thumb|Understanding each other through hand and eye expression: the number two seen at a streetside vendor near the [[Bell Tower of Xi'an in China]]

Nonverbal communication is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact (oculesics), body language (kinesics), social distance (proxemics), touch (haptics), voice (prosody and paralanguage), physical environments/appearance, and use of objects. When communicating, nonverbal channels are utilized as means to convey different messages or signals, whereas others interpret these messages. The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. Darwin began to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals such as lions, tigers, dogs etc. and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions. For the first time, nonverbal communication was studied and its relevance noted. Today, scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication.

In the same way that speech incorporates nonverbal components, collectively referred to as paralanguage and encompassing voice quality, rate, pitch, loudness, and speaking style, nonverbal communication also encompasses facets of one's voice. Elements such as tone, inflection, emphasis, and other vocal characteristics contribute significantly to nonverbal communication, adding layers of meaning and nuance to the conveyed message. However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on interaction between individuals, where it can be classified into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction.

Nonverbal communication involves the conscious and unconscious processes of encoding and decoding. Encoding is defined as our ability to express emotions in a way that can be accurately interpreted by the receiver(s). Decoding is called "nonverbal sensitivity", defined as the ability to take this encoded emotion and interpret its meanings accurately to what the sender intended. Encoding is the act of generating information such as facial expressions, gestures, and postures. Encoding information utilizes signals which we may think to be universal. Decoding is the interpretation of information from received sensations given by the encoder. Culture plays an important role in nonverbal communication, and it is one aspect that helps to influence how we interact with each other. In many Indigenous American communities, nonverbal cues and silence hold immense importance in deciphering the meaning of messages. In such cultures, the context, relationship dynamics, and subtle nonverbal cues play a pivotal role in communication and interpretation, impacting how learning activities are organized and understood.

Importance

thumb|Symbol table for non-verbal communication with [[patients]]

According to some authors, nonverbal communication represents 2/3 of all communication, however this statement can be misleading due to research done by Albert Mehrabian in the 1960s, which led to the famous 7-38-55 rule: 7% words (verbal content), 38% tone of voice, & 55% facial expressions—which is close to the 2/3 claim. It is important to note that this rule only applies in very specific situations, such as when someone is expressing feelings or attitudes, especially when words contradict tone and facial expression. For most communication, like giving directions, teaching math, writing books etc.. verbal information carries most of the meaning. Nonverbal communication can portray a message both vocally and with the correct body signals or gestures. Body signals consist of physical features, conscious and unconscious gestures and signals, and the mediation of personal space. When the other person or group is absorbing the message, they are focused on the entire environment around them, meaning the other person uses all five senses in the interaction: 83% sight, 11% hearing, 3% smell, 2% touch and 1% taste.

Many indigenous cultures use nonverbal communication in the integration of children at a young age into their cultural practices. Children in these communities learn through observing and pitching in through which nonverbal communication is a key aspect of observation.

According to Judee K. Burgoon et al., further reasons for the importance of non-verbal communication are:

  • "Non-verbal communication is omnipresent." They are included in every single communication act. To have total communication, all non-verbal channels such as the body, face, voice, appearance, touch, distance, timing, and other environmental forces must be engaged during face-to-face interaction. Written communication can also have non-verbal attributes. E-mails, web chats, and the social media have options to change text font colours, stationery, add emoticons, capitalization, and pictures in order to capture non-verbal cues into a verbal medium.
  • "Non-verbal behaviours are multifunctional." Many different non-verbal channels are engaged at the same time in communication acts and allow the chance for simultaneous messages to be sent and received.
  • "Non-verbal behaviours may form a universal language system." While some cues might be universally understood, others hold culture-specific significance, necessitating careful interpretation to prevent misunderstandings. Understanding the tone, pitch, cultural connotations of touch, and environmental influences enriches nonverbal communication, shaping our interactions. Recognizing that cultural norms influence the appropriateness of tone and pitch is crucial, as outlined by display rules. This underscores the significance of being culturally sensitive when interpreting nonverbal cues. In the context of intercultural communication, a deeper understanding of context culture becomes essential. Context culture significantly shapes how individuals communicate emotions and convey meaning through nonverbal signals. Being aware of these cultural nuances is fundamental for facilitating successful cross-cultural interactions and ensuring the accurate interpretation of nonverbal expressions.

The understanding of tone, pitch, and cultural contexts in verbal communication complements nonverbal cues, offering a holistic grasp of interpersonal dynamics. The harmony or discrepancy between verbal and nonverbal signals significantly impacts message clarity. In cultures where nonverbal cues are pivotal, incongruence between verbal and nonverbal elements can create confusion, while in cultures emphasizing explicit verbal communication, alignment between the two is essential for effective understanding.

Mastery of nonverbal signals extends beyond mere word comprehension, promoting cultural awareness and smoother interactions across diverse settings. Understanding emotion thoroughly through observation of both parties’ emotional reactions from all senses is an important application to research by emphasizing interpersonal dynamics. Using observed studies on animals and their functional and evolutionary nonverbal communications, understanding effects on both sides informs approaches taken when studying nonverbal communication and how it is used by humans in the broader aspect such as its uses to portray emotions and its study of said portrayal.

History of research

thumb|Charles Darwin wrote [[The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in 1872.]]

Scientific research on nonverbal communication and behavior was started in 1872 with the publication of Charles Darwin's book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Darwin attributed these facial expressions to serviceable associated habits, which are behaviors that earlier in our evolutionary history had specific and direct functions. Charles Darwin was also a renowned British naturalist and biologist best known for developing the theory of evolution through natural selection

Despite the introduction of nonverbal communication in the 1800s, the emergence of behaviorism in the 1920s paused further research on nonverbal communication. Behaviorists such as B.F. Skinner trained pigeons to engage in various behaviors to demonstrate how animals engage in behaviors with rewards. and Gregory Bateson, known more generally as a human communication theorist, both joined the team in 1956. Albert Scheflen and Adam Kendon were among those who joined one of the small research teams continuing research once the year at CASBS ended. The project analyzed a film made by Bateson, using an analytic method called at the time natural history, and later, mostly by Scheflen, context analysis. The result remained unpublished, as it was enormous and unwieldy, but it was available on microfilm by 1971. The method involves transcribing filmed or videotaped behavior in excruciating detail, and was later used in studying the sequence and structure of human greetings, social behaviors at parties, and the function of posture during interpersonal interaction.

Research on nonverbal communication rocketed during the mid-1960s by a number of psychologists and researchers. Michael Argyle and Janet Dean Fodor, for example, studied the relationship between eye contact and conversational distance. Ralph V. Exline examined patterns of looking while speaking and looking while listening.

In 1970, Argyle hypothesized that although spoken language is used for communicating the meaning about events external to the person communicating, the nonverbal codes are used to create and strengthen interpersonal relationships. Along with this philosophy, Michael Argyle also found and concluded in 1988 that there are five main functions of nonverbal body behavior and gestures in human communications: self-presentation of one's whole personality, rituals and cultural greetings, expressing interpersonal attitudes, expressing emotions, and to accompany speech in managing the cues set in the interactions between the speaker and the listener.

First impression

It takes just one-tenth of a second for someone to judge and make their first impression. According to a study from Princeton University, this short amount of time is enough for a person to determine several attributes about an individual. These attributes included "attractiveness, likeability, trustworthiness, competence, and aggressiveness." A first impression is a lasting non-verbal communicator. The way a person portrays themselves on the first encounter is non-verbal statement to the observer. Presentation can include clothing and other visible attributes such as facial expressions or facial traits in general. Negative impressions can also be based on presentation and on personal prejudice. First impressions, although sometimes misleading, can in many situations be an accurate depiction of others.

In terms of culture, collectivists have a harder time changing their first impressions because they emphasize a lot more context and need additional time when faced with new clues as each view may be correct in some contexts. Moreover, Fang et al., acknowledged that first impression is less likely to change in Asian culture because they value cohesiveness and consensus, thus will not destroy their group cohesiveness at the expense of changing their first impression when they reached a consensus.

Posture

Posture is a nonverbal cue that is associated with positioning. Posture and positioning are sources of information about individual's characteristics, attitudes, and feelings about themselves and other people. There are many different types of body positioning to portray certain postures, including slouching, towering, legs spread, jaw thrust, shoulders forward, and arm crossing. The posture or bodily stance an individual exhibits communicates a variety of messages. A study, for instance, identified around 200 postures that are related to maladjustment and withholding of information. It can also be effectively used as a way for an individual to convey a desire to increase, limit, or avoid interaction with another person. Studies investigating the impact of posture on interpersonal relationships suggest that mirror-image congruent postures, where one person's left side is parallel to the other person's right side, leads to favorable perception of communicators and positive speech; a person who displays a forward lean or decreases a backward lean also signifies positive sentiment during communication.

People will change their posture relative to the situation they are in. This can be demonstrated in the case of relaxed posture when an individual is within a nonthreatening situation and the way one's body tightens or become rigid when under stress.

Clothing

Clothing is one of the most common forms of non-verbal communication. The study of clothing and other objects as a means of non-verbal communication is known as artifactics or objectics. The types of clothing that an individual wears convey nonverbal cues about their personality, background and financial status, and how others will respond to them. For instance, Jewish men may wear a yarmulke to outwardly communicate their religious belief. Similarly, clothing can communicate what nationality a person or group is; for example, in traditional festivities Scottish men often wear kilts to specify their culture.

Aside from communicating a person's beliefs and nationality, clothing can be used as a nonverbal cue to attract others. Men and women may shower themselves with accessories and high-end fashion to attract partners interested. In this case, clothing is a form of self-expression where people can flaunt their power, wealth, sex appeal, or creativity.

The way one chooses to dress tells a lot about one's personality. The University of North Carolina studied how undergraduate women chose to dress and their personality types. The study showed that women dressed "primarily for comfort and practicality were more self-controlled, dependable, and socially well adjusted."

When it comes to the clothing that they wear, nonverbal communication with gangs is very common. Gang members typically wear 2–3 colors to signify that they are representing a particular neighborhood. Baseball caps and hats with specific gang names and initials, worn backwards, tilted, in certain colors, etc. bandanas worn around the head, shoulders, arms, or legs. Gang members frequently dress in hip-hop-inspired fashions, such as oversized pants worn below the waist (also known as "sagging"). Colored belts, colored shoes, and colored bandanas are all utilized as identifiers. Group colors and clothing are commonly used to represent affiliation.

Gestures

thumb|Policeman directing traffic by gesture

Gestures may be made with the hands, arms or body, and also include movements of the head, face and eyes, such as winking, nodding, or rolling one's eyes. Although the study of gesture is still in its infancy, some broad categories of gestures have been identified by researchers. The most familiar are the so-called emblems or quotable gestures. These are conventional, culture-specific gestures that can be used as replacement for words, such as the hand wave used in western cultures for "hello" and "goodbye". A single emblematic gesture can have a very different significance in different cultural contexts, ranging from complimentary to highly offensive. For a list of emblematic gestures, see List of gestures. There are some universal gestures like the shoulder shrug. As an example: giving directions for a place and pointing directionally to remind oneself of the correct route. This is not only to help the listener, but also to help the speaker visualize the route as though they were moving through it.

Facial expressions, more than anything, serve as a practical means of communication. With all the various muscles that precisely control mouth, lips, eyes, nose, forehead, and jaw, human faces are estimated to be capable of more than ten thousand different expressions. This versatility makes non-verbals of the face extremely efficient and honest, unless deliberately manipulated. In addition, many of these emotions, including happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, shame, anguish and interest are universally recognized.

Displays of emotions can generally be categorized into two groups: negative and positive. Negative emotions usually manifest as increased tension in various muscle groups: tightening of jaw muscles, furrowing of forehead, squinting eyes, or lip occlusion (when the lips seemingly disappear). In contrast, positive emotions are revealed by the loosening of the furrowed lines on the forehead, relaxation of the muscles around the mouth, and widening of the eye area. When individuals are truly relaxed and at ease, the head will also tilt to the side, exposing our most vulnerable area, the neck. This is a high-comfort display, often seen during courtship, that is nearly impossible to mimic when tense or suspicious.

Gestures can be subdivided into three groups:

Adapters

Some hand movements are not considered to be gestures. They consist of manipulations either of the person or some object (e.g. clothing, pencils, eyeglasses)—the kinds of scratching, fidgeting, rubbing, tapping, and touching that people often do with their hands. These behaviors can show that a person is experiencing anxiety or feeling of discomfort, typical when the individual is not the one in control of the conversation or situation and therefore expresses this uneasiness subconsciously. Such behaviors are referred to as adapters. They may not be perceived as meaningfully related to the speech in which they accompany, but may serve as the basis for dispositional inferences of the speaker's emotion (nervous, uncomfortable, bored.) These types of movements are believed to express the unconscious thoughts and feelings of a person, or those thoughts and emotions one is trying to consciously hide.

Symbolic

Other hand movements are gestures. They are movements with specific, conventionalized meanings called symbolic gestures. They are the exact opposite of adaptors, since their meanings are intended to be communicated and they have a specific meaning for the person who gives the gesture and the person to receive it. Familiar symbolic gestures include the "raised fist," "bye-bye," and "thumbs up." In contrast to adapters, symbolic gestures are used intentionally and serve a clear communicative function. Sign languages are highly developed systems of symbolic gesture. Some educators that work with deaf learners use a combination of cued speech and lip speaking and reading that helps deaf and hard hearing individuals (D/HH) to code and decode words based on their phonetics. In addition to the supplementary aspect of the cues like location and movement, every culture has their own set of gestures, some of which are unique only to a specific culture. For example, the phonological and lexical repository of D/HH individuals is highly dependent on their social background and richness of language. Within American culture Hall defines four primary distance zones: (i) intimate (touching to eighteen inches [0–46 centimetres]) distance, (ii) personal (eighteen inches to four feet, [0.46–1.22 metres]) distance, (iii) social (four to twelve feet [1.22–3.66 metres]) distance, and (iv) public (more than twelve feet [3.66 metres]) distance. Intimate distance is considered appropriate for familiar relationships and indicates closeness and trust. Personal distance is still close but keeps another "at arm's length" and is considered the most comfortable distance for most of our interpersonal contact, while social distance is used for the kind of communication that occurs in business relationships and, sometimes, in the classroom. Public distance occurs in situations where two-way communication is not desirable or possible. Imagine two individuals sitting at a small dinner table. One person, motivated by romantic interest, begins to lean in, lightly touching the other's arm and shifting their chair closer. They are operating within the intimate zone, expecting closeness. However, the other person, who does not share the same romantic feelings, perceives this behavior as a breach of social norms. They expected the interaction to remain within personal distance, a more appropriate zone for acquaintances or casual dates. As a result, they may respond by pulling away, crossing their arms, or showing visible discomfort signals of a desire to re-establish that personal boundary.

In addition, to social expectations, cultural can play a role in proxemics. People from different cultures have different comfort zones when it comes to personal space (Chen & Starosta, 2005). In everyday conversations, people from places like North Africa, and parts of the Middle East usually feel fine standing closer to others. On the other hand, people from Japan and China often prefer more space between themselves and others. Not understanding these differences can make cross-cultural interactions feel awkward or uncomfortable. For example, someone from a culture that's used to standing close might keep moving forward if the other person keep stepping back. Meanwhile, someone who's used to more space might feel uneasy or confused if someone stands too close.

Eye contact

thumb|right|Information about the relationship and [[Affect display|affect of these two skaters is communicated by their body posture, eye gaze and physical contact.]]

Eye contact is the instance when two people look at each other's eyes at the same time; it is the primary nonverbal way of indicating engagement, interest, attention and involvement. Nonverbal communication involves the conscious and unconscious processes of encoding and decoding. Encoding is defined as our ability to express emotions in a way that the receiver(s). Decoding is called "nonverbal sensitivity", defined as the ability to take this encoded emotion and interpret its meanings accurately to what the sender intended. Encoding is the act of generating information such as facial expressions, gestures, and postures. Some studies have demonstrated that people use their eyes to indicate interest. This includes frequently recognized actions of winking and movements of the eyebrows. Disinterest is highly noticeable when little or no eye contact is made in a social setting. When an individual is interested, however, the pupils will dilate.

According to Eckman, "Eye contact (also called mutual gaze) is another major channel of nonverbal communication. The duration of eye contact is its most meaningful aspect." Generally speaking, the longer there is established eye contact between two people, the greater the intimacy levels. According to Descroix et al., the context of conversations does not produce long blinks between the emitter and the recipient. "Liking generally increases as mutual gazing increases." Contrary to popular belief, a liar does not always avoid eye contact. In an attempt to be more convincing, liars deliberately made more eye contact with interviewers than those that were telling the truth. However, there are many cited examples of cues to deceit, delivered via nonverbal (paraverbal and visual) communication channels, through which deceivers supposedly unwittingly provide clues to their concealed knowledge or actual opinions. Most studies examining the nonverbal cues to deceit rely upon human coding of video footage (c.f. Vrij, 2008), although a recent study also demonstrated bodily movement differences between truth-tellers and liars using an automated body motion capture system.

Scent

Vocalics

Nonverbal communication stands in contrast to communication through words, but includes other aspects of the speech signal. In particular, prosody, and in particular vocalics, plays a very important part in nonverbal communication. Prosodic properties such as tempo, volume, inflection, pauses, and pitch can combine to communicate emotion and attitude without using specific words. Vocalics also includes emblems, or sounds with specific meanings, such as vocalizing "brrr" when cold, and mental-state indicators, like "hmm" when thinking about something, and other nonlexical but meaningful sounds. These sounds are often accompanied by other nonverbal cues.

Infants heavily rely on nonverbal vocalics to communicate their needs. As caregivers talk with their baby, the baby can pick up intonation as well start to mimic and use it themselves.

Vocalics can heavily influence communication through its many different cues.

Online

Online nonverbal communication is nonverbal communication done through an online medium, such as text messaging and video calling. Whilst it may differ from face-to-face communication and cues, it retains similar importance when it comes to relaying information between individuals. Elements such as Emojis and GIFs provide crucial information of context or emotion to aid in understanding despite the physical barrier when text messaging. Within video, cues like gestures, facial expressions, and body language are observed to be displayed stronger than usual to properly articulate emotion and meaning. Nonverbal cues being used through online mediums have been observed enhancing social presence, or the showcasing of personal characteristics within an online community, by giving personal or emotional information and contributing to engagement in online environments.

Across cultures

Overview

While not traditionally thought of as "talk," nonverbal communication has been found to contain highly precise and symbolic meanings, similar to verbal speech. However the meanings in nonverbal communication are conveyed through the use of gesture, posture changes, and timing. Nuances across different aspects of nonverbal communication can be found in cultures all around the world. These differences can often lead to miscommunication between people of different cultures, who usually do not mean to offend. Differences can be based in preferences for mode of communication, like the Chinese, who prefer silence over verbal communication. Differences can even be based on how cultures perceive the passage of time. Chronemics, how people handle time, can be categorized in two ways: polychronic which is when people do many activities at once and is common in Italy and Spain, or monochronic which is when people do one thing at a time which is common in America. Because nonverbal communication can vary across many axes—gestures, gaze, clothing, posture, direction, or even environmental cues like lighting—there is a lot of room for cultural differences. In Japan, a country which prides itself on the best customer service, workers tend to use wide arm gestures to give clear directions to strangers—accompanied by the ever-present bow to indicate respect. One of the main factors that differentiates nonverbal communication in cultures is high and low-context. Context relates to certain events and the meaning that is ultimately derived from it. "High-context" cultures rely mostly on nonverbal cues and gestures, using elements such as the closeness of the kind of the relationships they have with others, strict social hierarchies and classes and deep cultural tradition and widely known beliefs and rules. In contrast, "low-context" cultures depend largely on words and verbal communication, where communications are direct and social hierarchies are way less tense and more loose.

Gestures

thumb|upright|This gesture is accepted by Dutch people as meaning "brilliant", but varies greatly in other cultures around the world, and is ubiquitous in emoji culture.

Gestures vary widely across cultures in how they are used and what they mean. A common example is pointing. In the United States, pointing is the gesture of a finger or hand to indicate or "come here please" when beckoning a dog. But pointing with one finger is also considered to be rude by some cultures. Those from Asian cultures typically use their entire hand to point to something. Other examples include, sticking one's tongue out. In Western countries, it can be seen as mockery, but in Polynesia it serves as a greeting and a sign of reverence. Though differences in this area exist between cultures, speech-independent gestures must have a common understanding among people affiliated with that culture or subculture. a nod or head bobble can indicate understanding while the speaker is talking. Even though speech-independent gestures are independent of speech, it may still require context to fully interpret. For people in Westernized countries, laughter is a sign of amusement, but in some parts of Africa it is a sign of wonder or embarrassment. Native Americans tend to be more reserved and less expressive with emotions. Frequent touches are common for Chinese people; however, such actions like touching, patting, hugging or kissing in America are less frequent and not often publicly displayed. By contrast, within South American and South European cultures, frequent contact between people, even if they have just met, is commonplace and showcases a differing emphasis on physical contact as hospitality. In the United States, there are varying degrees of people’s perception of appropriate physical contact. Some will not want physical contact at all, even from acquaintances, but others may only want physical contact with those who they are close to, like greeting a longtime friend with a hug. This relates to Edward T. Hall’s foundational models of cultures that are high- and low-contact when it comes to emotional expression through proxemics. This cultural difference in how emotions are expressed through nonverbal communication comes from perceptions and expectations, particularly in public. For example, within the Japanese culture, crowding is common and people who are close show it through physical proximity. By contrast, in Middle Eastern culture, space between individuals, is held more sacred and commonplace.

Nonverbal actions

According to Matsumoto and Juang, the nonverbal motions of different people indicate important channels of communication. Nonverbal actions should match and harmonize with the message being portrayed, otherwise confusion will occur.

The acceptable physical distance is another major difference in the nonverbal communication between cultures. In Latin America and the Middle East the acceptable distance is much shorter than what most Europeans and Americans feel comfortable with. This is why an American or a European might wonder why the other person is invading their personal space by standing so close, while the other person might wonder why the American/European is standing so far from them. In addition, for Latin Americans, the French, Italians, and Arabs the distance between people is much closer than the distance for Americans; in general for these close distance groups, 1 foot of distance is for lovers, 1.5–4 feet of distance is for family and friends, and 4–12 feet is for strangers. In a study on Children from both US Mexican (with presumed indigenous backgrounds) and European American heritages who watched a video of children working together without speaking found that the Mexican-heritage children were far more likely to describe the children's actions as collaborative, saying that the children in the video were "talking with their hands and with their eyes."

A key characteristic of this type of nonverbal learning is that children have the opportunity to observe and interact with all parts of an activity. Many Indigenous American children are in close contact with adults and other children who are performing the activities that they will eventually master. Objects and materials become familiar to the child as the activities are a normal part of everyday life. Learning is done in an extremely contextualized environment rather than one specifically tailored to be instructional. Most indigenous children learn the importance of putting in this work in the form of nonverbal communication. Evidence of this can be observed in a case study where children are guided through the task of folding a paper figure by observing the posture and gaze of those who guide them through it. This is projected onto homes and communities, as children wait for certain cues from others to initiative cooperate and collaborate.

One aspect of nonverbal communication that aids in conveying these precise and symbolic meanings is "context-embeddedness." The idea that many children in Indigenous American Communities are closely involved in community endeavors, both spatially and relationally, which help to promote nonverbal communication, given that words are not always necessary. When children are closely related to the context of the endeavor as active participants, coordination is based on a shared reference, which helps to allow, maintain, and promote nonverbal communication. The idea of "context-embeddedness" allows nonverbal communication to be a means of learning within Native American Alaskan Athabaskans and Cherokee communities. By observing various family and community social interactions, social engagement is dominated through nonverbal communication. For example, when children elicit thoughts or words verbally to their elders, they are expected to structure their speech carefully. This demonstrates cultural humility and respect as excessive acts of speech when conversational genre shifts reveal weakness and disrespect. This careful self-censorship exemplifies traditional social interaction of Athapaskin and Cherokee Native Americans who are mostly dependent on nonverbal communication.

Nonverbal cues are used by most children in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation community within the parameters of their academic learning environments. This includes referencing Native American religion through stylized hand gestures in colloquial communication, verbal and nonverbal emotional self-containment, and less movement of the lower face to structure attention on the eyes during face-to-face engagement. Therefore, children's approach to social situations within a reservation classroom, for example, may act as a barrier to a predominantly verbal learning environment. Most Warm Springs children benefit from a learning model that suits a nonverbal communicative structure of collaboration, traditional gesture, observational learning and shared references.

While nonverbal communication is more prevalent in Indigenous American Communities, verbal communication is also used. Preferably, verbal communication does not substitute one's involvement in an activity, but instead acts as additional guidance or support towards the completion of an activity. "This can lead to intercultural conflict (according to Marianna Pogosyan Ph.D.), misunderstandings and ambiguities in communication, despite language fluency." Evidence suggests that smiling when happy, and frowning in response to something upsetting or bad, are culturally universal.

Essential components

Nonverbal communication plays a crucial role in effectively transmitting messages. Beginning from birth and persisting throughout one's life, it undergoes a developmental progression encompassing three phases, ranging from initial dyadic exchanges to the integration of both verbal and nonverbal cues. With diverse functions, nonverbal communication acts as a substitute for verbal interaction in situations where verbalization is unnecessary or impossible. It adds clarity to communication by unveiling emotional states and articulating specific feelings. This is achieved through various nonverbal elements such as emblems, illustrators, regulators, adaptors, and vocalics. This system is shaped by component including paralinguistics, kinesics, tactile communication, and proxemics, influencing social, academic, and professional contexts. Despite frequently being overlooked, nonverbal cues possess the potential to convey up to 80% of a message, especially holding significance in interactions involving prelinguistic infants and individuals who have severe disabilities.

Additional research expresses that eye contact is an important part of nonverbal communication involved in kinesics, as longer and appropriate levels of eye contact give an individual credibility. The opposite is said for those who do not maintain eye contact, as they are likely to be deemed distrustful. More eye contact was also found to be related to higher levels of likability and believability from those people interacted with. A real-life example of this is through service workers, in a study it was found that those workers who welcomed customers with smiles seemed like warmer individuals than those who did not smile. Customers reported that those without smiles and open body movements, such as waving or handshaking, were lacking warmth and deemed less friendly. Babies who can perceive through touch, even without sight and hearing, tend to fare much better.

In chimpanzees, the sense of touch is highly developed. As newborns, they see and hear poorly but cling strongly to their mothers. Harry Harlow conducted a controversial study involving rhesus monkeys and observed that monkeys reared with a "terry cloth mother," a wire feeding apparatus wrapped in soft terry cloth that provided a level of tactile stimulation and comfort, the monkey who had the real parent were considerably more emotionally stable as adults than those with a mere wire mother (Harlow, 1958).

Touching is treated differently from one country to another and socially acceptable levels of touching vary from one culture to another (Remland, 2009). In Thai culture, for example, touching someone's head may be thought rude. Remland and Jones (1995) studied groups of people communicating and found that touching was rare among the English (8%), the French (5%) and the Dutch (4%) compared to Italians (14%) and Greeks (12.5%). Striking, pushing, pulling, pinching, kicking, strangling and hand-to-hand fighting are forms of touch in the context of physical abuse. In the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, McDaniel et al. assessed touch as a form of communication among people from different nations under the lens of culture, relationships, and a number of body areas touched. Latin Americans are known to have a high degree of tactile activity in contrast to Asians who are considered a no-contact culture as they often steer away from public display of affection (PDA).

Proxemics

Proxemics is the use of space as a form of communication, and includes how far or near participants position themselves from each other. It can be influenced by culture, race/ethnicity, gender, and age. Edward T. Hall invented the term when he realized that culture influences how people use space in communication while working with diplomats, and published his findings on proxemics in 1959 as The Silent Language. Besides, in high contact cultures, people are generally more comfortable in closer proximity, whereas individuals in low contact cultures feel more comfortable with a greater amount of personal space. Hall concluded that proxemics could cause misunderstandings between cultures as cultures use of proxemics varies and what is customary in one culture may range from being confusing to being offensive to members of a different culture.

According to Hall, the amount of space we maintain between ourselves and the persons we communicate with shows the importance of the science of proxemics. In this process, it is seen how we feel towards others at that particular time. This resonates with proxemics and viewing it through the cultural lens, people use their space differently because of the meaning behind it as in a spectrum of cultures, ideologies differ. Within American culture, Hall defines four primary distance zones: (i) intimate (touching to eighteen inches) distance, (ii) personal (eighteen inches to four feet) distance, (iii) social (four to twelve feet) distance, and (iv) public (more than twelve feet) distance.

Intimate space is any distance less than 18 inches, and is most commonly used by individuals when they are engaging with someone with whom they feel very comfortable, such as a spouse, partner, friend, child, or parent. Personal space is a distance of 18 inches to 4 feet and is usually used when individuals are interacting with friends. Social distance is the most common type of proximity as it is used when communicating with colleagues, classmates, acquaintances, or strangers. Public distance creates the greatest gap between the individual and the audience and is categorized as distances greater than 12 feet in distance and is often used for speeches, lectures, or formal occasions.

In relation to verbal communication

Differentiating which parts of a face-to-face conversation are communicated verbally versus non-verbally is not straightforward. Other studies done on the same subject have concluded that in more relaxed and natural settings of communication, verbal and non-verbal signals and cues can contribute in surprisingly similar ways.

Argyle, using video tapes shown to the subjects, analysed the communication of submissive/dominant attitude, (high and low context, high context resorting to more strict social classes and take a more short and quick response route to portray dominance, low context being the opposite by taking time to explain everything and putting a lot of importance on communication and building trust and respect with others in a submissive and relaxed manner), and found that non-verbal cues had 4.3 times the effect of verbal cues. The most important effect was that body posture communicated superior status (specific to culture and context said person grew up in) in a very efficient way.

On the other hand, a study by Hsee et al. had subjects judge a person on the happy/sad dimension and found that words spoken with minimal variation in intonation had an impact about 4 times larger than face expressions seen in a film without sound. Therefore, when considering certain non-verbal mannerisms such as facial expressions and physical cues, they can conflict in meaning when compared to spoken language and emotions. Different setups and scenarios would yield different responses and meanings when using both types of communication. In other ways they can complement each other, provided they are used together wisely during a conversation.

Mindfulness is one technique that can help improve one's awareness of nonverbal communication. Those mindful and present to how their body moves can learn to better control their external nonverbal communication, which results in more effective communication.

Interaction

During communication, nonverbal messages can interact with verbal messages in six ways: repeating, conflicting, complementing, substituting, regulating and accenting/moderating.

Conflicting

Conflicting verbal and nonverbal messages within the same interaction can sometimes send opposing or conflicting messages. A person verbally expressing a statement of truth while simultaneously fidgeting or avoiding eye contact may convey a mixed message to the receiver in the interaction. Conflicting messages may occur for a variety of reasons often stemming from feelings of uncertainty, ambivalence, or frustration. When mixed messages occur, nonverbal communication becomes the primary tool people use to attain additional information to clarify the situation; great attention is placed on bodily movements and positioning when people perceive mixed messages during interactions. Definitions of nonverbal communication creates a limited picture in our minds but there are ways to create a clearer one. There are different dimensions of verbal and nonverbal communication that have been discovered. They are (1) structure versus non-structure, (2) linguistic versus non-linguistic, (3) continuous versus discontinuous, (4) learned versus innate, and (5) left versus right hemispheric processing.

Complementing

Accurate interpretation of messages is made easier when nonverbal and verbal communication complement each other. Nonverbal cues can be used to elaborate on verbal messages to reinforce the information sent when trying to achieve communicative goals; messages have been shown to be remembered better when nonverbal signals affirm the verbal exchange. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Yale University and Ohio State University had subjects observe gamblers at a slot machine awaiting payoffs. The amount of this payoff was read by nonverbal transmission prior to reinforcement. This technique was developed by and the studies directed by psychologist Robert E. Miller and psychiatrist A. James Giannini. These groups reported diminished receptive ability in heroin addicts and phencyclidine abusers, contrasted with increased receptivity in cocaine addicts. Men with major depression manifested significantly decreased ability to read nonverbal cues when compared with euthymic men.

In some subjects tested for ability to read nonverbal cues, intuitive paradigms were apparently employed while in others a cause and effect approach was used. Subjects in the former group answered quickly and before reinforcement occurred. They could not give a rationale for their particular responses. Subjects in the latter category delayed their response and could offer reasons for their choice. The level of accuracy between the two groups did not vary nor did handedness.

Obese women and women with premenstrual syndrome were found to also possess diminished abilities to read these cues. In contradistinction, men with bipolar disorder possessed increased abilities. A woman with total paralysis of the nerves of facial expression was found unable to transmit or receive any nonverbal facial cues whatsoever. Because of the changes in levels of accuracy on the levels of nonverbal receptivity, the members of the research team hypothesized a level of involvement of neurotransmitters when interpreting nonverbal cues. Users of certain drugs had an enhanced ability while users of other drugs had a diminished ability. Based on the available data, however, the primary cause and primary effect could not be sorted out on the basis of the paradigm employed. The authors also hypothesised that it is possible that, for example, cocaine abusers do so because their pre-existing abilities helped them to conceal their drug abuse.

Child comprehension

An increased emphasis on gestures exists when intonations or facial expression are used. "Speakers often anticipate how recipients will interpret their utterances. If they wish some other, less obvious interpretation, they may "mark" their utterance (e.g. with special intonations or facial expressions)." This specific emphasis known as 'marking' can be spotted as a learned form of non-verbal communication in toddlers. A groundbreaking study from Carpenter et al. in the Journal of Child Language has concluded that the act of marking a gesture is recognized by three-year-olds but not by two-year-olds.

In the study, two and three-year-old toddlers were tested on their recognition of markedness within gestures. The experiment was conducted in a room with an examiner and the test subjects, which for the first study were three-year-olds. The examiner sat across from each child individually, and allowed them to play with various objects including a purse with a sponge in it and a box with a sponge in it. After allowing the child to play with the objects for three minutes, the examiner told the child it was time to clean up and motioned by pointing to the objects. They measured the responses of the children by first pointing and not marking the gesture, to see the child's reaction to the request and if they reached for the objects to clean them up. After observing the child's response, the examiner then asked and pointed again, marking the gesture with facial expression, as to lead the child to believe the objects were supposed to be cleaned up. The results showed that three-year-old children were able to recognize the markedness, by responding to the gesture and cleaning the objects up as opposed to when the gesture was presented without being marked.

In the second study in which the same experiment was performed on two-year-olds, the results were different. For the most part, the children did not recognize the difference between the marked and unmarked gesture by not responding more prevalently to the marked gesture, unlike the results of the three-year-olds. This shows that this sort of nonverbal communication is learned at a young age, and is better recognized in three-year-old children than two-year-old children, making it easier for us to interpret that the ability to recognize markedness is learned in the early stages of development, somewhere between three and four years of age.

Boone and Cunningham conducted a study to determine at which age children begin to recognize emotional meaning (happiness, sadness, anger and fear) in expressive body movements. The study included 29 adults and 79 children divided into age groups of four-, five- and eight-year-olds. The children were shown two clips simultaneously and were asked to point to the one that was expressing the target emotion. The results of the study revealed that of the four emotions being tested the 4-year-olds were only able to correctly identify sadness at a rate that was better than chance. The 5-year-olds performed better and were able to identify happiness, sadness and fear at better than chance levels. The 8-year-olds and adults could correctly identify all four emotions and there was very little difference between the scores of the two groups. Between the ages of 4 and 8, nonverbal communication and decoding skills improve dramatically.

A study was conducted to determine how nonverbal communication and play amongst children, particularly autistic children, affects language development. Mundy et. al. observed communication amongst groups of autistic children divided by diagnosed mental age from a sample of 16 children. The study had observations of how the children played between each other using an assortment of items provided, such as a spoon, doll, toy car, toy telephone, sponge, and more. Play development was measured using a checklist of observed “functional acts”, or using the toys for functional purposes like pushing a toy car, brushing hair, or feeding a doll with a spoon, and “symbolic acts”, or using objects and toys for different purposes aside from their expressed usage, such as using a sponge as play food or using a doll to “drive” the toy car. Language development was measured using the Reynell Developmental Language Scales to measure the extent of how the children interact between “social partners”, or members of the same studied play group, and the advancement of responding to interaction, initiating interaction, responding to attention being pointed to another object, initiating attention towards another object, responding to behavior regulation, and initiating behavior regulation.

The study concluded that there was little to no correlation between play and nonverbal communication, concluding in possible further psychological factors such as metacognitive awareness of pretending or delayed imitation within play being possible explanations for play development. Wanko Keutchafo EL, Kerr J, Baloyi OB, Duma SE. (2022) “Conditions Influencing Effective Nurse Nonverbal Communication With Hospitalized Older Adults in Cameroon”. Global Qualitative Nursing Research. The use of space was also considered when dealing with slow approaches or sitting on a bed, in which some nurses refrained from this method due to a patient's cultural beliefs, which resulted in reduced communication.

As for other interactions, such as students in a classroom setting, teachers may take advantage of indicating gestures, like pointing, to direct the children’s attention and highlight any mishaps. As introduced in the study “Nonverbal Communication in Classroom Interaction and Its Role in Italian Foreign Language Teaching and Learning” by Pierangela Diadori, these methods can be seen as pointing to one's feet, in representation of the meaning “today/now”. Another is drawing a circle with their arms, to portray “working around an idea”. Along with these behaviors, many instructors also use a fist pumping gesture to emphasize classroom energy or activity. The study found that nonverbal behaviors play a central role in Italian foreign-language classrooms, functioning as a tool for both learning and teaching. Nonverbal communication cues are integrated into the instructor’s practices to support comprehension and classroom management.

Comprehension of nonverbal facial cues

A byproduct of the work of the Pittsburgh/Yale/Ohio State team was an investigation of the role of nonverbal facial cues in heterosexual nondate rape. Males who were serial rapists of adult women were studied for nonverbal receptive abilities. Their scores were the highest of any subgroup. Rape victims were next tested. It was reported that women who had been raped on at least two occasions by different perpetrators had a highly significant impairment in their abilities to read these cues in either male or female senders. These results were troubling, indicating a predator-prey model. The authors did note that whatever the nature of these preliminary findings the responsibility of the rapist was in no manner or level diminished.

The final target of study for this group was the medical students they taught. Medical students at Ohio State University, Ohio University and Northeast Ohio Medical College were invited to serve as subjects. Students indicating a preference for the specialties of family practice, psychiatry, pediatrics and obstetrics-gynecology achieved significantly higher levels of accuracy than those students who planned to train as surgeons, radiologists, or pathologists. Internal medicine and plastic surgery candidates scored at levels near the mean.

See also

References

Bibliography

  • "Credibility, Respect, and Power: Sending the Right Nonverbal Signals" by Debra Stein
  • Online Nonverbal Library with more than 500 free available articles on this topic.
  • Center for Nonverbal Studies by David B. Givens
  • "Psychology Today Nonverbal Communication Blog posts" by Joe Navarro
  • "NVC Portal – A useful portal providing information on Nonverbal Communication"
  • "Breaking Trail Online: Using Body Language When Traveling" by Hank Martin
  • "Significance of posture and position in the communication of attitude and status relationships" by Mehrabian Albert