Power of Nonverbal Communication

Power of Nonverbal Communication

In class lecture we spent time speaking about nonverbal signals and all the different meanings that could be taken away just from simple things such as one’s tone of voice or facial expressions. Almost thirty years ago Daniel Goleman who was a writer for The New York Times talked about the same thing. An article that was published April of 1986 titled Studies Point to Power of Nonverbal Signals spoke about similar concepts that we covered in class.

Some of the nonverbal communications we recently covered in class involved: physical appearance, proxemics, kinesics, paralanguage, and also haptics. Each one of these topics in nonverbal communication can help one get a feel or understanding for someone they are talking to without even needing to worry about the words themselves. Obviously the first thing you notice is there physical appearance, their body type, ethnicity, or way they dress can tell you a lot about a person if it is your first time meeting them. If you are observing two people interacting you can also tell a lot by how close or far they are from one another, which is proxemics. If it is someone talking to their boss they most likely will not be super close or in their face where as if it is two friends, a first date, catching up with an old friend, or even a family member you may be closer in proximity. If you are having a conversation with someone you can read a lot into their kinesics, which is their body movement. You can almost instantly tell how someone feels about you on a first date by his or her facial expressions. His or her tone of voice is another clue at how someone feels about you on a first date. One of the last things is haptics and that has to do with touching and how people are touching if they are do touch. If all the above things are coming into play and two people were on a first date and getting along well you may see touching hands or guys touching the women’s knee or the women touching the guy’s arms.

Thirty years ago though, the studies being done on nonverbal signals were not just focused on reading people or first dates but how they can have different affects on everyday life. These nonverbal signals had large impacts on the relationships between judge and jury or physician and patient. When someone commits a crime and is being tried in court it is supposed to be by an unbiased jury of his or her peers. The judge is in charge of making sure that happens with out being bias. The problem that was appearing was that although the judges would not make any remarks that they were not allowed to make, but there tone of voice would give off clues on how they felt about the case. These unspoken cues were being picked up by the jury members and would typically then agree with how the judge felt. Over the past 30 years judges had to work on their demeanor and how they spoke to the jury in order to keep the courtroom an unbiased one. A similar study showed a relationship between physicians and patients, a lot of people tend to be uncomfortable at doctors offices and especially if it their first time at a new doctor. Doctors that showed a more relaxed body movement such as uncrossed arms and legs, nodding while talking, eye contact at times but not staring, and also leaning towards the patient made them feel more comfortable and also gave them more desire to communicate back with the doctors and be attentive.

The connection from thirty years ago to now show how much of an impact nonverbal communication could play in a number of scenarios of one’s life. Learning how to have good nonverbal communication can help you in many different ways like finding a job, starting a conversation, not giving off mixed signals, or even make you feel more comfortable in a situation. More importantly it can also help you read people better because everyone wishes they could read peoples mind and although that is impossible, being able to read nonverbal communications are probably the closest you will get to understanding how other people think and feel about you or others.