Usage: Each of us gives and responds to literally thousands of
nonverbal messages daily in our personal and professional lives--and while
commuting back and forth between the two. From morning's kiss to
business suits and tense-mouth displays at the conference
table, we react to wordless messages emotionally, often without
knowing why. The boss's head-nod, the clerk's bow
tie, the next-door neighbor's hairstyle--we notice the minutia of nonverbal behavior
because their details reveal a. how we relate to one another, and
b. who we think we are.
Evolution. Anthropologist Gregory
Bateson has noted that our nonverbal communication is still evolving: "If . . .
verbal language were in any sense an evolutionary replacement of communication
by means of kinesics and paralanguage, we would expect the old, predominantly
iconic systems to have undergone conspicuous decay. Clearly they have not.
Rather, the kinesics of men have become richer and more complex, and
paralanguage has blossomed side by side with the evolution of verbal language"
(Bateson 1968:614).
FAQ: A frequently asked question is, "What
percent of our communication is nonverbal?" According to Kramer, "94% of our communication is
nonverbal, Jerry" (Seinfeld, January 29, 1998). Kramer's estimate (like
the statistics of anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell
[65%; Knapp 1972] and of psychologist Albert
Mehrabian [93%; 1971]) are hard to verify. But the proportion of our
emotional communication that is expressed apart from
words surely exceeds 99%. (See below, Media.)
Kinds of
cues. Body-language signals may be a. learned, b. innate, or
c. mixed. Eye-wink, thumbs-up, and military-salute gestures, for
instance, are clearly learned. Eye-blink, throat-clear, and facial-flushing cues, on the other hand, are clearly
inborn or innate. Laugh, cry, shoulder-shrug, and most other body-language signals are
"mixed," because they originate as innate actions, but cultural rules later
shape their timing, energy, and use. Body-language researchers do not always
agree on the nature-nurture issue, however. Like Darwin, human biologists
suppose that many body-motion signs are inborn. Like Birdwhistell, many cultural
anthropologists propose that most or even all gestures are learned, while others
combine the biological and cultural approaches. Research by psychologist Paul
Ekman and his colleagues has shown that the facial expressions of disgust, surprise, and other primary emotions are
universal across cultures.
Literature. "Life is made up of
sobs,
sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating." --O. Henry (Gift
of the Magi)
Media. "To study
language by listening only to utterances, say [University of Chicago professor
of psychology and linguistics, David] McNeill and those who subscribe to his
theories, is to miss as much as 75 percent of the meaning" (Mahany
1997:E-3).
Nature vs. nurture. Many biologists consider
nonverbal signals innate (i.e., unlearned; e.g., Darwin 1872). Cultural
anthropologists think many nonverbal signals are learned by
participation in a social group (e.g., La Barre 1947). Some anthropologists
picture nonverbal signs as being organized into grammatical structures,
like the words and phrases of speech (see Birdwhistell 1970, and Scheflen 1972,
e.g., whose purely linguistic approaches have proven largely unproductive).
Other anthropologists have combined nature and nurture approaches (e.g., Hall
1968). According to an erroneous view espoused by anthropologist Ashley Montagu,
"What is 'innate' in man is an unmatched capacity for learning, and except for
the instinct-like reactions to sudden withdrawal of support and to a sudden loud
noise, he has no instincts" (Montagu 1973:442; cf. such well-known reflexive
body movements as rhythmic searching, grasping, climbing,
and swimming [Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1970]).
Power of nonverbal
signs. "A convincing illustration of the power of nonverbal communication is
the unparalleled political popularity experienced by Ronald Reagan, who very
early in his presidency was dubbed the 'Great Communicator'" (Burgoon et al.
1989:4).
RESEARCH NOTE. The first scientific study of nonverbal communication was published in 1872 by Charles Darwin in his book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Since the mid-1800s thousands of research projects in archaeology, biology, cultural and physical anthropology, linguistics, primatology, psychology, psychiatry, and zoology have been completed, establishing a generally recognized corpus of nonverbal cues. Recent discoveries in neuroscience funded during the 1990-2000 "Decade of the Brain" have provided a clearer picture of what the unspoken signs in this corpus mean. Because we now know how the brain processes nonverbal cues, body language has come of age in the 21st Century as a science to help us understand what it means to be human.
RESEARCH REPORTS: 1. Psychiatrists have found that disturbances in nonverbal communication are "more severe and often longer lasting" than disturbances in verbal language (Ruesch 1966:209). 2. "We have defined over 80 [nonverbal] elements arising from the face and head and a further 55 produced by the body and limbs" (Brannigan and Humphries 1969:406). 3. In a study of language-disabled children, ". . . nonverbal performatives (e.g., pointing, showing, etc.) were not radically different from those of the normal subjects" (Snyder 1978:170). 4. Women are superior to men in decoding nonverbal cues (Rosenthal and DePaulo 1979).
Neuro-notes. Nonverbal messages are so potent and compelling because they are processed in ancient brain centers located beneath the newer areas used for speech (see VERBAL CENTER). From paleocircuits in the spinal cord, brain stem, basal ganglia, and limbic system, nonverbal cues are produced and received below the level of conscious awareness (see NONVERBAL BRAIN). They give our days the "look" and "feel" we remember long after words have died away.
Antonym: WORD. See also BODY
LANGUAGE.
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Copyright 1998 - 2010 (David B.
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Photo of New York governor, Eliot Spitzer and wife Silda at a press conference on March 10, 2008. Without acknowledging he had patronized a prostitute, Spitzer apologized for what he characterized as a "private matter." (On March 12, 2008, Spitzer resigned as governor; picture credit: unknown)