6.4: Nonverbal Communication

The Importance of Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication plays a significant role in our daily interactions with others. As you can see in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\), there is a lot of nonverbal expression on a baby’s face. How directly or indirectly we look at someone communicates a message. Speaking loudly or softly can change the meaning of a phrase. A touch may send a comforting message, make a connection with someone, or even serve as a display of power. Smells may remind us of a favorite holiday (such as the smell of vanilla) or encourage us to relax (such as the smell of lavender). Even taste might communicate a message. For example, a root beer float on a hot, sunny day could bring back good memories of childhood.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Facial expressions can communicate (Baby; Ryan Franco via Upsplash).

 

A search of TED Talks on the topic of nonverbal communication came up with a list of 11 videos. Here is one example:

The Power of Nonverbal Communication

Duration: 12:55

Video introduction: This TED Talk by former FBI agent Joe Navarro explores how nonverbal communication—such as posture, facial expressions, and gestures—shapes how we interpret messages, reminding us that communication involves far more than words alone.

 

So what is nonverbal communication? Why is it such a popular topic?

Defining Nonverbal Communication

According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology (n.d.), nonverbal communication is “the act of conveying information without the use of words. Nonverbal communication occurs through facial expressions, gestures, body language, tone of voice, and other physical indications of mood, attitude, approbation, and so forth, some of which may require knowledge of the culture or subculture to understand.” That definition covers a lot of factors!

Many scholars use the term nonverbal communication to designate those communication cues that express ideas and the meanings of our words (our “verbal communication”). Matsumoto et. al (2012) define “nonverbal communication as the transfer and exchange of messages in any and all modalities that do not involve words.” Hall and Knapp (2013) identify “all potentially informative behaviors that are not purely linguistic in content” as nonverbal cues.”

Here is an example for you to think about:

I see that you have a new backpack. I say “Wow, that’s a great backpack.” I could say this in a positive way with my facial expression and my voice. I could say the same words with a “skeptical” look on my face in a sarcastic tone of voice. I am using the same set of words, but, with a different nonverbal delivery of those words, I am sending you a different message.

For our purposes here, we will define nonverbal communication as everything that conveys meaning beyond the words themselves. Nonverbal communication includes the use of all five senses—seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling—in creating meaning by the speaker/writer and how that meaning is interpreted by the listener/reader.

Many of these nonverbal cues may be visible or auditory. According to Hall and Knapp (2013):

Visible nonverbal cues include facial expressions, head movements, posture, body and hand movements, self and other-touching, leg positions and movements, interpersonal gaze, directness of interpersonal orientation, interpersonal distance, and synchrony or mimicry between people. Auditory nonverbal cues include discrete nonlinguistic vocal sounds (e.g., sighs) as well as qualities of the voice such as pitch and pitch variation, loudness, speed and speed variation, and tonal qualities. This list does not exhaust the many kinds of nonverbal communication that are present in the human behavioral repertoire.

As stated earlier, even how we say words—vocally or in print—communicate nonverbal messages. For example, we could say something in a way that shows respect, or we could say the same thing in a disconfirming or even angry tone of voice. We could also do this in print by the USE OF CAPITALS, which suggest that we are shouting at you. We will talk more about this later on in the chapter.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Emojis represent computer-mediated communication (Emoji thinking; Markus Winkler via Upsplash).

Imagine the emoji “thinking” which is depicted by a hand placed on the chin while the eyebrows are pointing down. We can look at this image and interpret those nonverbal cues as communicating that little yellow face as “deep in thought.” So much of our communication is now “computer-mediated communication.” We are all familiar with the use of :-) (smiley face) and the :-( (unhappy face). According to the definition in Encyclopedia Britannica (2022), an emoticon "is meant to represent a facial expression in order to communicate the emotional state of the author…. The word emoticon comes from a combination of the words emotion and icon." 

Application: Emojis and Emoticons

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): During the COVID pandemic emoji's wore face masks (Coronavirus has no race; visuals via Upsplash).

Review emojis provided. During the pandemic, we wore a face mask, which had an impact on our nonverbal communication. Even emojis joined in on this trend.

• What do the emojis wearing face masks in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\) represent to you?
• What do they communicate?
• How does this affect nonverbal communication of emotion?

Reflect

• Are emoticons and emojis nonverbal communication, verbal communication, or both?
• Are emojis almost a “universal language” that transcends verbal languages because of their common nonverbal meanings?
• What cultural differences are there in the use of these images? What do you think?

Functions of Nonverbal Communication

We engage in nonverbal communication throughout the entire day. It is part of everything we do and say. It’s important for us to understand how nonverbal communication affects our behavior, perception, interpretations, and understanding. In this section, we will take a look at some of the roles and functions of nonverbal communication in our daily lives.

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Nonverbal communication has many functions (Two women talking; [e-mail] via Upsplash).

Persistence of Nonverbal Communication

“You cannot not communicate.” Have you ever heard that expression? Nonverbal communication is always present. We are constantly communicating through our nonverbal communication. Even silence is a form of communication. Have you ever given someone the “silent treatment?” If so, you understand that by remaining silent, you are trying to convey some meaning, such as “You hurt me” or “I’m really upset with you.” When sitting alone in the library, working, your posture may be communicating something to others. If you need to focus and don’t want to invite communication, you may keep your head down and avoid eye contact.

We assign meanings to people’s nonverbal behaviors to interpret what they are really saying. For example, if you are having a conversation with your friend who just broke up with their significant other, your friend’s facial expression, way of standing, rate of speech, tone of voice, and general appearance will indicate to you how you should respond. If they are sobbing, you might try to comfort them. If, on the other hand, they smile and sound happy, you might respond by saying, “You seem relieved. Were things not going well?”

The successful use of nonverbal communication requires an awareness of the value of nonverbal communication and the belief that it is valuable. When you were a child, did an adult ever say to you something like “It wasn’t what you said, it was how you said it”? Or perhaps you tried to cover up having a bad day by saying “I had a terrific day at work,” but your roommate countered with “You said one thing with your words, but your facial expression and tone of voice tell me something different”?

Nonverbal Communication in Initiating Relationships

Nonverbal communication is often the very first way in which we initiate communication. We may make eye contact or connect through touch, scent, hand gestures, physical appearance, and other nonverbal cues. We often use nonverbal communication to relay to others an interest in continuing a conversation or leaving a conversation. For example, you may run into a colleague and strike up a conversation in the hall. The conversation is enjoyable. Your colleague may recognize that they need to get to a meeting and relates this information to you by looking at their watch, beginning to back away, or looking at the door they need to enter. We use nonverbal behaviors to begin, continue, and end our interpersonal interactions.

Nonverbal Communication and “Mixed Messages”

A particularly challenging aspect of nonverbal communication is the fact that it is ambiguous. In the 1970s, nonverbal communication as a topic was trendy. Some were under the impression that we could use nonverbal communication to “read others like a book.” For example, people claimed that crossed arms signaled to others that a person was closed off. It would be wonderful if crossing one’s arms signaled only one meaning, but think about the many meanings of crossing one’s arms. An individual may have crossed arms because the individual is cold, upset, sad, or angry. It is impossible to know unless a conversation is paired with nonverbal behavior.

Another great example of ambiguous nonverbal behavior is flirting! Consider some very stereotypical behavior of flirting (e.g., smiling, laughing, a light touch on the arm, or prolonged eye contact). Each of these behaviors signals interest to others. The question is whether an individual engaging in these behaviors is indicating romantic interest or a desire for platonic friendship. Have you ever walked away from a situation and explained a person’s behavior to another friend to determine whether you were being flirted with? If so, you have undoubtedly experienced the ambiguity of nonverbal communication. It is important to take time to observe before jumping to conclusions. We need to “tolerate ambiguity” and reflect on possible differences in our nonverbal communication due to culture. This idea leads us into our next key role of nonverbal communication, which is how nonverbal communication is influenced by culture.

Nonverbal Communication and Culture

Just as we have discussed that it is beneficial to recognize the value of nonverbal communication, we must also acknowledge that nonverbal communication is culturally based. Raymond Birdwhistell, an American anthropologist who is recognized for his study of kinesics, shared the following observation in his book Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body Motion Communication (1970):

A body can be bowed in grief, in humility, in laughter, or in readiness for aggression. A "smile" in one society portrays friendliness, in another embarrassment, and, in still another may contain a warning that, unless tension is reduced, hostility and attack will follow.

Successful interactions with individuals from other cultures are partially based on the ability to adapt to or understand the nonverbal behaviors associated with different cultures. There are two aspects to understanding that nonverbal communication is culturally based. The first aspect is recognizing that even if we do not know the appropriate nonverbal communication with someone from another culture, then we must at least acknowledge that we need to be flexible, not react immediately, and ask questions. The second aspect is recognizing that there are specific aspects of nonverbal communication that differ depending on the culture. When entering a new culture, we must learn the rules of the culture.

One of our authors shares this example:

I remember watching an American student at a gathering who, to some of my fellow instructors and me, was engaging in obvious flirting behavior with a student from Thailand. When I was driving some of my students back to the residence hall, I asked my student from Thailand how she felt because of all of the flirting behavior that she had received. She said that she had no idea that the American student had been flirting with her.

As you can see, culture certainly does play a critical role in the use and interpretation of nonverbal communication!

Nonverbal Communication and Trust

Communication scholars agree that the majority of meaning in any interaction is attributable to nonverbal communication. It isn’t necessarily true, but we are taught from a very early age that lack of eye contact is indicative of lying. We have learned through research that this “myth” is not necessarily true, although this myth does tell a story about how our culture views nonverbal communication. That view is simply that nonverbal communication is important and that it has meaning.

Another example of nonverbal communication being trusted may be related to a scenario many have experienced. You may have been asked to say, “I’m sorry” to someone. Someone might not have believed your sincerity and told you that “it wasn’t what you said, it was how you said it.”

So now that we have discussed the role and general characteristics of nonverbal communication, let’s jump into a discussion of the six functions on nonverbal communication in our everyday lives.

Seven Types of Nonverbal Communication

Have you ever seen a mime perform? They never speak one single word yet you are able to understand what they say. That is because they use general nonverbal codes that we all can interpret. For example, Marcel Marceau was a very famous French actor and mime. He referred to mime as the "art of silence."

One reason that nonverbal communication is so rich with information is that humans use so many different aspects of behavior, appearance, and environment to convey meaning. These types of nonverbal communication can vary considerably across cultures. Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) identifies the seven types of nonverbal communication that we will examine in this section:

1. Kinesics
2. Vocalics
3. Haptics
4. Proxemics
5. Artifacts and Environment
6. Olfactics
7. Chronemics

Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Types of nonverbal communication. (The Channels of Nonverbal Communication by Armeda Reitzel, Kim Yee, & Rebeca Moran, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0). Detailed Description of Image.

As you read through this section, remember that the cultural patterns embedded in nonverbal codes should be used not as stereotypes for all members of particular cultures, but rather as tentative guidelines or examples to help you understand the great variation of nonverbal behavior in humans. Culture influences what nonverbal behaviors mean and how these meanings are displayed.

Kinesics

Kinesics refers to the study of hand, arm, body, and face movements. We will look specifically at three different types of kinesics: facial expressions, eye behavior (oculesics) and gestures.

Facial Expressions

You may have heard the expression “a smile is worth a thousand words.” We have been smiling most of our lives, ever since the fourth week of life. These spontaneous smiles turn into smiles of genuine enjoyment known as Duchenne smiles. What is a Duchenne smile? According to the Paul Eckmann Group (2022):

FACS [Facial Action Coding System] research has shown that in a true enjoyment smile, the skin above and below the eye is pulled in towards the eyeball, and this makes for the following changes in appearance: the cheeks are pulled up; the skin below the eye may bag or bulge; the lower eyelid moves up; crows feet wrinkles may appear at the outer corner of the eye socket; the skin above the eye is pulled slightly down and inwards; and the eyebrows move down very slightly. A non-enjoyment smile, in contrast, features the same movement of the lip corners as the enjoyment smile but does not involve the changes due to the muscles around the eyes.

One of the first foundational studies of culture and emotion was conducted by Paul Ekman and Wallace Freisen in the 1970s. The research conducted across the world led to the development of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) that we mentioned earlier. FACS analyzed specific facial muscle movement associated with specific emotions (Tsai, 2021). Across cultures, individuals were able to correlate facial movements to specific emotions, leading to the development of what is now known as the seven “universal” facial expressions. These seven facial expressions include happiness, surprise, contempt, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger. Examples are depicted in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\). You might consider the acronym SADFISH as a way to remember these seven universal facial expressions.

Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): The Seven Universal Facial Expression of Emotion (The Channels of Nonverbal Communication by Armeda Reitzel, Kim Yee, & Rebeca Moran, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0).

While these universal facial expressions were recognized across cultural groups, research also showed that there were distinct differences in how each culture interprets and displays these emotions (Tsai, 2021). These became known as cultural display rules. Cultural display rules are intrinsically held within a culture's norms and standards of behaviors. They help to govern the types and frequencies of acceptable emotions (Spielman, et al., 2014). Different cultures have different structures of behavior and, therefore, different rules regarding how they display their emotions.

Research has shown that collectivistic cultures, where social harmony is emphasized, are less likely to showcase negative emotions, such as disgust or anger, in social settings. Individualistic cultures, where personal self-concept is emphasized, are more likely to showcase emotions of anger or disgust no matter the social context (Dzokoto et al., 2018). Research suggests that people from individualistic cultures, like the United States, use exaggerated facial expressions to showcase emotion as a way to influence others and gain attention from those around them (which is accepted within an individualistic culture). This is opposed to the actions of people from collectivistic cultures, such as Japan, where the tendency is to suppress or not show their emotional expressions as a way to observe the social context and interaction between interpersonal relationships. Because collectivistic cultures put primary concern on the interdependence of the cultural group, emotional displays are direct reflections of the family system, and the primary driver is to maintain relationships (Anonymous, 2022).

Understanding emotions in the context of culture is important to making sure we are aware of the ways that differences in communicating emotions may occur. The perception of emotional display rules differs between cultures, where different rules and norms are established and subconsciously understood amongst members. While these elements are rarely spoken about explicitly between cultural group members, they impact the way we interpret and communicate emotions in our relationships. Knowing the ways in which a person may express or not express an emotion will allow us to better regulate our own emotional reaction as well.

We rely on reading facial expressions so much in our interpersonal interactions. This was quite a challenge when we needed to wear face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 50% of our face was covered with some sort of cloth or covering. This often created some ambiguity when it came to deciphering what a person might be saying. In addition, Deaf individuals were not able to see the movement of the lips, face, or tongue to engage in lip reading when their conversation partner’s nose and mouth were covered. Some people, such as the person in Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\), started wearing masks with a clear mouth window so that at least their mouth could be seen.

Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\): Showing a smile under a COVID-19 face mask (The Channels of Nonverbal Communication by Armeda Reitzel, Kim Yee, & Rebeca Moran, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0).

Oculesics

The study of eye contact is known as oculesics. Eye contact provides indications of social and emotional information. People, perhaps without consciously doing so, probe each other’s eyes and faces for signs of positive or negative mood. Eye contact can establish a sense of intimacy between two individuals, such as the gazes of lovers or the eye contact involved in flirting. Alternatively, avoiding eye contact can establish distance between people. When in crowds, people tend to avoid eye contact in order to maintain privacy. The customs involving eye contact vary widely between cultures. Muslims are taught to lower their gazes and try not to focus on the features of the opposite sex, except for the hands and face. Japanese children are taught to direct their gaze at the region of their teacher’s Adam’s apple or tie knot. As adults, Japanese tend to lower their eyes when speaking to a superior as a gesture of respect. In Eastern Africa, it is respectful not to look the dominant person in the eye, whereas such avoidance of eye contact is negatively interpreted in Western cultures. It is important to keep in mind that eye contact is culturally determined (LibreTexts, 2021).

Gestures

Gestures are movements of the body that carry meaning. Gestures may be categorized as emblems, illustrators, affect displays, or regulators.

Emblems

Emblems are gestures that correspond to a word and an agreed-on meaning. Many gestures are emblems that have a verbal equivalent in a culture. Since emblems are culturally determined, you might run into instances of ambiguity or miscommunication. For example, in the United States the “everything is OK or good” is represented by the index finger touching the thumb so that a “ring” is made. When we teach classes to international students, we avoid using this nonverbal gesture because it could mean very different things in different cultures, from “money” in Japanese culture to offensive meanings in other cultures.

Illustrators

While emblems can be used as direct substitutions for words, illustrators help emphasize or explain an idea. Think about a person who went fishing and then shows how big that fish that they caught was by extending their arms to show its size.

Affect Displays

Affect displays show feelings and emotions. Consider how music and sports fans show enthusiasm. It is not uncommon to see people jumping up and down at sports events during a particularly exciting moment in a game. However, there are different norms depending on the sport. It would be inappropriate to demonstrate the same nonverbal gestures at a golf or tennis game as a football game.

Regulators

Gestures that help coordinate the flow of conversation, such as when you shrug your shoulders or wink, are called regulators. Raising your hand during class indicates that you want to say something. Even the Zoom videoconferencing platform uses a “raise hand” icon to help regulate communication during a session. Regulators often include head nods, eye contact or aversion and changes in posture. They are considered to be turn-taking cues in conversation. Individuals may sit back when listening but shift forward to indicate a desire to speak. Eye contact shifts frequently during a conversation to indicate listening or a desire to speak. Head nods are used as a sign of listening and often indicate that the speaker should continue speaking.

Vocalics

Vocalics focuses not on the words that we choose, but the manner in which we say the words using our vocal cords. It includes the study of paralanguage, which is the set of physical mechanisms that we use to produce sounds orally. These mechanisms involve the throat, nasal cavities, tongue, lips, mouth, and jaw. The specific aspects of vocalics that we will focus on are pitch, pace, disfluencies, and volume.

Pitch

Pitch is how harmonically high or low you say something. The rate at which your vocal folds vibrate in your throat are responsible for the pitch of your voice. Low-frequency vibrations make for a lower-pitched sound, while higher frequency vibrations make for a higher-pitched sound. If you end the sentence on a high note (known as “uptalk”), you might be perceived as sounding uncertain about the claim (Linneman, 2013). If you end it on a low pitch, it might sound like you are stating a fact confidently.

Pace

Pace refers to how quickly you utter your words. Often, beginning public speakers will talk fast out of nervousness or too much excitement. Their area of improvement then is learning to slow down to allow the audience to “digest” the words. In high-energy humorous speeches, the speaker might talk faster, whereas in more serious dramatic speeches, the speaker would slow down to build the drama.

The use of pauses is a natural aspect of pacing. There are two types of pauses: grammatical and non-grammatical. Grammatical pauses are used to highlight something in a sentence or to build suspense. An example would be a host saying, “And the winner is ... Corey,” where the ellipsis (...) is a pause to build suspense. Non-grammatical pauses are not planned and may occur when a speaker loses their train of thought or is self-correcting.

Disfluencies

Both grammatical and non-grammatical pauses can either be filled or unfilled. Unfilled pauses have no sounds associated with them; they are pure silence. Filled pauses have some kind of noise associated with them, typically “uhh” and “umm.” The use of these non-grammatical sounds as pauses are known as disfluencies. Disfluencies can also include the repetitive use of a word during a pause, such as “like,” “so,” or “and.”

Volume

Volume refers to the loudness (prosody) of the language being spoken. You might have a friend who is a “loud talker” and can be heard from far distances having conversations with someone within social distance. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you may have a friend who is a “soft talker” who may be hard to hear in loud settings. In any case, we may have expectations for volume in certain settings. At a football game, loudness is encouraged by fellow fans. In a fine-dining romantic restaurant, soft-talking is expected by fellow patrons.

Haptics

Haptics is the study of communication by touch. Touch may indicate liking, attraction, or dominance. It is a form of communication that can be used to initiate, regulate, and maintain relationships. It is a very powerful form of communication that can be used to communicate messages ranging from comfort to power. Duration, frequency, and intensity of touch can be used to convey liking, attraction, or dominance. Duration refers to the length of time of a touch. Frequency is how often touch is used. Intensity is the amount of pressure that is applied. Touch is a powerful interpersonal tool along with voice and body movement.

Proxemics

The study of proxemics, which is the study of communication through space, was strongly influenced by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall back in the 1968. He categorized space into four “distances” based on observations of the use of space in cultures, such as the United States.

1. Intimate space: The intimate zone is typically reserved for only the closest friends, family, and romantic/intimate partners. It involves any communication that is 18 inches or less from a person’s body. It is impossible to completely ignore people when they are in this space, even if we are trying to pretend that we’re ignoring them. While some people are comfortable engaging in or watching others engage in PDAs (public displays of affection) others are not.
2. Personal space: The personal zone is typically reserved for friends, close acquaintances, and significant others. Much of our communication occurs in the personal zone, which is what we typically think of as our “personal space bubble” and extends from 18 inches to 4 feet away from our body.
3. Social distance: Communication that occurs in the social zone, which is 4 to 12 feet away from our body, is typically in the context of a professional or casual interaction. This distance is preferred in many professional settings because it reduces the suspicion of any impropriety. The expression “keep someone at an arm’s length” means that someone is kept out of the personal space and kept in the social/professional space. If two people held up their arms and stood so that just the tips of their fingers were touching, they would be around 4 feet away from each other, which is perceived as a safe distance. Students in large lecture classes should consider sitting within the social zone of the professor, since students who sit within this zone are more likely to be remembered by the professor, be acknowledged in class, and retain more information because they are close enough to take in important nonverbal and visual cues.
4. Public distance: Public space starts about 12 feet from a person and extends out from there. This is the least personal of the four zones. It is typically used when a person is engaging in a formal speech. It would be difficult to have a deep conversation with someone at this level because you have to speak louder and don’t have the physical closeness that is often needed to promote emotional closeness and/or establish rapport.

Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\): Hall’s Zones of Interpersonal Distance (The Channels of Nonverbal Communication by Armeda Reitzel, Kim Yee, & Rebeca Moran, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0). Detailed Description of Image.

You might be questioning Hall’s “social” zone of distance, because a new phrase entered our everyday vocabulary in 2020: social distancing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing became a that concept we saw and talked about. That term has been replaced with the phrase physical distancing. 

What is physical distancing? “Physical distancing is the practice of staying at least 6 feet away from others to avoid catching a disease such as COVID-19” (Maragakis, 2020). Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\) displays the outline of two shoe prints along with the verbal explanation to “Please help by keeping a safe distance of 6 feet. Thank you for social distancing.”

Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\): Physical distancing is the practice of staying away from others to avoid catching a disease (Thank you for social distancing; Elizabeth McDaniel via Upsplash). Detailed Description of Image.

Artifacts and Environment

Artifacts are items with which we adorn our bodies or that we carry with us. Artifacts include glasses, jewelry, canes, shoes, clothing, or any object associated with our body that communicates meaning. That includes tattoos and piercings!

Tattoos have become mainstream among young people in the United States and elsewhere. Now there are policies for each branch of the military as to what and where tattoos are permitted (DePastino, 2021). Even Disney has updated its policy, according to Josh D'Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products:

Our new approach provides greater flexibility with respect to forms of personal expression surrounding gender-inclusive hairstyles, jewelry, nail styles, and costume choices; and allowing appropriate visible tattoos. We’re updating them to not only remain relevant in today’s workplace, but also enable our cast members to better express their cultures and individuality at work. (D’Amaro, 2021)

Keep in mind that tattoos in different cultures, communities, and countries may still have a negative connotation. What do the tattoos in Figure \(\PageIndex{10}\) communicate to you nonverbally?

Figure \(\PageIndex{10}\): Tattoos can communicate (Woman with Tattoo; Annie Spratt on Upsplash)

Clothing stimulates meaning. For example, my father always asked me, “How do you know if someone is a priest, painter, judge, police officer, or doctor?” It is because they have a uniform that represents that profession. Dress and physical appearance can be important identifiers for membership in particular groups. Differences in power and status may be seen in the size and location of an office. Even the presence or absence of a window might influence perceptions. Think about your reactions to someone with a spacious office with expensive-looking furniture and wall-hangings and a huge window overlooking a great view versus someone in a tiny, cramped cubicle with cheap particle-board furniture and no windows. Even classrooms are designed in different ways that may encourage group interactions or keep the students’ focus on the front of the room and the instructor.

Olfactics

The sense of smell communicates messages. The term olfactics refers to the influence of scent on perceptions. Does the smell of gingerbread bring back fond, positive memories of holidays when the kitchen was full of those delicious cookies that you used to make (and eat!) when you visited your grandparents? Have you ever purchased a candle or a particular type of bubble bath because of its scent, which perhaps reminded you of something positive?

Scent can draw others in or repel them, and the same scent can have different affects on different people. The United States places a lot of emphasis on smell. Consider the impact of failing to manage one’s natural scent in the workplace. Countless articles in the popular media address how to deal with a “smelly coworker.” Thus, it is crucial to be aware of one’s scent, including the ones we wear in an effort not to offend those around us. Although smelling “bad” may end a relationship or at least create distance, an attractive scent may help individuals begin a new relationship. Have you ever purchased a new scent before a first date? If so, you are aware of the power of scent to attract a mate.

Although we regularly try to cover our scent, we also attempt to control the scent of our environments. The air freshener market in 2016 was valued at $1.62 billion US dollars. Go to your local grocery store and investigate the number of products available to enhance environmental scents. Be prepared to spend a significant amount of time taking in the many products to keep our environments “fresh.” Remember that what is considered “pleasant” or “smelly” is culturally based.

Chronemics

Chronemics refers to the study of how time affects communication. Time can be classified into several different categories, including biological, personal, and cultural time (Andersen, 1999).

Biological Time

The rhythms of living things are referred to as biological time. When our natural rhythms are disturbed, by all-nighters or jet lag, our physical and mental health and our communication competence and personal relationships can suffer. Keep biological time in mind as you communicate with others. Early morning conversations and speeches may require more preparation to get yourself awake enough to communicate well. A more energetic delivery may be needed to accommodate others who may still be getting warmed up for their day.

Personal Time

The way we experience time is referred to as personal time. This varies based on our mood, interest level, and other factors. Think about how quickly time passes when you are engaged in something that really interests you. People with past-time orientations may want to reminisce about the past, reunite with old friends, and put considerable time into preserving memories in scrapbooks, photo albums and on Instagram. People with future-time orientations may spend their time making career and personal plans, writing to-do lists, researching future vacation spots or deciding what program they’re going to binge-watch next month.

Cultural Time

How a large group of people view time is called cultural time. There are cultures that tend to value polychronic time. There are other cultures that operate on monochronic time. The term polychronic contains the idea of “many” (poly) and refers to the idea of many things happening in a fluid, flexible fashion. Polychronic people tend to engage in multiple activities at the same time and do not create specific time frames to work on particular tasks. We might view such people as “simultaneous multitaskers” who juggle multiple activities and people at the same time. Time is not seen as linear, and schedules may be regarded as only suggestions. For example, polychronic people tend to “go with the flow.” They would never think of telling someone when a party is scheduled to end. Why? They would say that it is because a party ends when it is over.

Monochronic people tend to schedule their time more rigidly and focus on one task at a time. They make schedules and stick to them as much as possible. Events begin at a specific time and they end at a specific time. An invitation to a party hosted by a monochronic person might even announce an ending time as well as a start time for the festivities. A monochronic person might interpret the behavior of a polychronic person as rude or uncaring because they did not bother to show up on time. A polychronic person may perceive a monochronic person as uptight or harsh because they seem to care more about time than about people. As you can see, our concepts about time influences our social realities and how we perceive and interact with others.

Our status may influence the way that we view and use time. For example, doctors can make their patients wait, and executives and celebrities may run consistently behind schedule, making others wait for them. Promptness and the amount of time that is socially acceptable for lateness and waiting varies among individuals and contexts. One of the authors is an English as a second language teacher-trainer who has traveled all over the globe, and can share the following: "The sense of time definitely differs from culture to culture. I learned to be flexible about the start time for my workshop sessions in Nicaragua. When I was in Germany, a train conductor apologized to the whole trainload of passengers for arriving one minute late to a stop."