Non-Verbal Communication
All of us communicate non-verbally as well as verbally. If irritated, we may tense our bodies, press
our lips together, and gesture with our eyebrows. With a gaze, a glance or
stare we can communicate intimacy, submission, or dominance.
Most of us are good at"reading" non-verbal cues to
understand the emotions in an old silent film. We are especially good at
detecting non verbal threats. In a crowd of faces, a single angry face will
"pop out" faster than a single happy one. Some of us are more sensitive to these cues
than others.
Robert Rosenthal and
colleagues discovered this by showing hundreds of people brief film clips of
portions of a person's emotionally expressive face or body, sometimes with a
garbled voice added. For example, after
a two second scene revealing only the face of an upset woman, the researchers
would ask whether the woman was expressing anger or discussing a divorce. Rosenthal and company reported that some
people are much better emotion detectors' than others, and that women were
better at it than men.
The growing awareness
that we communicate through the body's silent language has led to studies of
how job applicants and interviewers communicate (or miscommunicate ).There has
also been a spate of guide books on how to interpret non-verbal signals. Whether negotiating a business deal or
selling a product, it pays to be able to "read" feelings Fidgeting
for example, may reveal anxiety or boredom.
Different expressions may convey the same emotions: either a cold stare or the avoidance of eye
contact may signify hostility. A given
expression can also convey very different emotions: folded arms, for example, can signify
irritation or relaxation
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