5.1: Outline

5.1: Principles of Nonverbal Communication

1. Principles of Nonverbal Communication

A. Nonverbal communication is communication through means other than language.

1. Includes aspects of communication, such as gestures and facial expressions that do not involve verbal communication.

2. Also includes nonverbal aspects of speech itself such as accent, tone of voice, and speed of speaking.

B. The relative importance of nonverbal codes varies with context and culture, but nonverbal communication can contribute to well-over half of the emotional or relational meaning of any given message.

C. Nonverbal communication is crucial to the study of intercultural communication as nonverbal elements can take many different forms and can vary significantly in their manifestations and usage across cultures.

2. Nonverbal Communication Uses Multiple Channels.

A. When I talk to a friend, I listen to my friend’s tone of voice, I watch my friend’s facial expressions, use of eye contact, and gestures, and possibly touch them (multiple channels) all while trying to make sense of the words (one channel).

B. Nonverbal signals also come through the presence (or absence) of personal objects or artifacts.

3. Nonverbal Communication is More Ambiguous

A. Nonverbal communication and its meanings are primarily learned unconsciously.

B. Meaning is even harder to discern, there is no foolproof “dictionary” of how to interpret nonverbal messages.

4. Nonverbal Communication Has Fewer Rules

A. One reason that nonverbal communication is more ambiguous than verbal communication is that it is governed by fewer rules—and most of those will be informal norms.

B. There is not a universal code used that could be considered as a “language of the body” with conventionalized meanings that equate to the components that constitute spoken language

5. Nonverbal Messages Communication Emotions and Meanings

A. Nonverbal communication include both intentional and unintentional messages.

B. Our reliance on nonverbal communication becomes even more intense when people display mixed messages or verbal and nonverbal behaviors that convey contradictory meanings.

C. We almost always trust the nonverbal message over the verbal one because it is seen as more honest and revealing.

D. Nonverbal behavior also communicates status and power.

6. Nonverbal Communication is Influenced by Culture

A. It takes most people many years of immersion within a culture before they can fully understand the subtle meanings encompassed within that culture’s nonverbal communication.

7. Nonverbal and Verbal Communication Work Together to Create Communication

A. As communicators, we do not experience or express them separately, but rather jointly to create meaning. We need both to communicate competently.

5.2: Types of Nonverbal Communication

1. Types of Nonverbal Behaviors

A. Every culture interprets posture, gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, vocal noises, use of space, degree of territory, and time differently.

B. Scholars call the different means used for transmitting information nonverbal communication codes.

2. Kinesics: means “movement,” and refers to the study of hand, arm, body, and face movements. It is thought by some to be the richest nonverbal code in terms of its power to communicate meaning

A. Gestures

1. One of the most common forms of gestures involve greetings and departures, which have rituals that are largely nonverbal, such as shaking hands or waving.

2. One of the richest arrays of gestures are for communicating insults and obscenities.

3. Beckoning gestures have traditionally been culture-specific. However, the forces of globalization and technology have exposed people worldwide to gestures used in popular media.

B. Facial Expressions

1. Facial expressions communicate an endless stream of emotions, and we make judgments about what others are feeling by assessing their faces.

2. What causes particular emotions and determines their intensity can be quite different personally and culturally.

a. Ekman and Friesen (1969) coined the term cultural display rules to describe such cultural differences in facial expressions.

b. Codes of general conduct, politeness, or social harmony may influence the public display of emotions.

C. Eye Contact

1. Eye contact, or Oculesics, serves many purposes. We use our eyes to express emotions, regulate a conversation, indicate listening behavior, show interest in others, respect, status, hostility, and aggression

D. Posture

1. Humans can stand up straight or slouch, lean forward or backward, round or slump our shoulders, and tilt our heads.

2. Posture communicates immediacy, the degree to which you find someone interesting and attractive, and power, the ability to influence people or events.

3. Vocalics

A. Vocalics, also called paralanguage, involves verbal and nonverbal aspects of speech that influence meaning, including rate, pitch, tone, volume, intensity, pausing, and even silence.

B. One of the roles vocalizations play is to function as a backchannel or filler in conversations, a way for a listener to send messages to the speaker

C. How conversations flow varies with culture and context. In situations in which a strict hierarchy is present or when the interaction is highly formal, there may be fixed patterns for managing a conversation and signaling when it is over.

4. Proxemics

A. Coming from the Latin proximus, meaning “near,” proxemics refers to communication through the use of physical distance or space.

B. Edward Hall (1966) pioneered the study of proxemics developing a four-level classification of social distance.

1. Intimate space, reserved for highly personal relationships, is 9 to 18 inches (23 to 45 cm).

2. Personal distance ("arm's length") is 1.5 to 4 feet (.5 to 1.2 m), the normal spacing for conversations.

3. Social distance he established at between 4 and 12 feet (1.2 to 3.6 m), the spacing normal in casual gathering and work environments.

4. Public distance he defined as being 12 feet (3.6 m) or longer, used for public speaking or large gatherings.

5. Haptics

A. Touch in communication interaction is called haptics.

B. Touch conventions vary significantly across cultures and are dependent as well on age, gender, and relationship.

C. Hall (1963) suggests that the use of proxemics and haptics merge within a culture to create what researchers now call contact and noncontact cultures.

1. In contact cultures, people stand closer together while talking, touch more frequently, and speak in louder voices.

2. In noncontact cultures, people stand farther apart while talking and touchless.

6. Physical Appearance and Artifacts

A. How you look conveys as much about you as what you say. Physical appearance includes attributes such as hair, clothing, body type, and personal grooming.

B. Across cultures, people credit individuals they find physically attractive with higher levels of intelligence, persuasiveness, poise, sociability, warmth, power, and employment success than they credit to unattractive individuals.

1. This tendency to make a blanket judgment of a person based on one trait the halo (positive) or horns (negative) effect.

C. Artifacts are the things we possess that influence how we see ourselves and that we use to express our identity to others.

D. Forms of dress serve as identity markers.

1. Many cultures have rules and conventions for dress and appearance, established through custom or religious beliefs.

2. Appearance messages are generally the first nonverbal codes we process, sizing up the other person based on skin color, appearance, and clothing.

3. Humans naturally tend to categorize, and that process includes grouping together other humans. We likely do that without being aware of this process of implicit bias.

7. Olfactics

A. The study of smell in humans.

B. Odor is used to categorize people according to status, power, or social class.

8. Music: Another Way to Communicate Nonverbally

A. Music is a "universal language" in that it is understood without the need for language.

B. Music plays many different roles in human society – entertaining, comforting, inspiring, socializing, and more.

C. Ethnomusicology is the study of music in cultural context.

1. It involves learning about and documenting the music, language, and cultural practices of underrepresented ethnic groups.

2. Globalization has resulted in the development of many hybridized musical forms.

3. Today, musical genres easily cross political and linguistic boundaries.

5.3: Time and Space

1. Chronemics

A. Time orientation, known as Chronemics, is the study of how we refer to and perceive time.

1. In monochronic time orientation, time is a commodity. Being punctual, completing tasks, and keeping schedules is valued, and may be more important than building or maintaining personal relationships.

2. In polychronic time orientation, however, schedules are less important, and punctuality is not considered an essential virtue.

B. Different perceptions of time can vary dramatically when it comes to arranging meetings.

2. Cultural Spaces

A. The environment involves the physical aspects of our surroundings.

B. The Impact of the Environment on Conversations

1. The nature of conversations is determined by the conversation partner, the purpose of the encounter, and the context in which it occurs.

2. Quiet, isolated environments are likely to lead to different conversation dynamics than a crowded, noisy environment.

a. Information rate is the amount of information contained or perceived per a certain unit of time; the more information available to process, the greater the information rate.

b. An environment with a high information rate is said to have a high load. Examples would be a busy airport or a popular restaurant at lunchtime.

c. Environments with a low load might be a library reading room or a Japanese garden.

3. Some cultures purposely create spaces with low information loads for particular purposes or cultural practices.

C. Built Environments and Communication Patterns

1. The design of built environments, such as private homes or office buildings also has a significant effect on communication.

a. Semi-fixed featured space allows rooms to have permeable divisions and perform multiple functions.

b. Fixed-featured space in which room divisions are permanent.

c. Informal space has no permanent divisions or walls.

3. Privacy Across Cultures

A. The degree to which people seek and value solitude vary across cultures, as does the means and mechanisms for being alone.

1. Solitude, in which one is free from observation by others.

2. Intimacy, or shared privacy.

3. Anonymity, going unnoticed by others, especially in a crowd.

4. Reserve, in which one uses psychological means to create imagined isolation.

B. Notions of privacy are related to the sense of private ownership, which can also differ markedly across cultures.

1. In the US, with a strong tradition of individualism and private ownership rights, mainstream cultural norms include sharp divisions between one's own possessions and those of others.

2. In other cultures, there are traditions of sharing and communal ownership.

C. There is clearly a connection between the spaces humans inhabit and the cultural practices which take place there.

D. Martin and Nakayama (2010) discuss the concept of "postmodern cultural spaces" in which city neighborhoods and boundaries in many places are becoming more flexible and fluid.

4. Car and Driving Behavior in a Cultural Context

A. When we talk about human living spaces today, one of those difficult to ignore is the automobile.

B. Anyone who has done much traveling outside one's home country has likely been struck by the difference in car cultures, driving behaviors, and traffic patterns.

C. It's not just how we drive that may be different, but as well what it is we use our cars for.

5.4: Nonverbal Communication Challenges

1. Nonverbal Expectancy Violation Theory

A. As in other areas tied to cultural values and behaviors, people develop an expectation of conformity with the conventions of the culture, in this case with the unwritten rules of nonverbal behavior.

B. According to this theory, people have expectations about the appropriateness of nonverbal behavior, which is learned and culturally driven.

C. When these expectations are violated, it produces a reaction called "arousal.”

1. Our reaction depends on the severity of the violation, the nature of the person (such as attractiveness), and the implicit message associated with the violation.

2. The context and the person will determine our reaction.

D. In general, it is good practice to anticipate nonverbal expectations to the degree possible. Even if we don't know the specifics of expectations in a given culture, we can certainly observe and learn.

2. Suggestions for Communicating Nonverbally Across Cultures

A. Be cautious in making assumptions based on nonverbal actions. The same gestures may have quite different meanings in different cultures.

B. Try to understand the cultural values attached to nonverbal conventions.

C. Watch and imitate as appropriate.