquaintance.

Silence can also indicate respect and thoughtfulness, as in some Native American cultures.

Silence can also be disconfirming: ignoring someone. If you say hello to someone and they don’t respond, it’s uncomfortable, even if they didn’t deliberately ignore you.

And silence can just be your way of communicating, “leave me alone.”

- Communication without words. Therefore, silence is just one type of nonverbal communication because it is a way of communicating without words.

Why is it important to understand nonverbal communication?

60% of meaning is drawn fromnonverbal communication. Only 40% is drawn from verbal.

3. Can you think of some times where nonverbal communication has been really important in your life?

So which form of communication can we more accurately draw meanings from nonverbal or verbal?

We expect mostnonverbal communication to accompany and support oral communication, or ifnonverbal communication doesn’t accompany oral communication, to at least make some sense. …..

And when many people exhibit confusing communication behaviours, we can feel anxious, confused, and part of the out-group.

Whilenonverbal communication is culture-bound, with different meanings in different cultures, there are 6 basic emotions and expressions that are believed to be universal among cultures

S adness
A nger
D isgust
F ear
S urpise
H appiness

4. Nonverbal communication is primarily relational

Social Functions

Identity management

-We dress well to fit into some identity that we admire.

-We smile to give off a happy/friendly impression.

-We avoid eye contact not to be approached.

• To define relationships with others.

-The way we act toward other people defines the type of relationships that we have with them.

Shake hands
Hug
Kiss
Wave

• Conveying emotions

- Sympathy with a smile doesn’t work.

- Boredom

One important indicator of communication competence is good nonverbal expression.

5.Nonverbal communication is ambiguous

People react to certain things differently.

- They express different emotions in different situations.

- Silence is highly ambiguous because people interpret it differently based on gender, culture, age, status, etc.

- Women are better at interpreting nonverbal signals

- However, no one can decode nonverbal signals with 100% accuracy.

6.Verbal vs. Nonverbal Communication

Discrete vs. Continuous
Verbal communication is not continuous. i.e. you can be quiet.
Verbal communication is discrete.

Conscious vs. unconscious
Conscious
Smiling makes people believe we’re happy.
Not to show agreement
Firm handshake
Unconscious
Yawning, slumping shoulders.

7. Functions of nonverbal communication

Repeating
Emblems: deliberate nonverbal behaviors that have precise meanings known to everyone within a cultural group.
Substituting
Emblems can replace a verbal message
Complementing
Behaviours that reinforce the verbal message
Illustrators: nonverbal behaviours that accompany and support spoken words.
Accenting
Nonverbal used to emphasize oral messages
Pointing a finger etc.
Regulating
Turn-taking
Pauses
Loudness
Eye-contact
Contradicting
Verbal and nonverbal messages contradict themselves
i.e. Sympathy with a smile
60% of meaning comes from nonverbal comm
Yawning
Packing back packs.

Deceiving
Lying to save the face of others or yourself
Lying to persuade others
Women are more successful liars as they grow older.
High self-monitors are usually better at hiding their deception than communicators who are less self-aware
Ways of identifying deception
More speech errors
Stammers, stutters, hesitations, false starts.
Vocal pitch rises and they hesitate more
Blink more, fidget with hands.
The older we are the better we are at interpreting contradictory messages.
Probing does not help to identify deceivers
It only makes them more aware
Women are better at detecting lying and what the underlying truth is.
Women are also more likely to fall for deceptive behavior more than men.
However, intimacy declines anyone’s ability to detect lies.
This is due to wishful thinking.
However, when people become suspicious their detection increases.

Types of nonverbal communication
Posture and gesture
Kinesics: the study of body movement, gesture,
Mirroring: positive consequences
Romantic partners usually mirror each other.
Employee’s mirror employers
Friends who admire each other
Posture can show vulnerability
Rapists look at posture when selecting victims.
Manipulators
Fidgeting
When one part of the body manipulates another part.
Pinches, massages, grooms, holds, rubs, picks etc.
Often a sign of discomfort.
Face and eyes
Smiling and touch = larger tips for waitresses
Emotions are more clearly expressed with different parts of the face.
Affect blends: combination of two or more expressions showing different emotions.
Accuracy increases when encoders know context
Eye contact
Euro-American cultures
Feel that eyes show interest
No eye contact = avoidance
Asian cultures
Eye contact = disrespect
No eye contact = respect

Voice
Paralanguage: nonverbal, vocal messages.
Paralanguage is communication that is vocal but does not use words. It includes sounds, such as murmurs and gasps, and vocal qualities, such as volume, rhythm, pitch, and inflection. How we pronounce words, and the accents we use.
Disfluencies: such as stammering, use of uh, um, er, and so on.

Touch

Physical attractiveness
People who are more attractive are perceived as better, more intelligent, honest, and credible.
Women who are perceived as attractive have more dates, receive higher grades in college, persuade men with greater ease, and receive lighter court sentences.

Clothing
Our clothing can say a lot about what genre of music we’re into, what lifestyle (athletic, education, business, etc)

Distance
Proxemics: the study of the way people and animals use space has been termed proxemics.
Preferred spaces are largely a matter of cultural norms.
North American spatial differences:
Intimate distance: from body contact to 18 inches, a distance for lovemaking, comforting, whispering secrets, and the like.
Personal distance: from 18 inches to 4 feet, a distance that enables personal-to-casual conversations to take place and in which people carry and invisible “space bubble” surrounding them.
Social distance: from 4 to 12 feet, a distance reserved for formal business transactions or formal social interactions.
Public distance: from 12 to 25 feet, a suitable distance for public lectures or performances.
The average conversational distance or personal space for Euro-Americans is approx. 20 inches.
For some Latin American and Caribbean cultural groups the average personal space is approx. 14-15 inches.
For the Saudi, the ideal conversational distance between two Arabs is approx. 9-10 inches.

Time
Chronemics: how human beings use and structure time
Polychronic cultures: these people pay attention to relational time and may be involved in many simultaneous activities.
Time is ambiguous
Don’t feel the need to follow exact times etc.
Don’t care if late to an appointment.
Monochronic cultures: these people pay attention to clock time and do one thing at a time
Always on time
Very time-oriented and organized

Territoriality
Territory is fixed space.
A room, house, neighborhood, or country, to which we assume some kind of “rights” is our territory.

Environment
Environmental factors are elements of settings that affect how we fell and act. For instance, how we respond to architecture, colors, room design, temperature, sounds, smells, and lighting, Rooms with comfortable chairs invite relaxation, whereas rooms with stiff chairs prompt formality.

What is Non-Verbal Communication?

Nonverbal Communication StudyNonverbal communication is a silent infiltrator, having broad influence over our social environment. It provides us with a mode for conveying messages without the use of verbal language. It may enhance or detract from a verbal communication. It regulates relationships by affecting the likelihood of introduction and continued interaction. We are able to infer emotion through nonverbal communication and influence other’s perception of our competence, power and vulnerability. It also plays a role in the perception of the actual message we are trying to convey. It affects our lives in a myriad of ways from childhood throughout adulthood, and as long as we intend to communicate with others.

What is it about the internet that is so appealing? In the past year, people have flocked to the internet. According to estimates from 1994, 25 million people are communicating on the internet worldwide. Most people who have access to e-mail will tell you that they keep in touch with people better than they ever did before; but they can’t remember the last time they actually “mailed” a conventional letter. Internet users even refer to the U.S. Postal service as “snail mail.”

No doubt, part of the appeal, particularly e-mail and chat capabilities, comes from the “instant” gratification that comes with the internet. An e-mail can be sent around the world in a matter of seconds. Even better, real-time chat allows users living on different continents to communicate as if by phone, without face to face interaction. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) offers new paradigms for thought and communication and opens up new possibilities for human interaction.