Articles > Non-verbal Communication
Non-verbal Communication
by Peter Bull
Interpersonal Relationships
Nonverbal cues have always been regarded as central to interpersonal relationships. Indeed people often define intimacy in terms of nonverbal behaviour. In one study, a participant wrote, a touch of the hand ... the meeting of our eyes, a kiss, conveyed our intimacy better than a thousand words.
Nonverbal cues are important not only within a relationship. They also provide important signals to outside observers about the relationships of others. In one experiment, observers judged interpersonal rapport between pairs of students using different types of evidence - transcripts of what was said, audio only, video only, video plus transcript and video with audio. The observers' judgements were compared with the students' own ratings of their rapport. The observers were most accurate using video only. Thus, non-verbal cues appear to be more important than speech in judgements of rapport.
Observers can also guess the identity of an unseen conversational partner from the nonverbal behaviour of one participant alone. Even very young children can accurately identify whether their mother is conversing with a friend or a stranger. Adult observers can identify not only whether the unseen conversational partner is a friend but also their gender and whether he or she is of the same age as the visible conversationalist.
A series of studies has been conducted on nonverbal communication in marriage. Facial expressions of contempt and disgust indicate trouble for the relationships. Indeed, a husband's facial expressions of contempt are a powerful predictor of physical illness in the wife four years later. A wife's facial expressions of disgust are highly correlated with the number of months the couple will be separated in the next four years. The break-up of marriage has been likened to a cascade in which complaining and criticising lead to contempt which in turn leads to defensiveness, which eventually leads to withdrawal from the relationship.
Speech and Nonverbal Behaviour
Nonverbal communication has sometimes been regarded as a kind of language of emotion and interpersonal relationships. But nonverbal behaviour is also closely related to speech. Speakers move their bodies in time with speech. This includes not only hand gestures but also all parts of the body. Spoken languages have patterns. For example, spoken English is produced in groups of words, typically averaging five in length. In each group there is one primary vocal stress, conveyed principally through changes in pitch but also through volume or rhythm. In one study, it was found that 90% of these primary stresses were accompanied by synchronised body movement.
These synchronised body movements may have a variety of meanings. Head movements can signal a great deal more than yes or no. Vigorous headshakes may accompany emphatic words such as a lot, great or really. A wide sweep of the head may be used to indicate inclusiveness with words such as everyone or everything. When someone starts to quote directly from someone else, a shift in head orientation may precede or directly accompany the quotation. Such nonverbal behaviour can be seen as integral to the message. Indeed, the words and gestures work together to create the meaning.
Thus, body movement is arguably as fundamental as speech for the representation of meaning. The use of hand gesture has shown to develop together with speech in children and to dissolve together with speech in aphasia (a disorder that causes loss of speech.) Body movement may be seen not just as an alternative to speech but as part of a multi-channel system of communication, giving the skilled speaker further options through which to convey meaning.
Advantages of Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal communication is more suitable than words for some communication tasks. It is often quicker and easier to point to an object than to describe it. Because body movement is visual, it is also a silent means of communication and may be used when it is difficult to use speech. For example, gesture may be used by people, who are not actually talking, to comment on what is being said without breaking the flow of the speaker. Body movement can be used without the mutual obligation or ritual conduct that seems to be required by conversation. It may sometimes be used as a substitute for speech where actually to formulate the words might be regarded as too explicit or indelicate.
Not only is body movement a visual form of communication, it can be highly visible. One study of a party showed how people used hand gesture as an initial salutation to capture another's attention before entering into conversation. Another study showed how patients used flamboyant gestures to attract the doctor's attention away from his medical notes. In this context, gesture has the additional advantage of indirectness as well as visibility. A direct request for attention might be seen as a challenge to the doctor's authority.
Applications
Research into nonverbal communication has considerable practical significance. Social behaviour is a skill and as such it can be taught and learned. Communications skills training is used for employment interviewing, psychiatric therapy, intercultural communication, and occupational training for teachers, doctors, nurses and the police. There are now tests specifically intended to make objective assessments of social perception and which can be used to train people in greater nonverbal perceptiveness. Nonverbal communication research can be considered part of a wider movement - one in which communication becomes the object of study in its own right. Its fine details are now no longer necessarily regarded as trivial, irrelevant or unimportant, while terms like body language and communication skills have also passed into everyday language.
This article is an abbreviated version of the original which appeared in The Psychologist Vol. 14, No 12, December 2001. It is published here with the permission of the author and of the journal. A much fuller discussion of nonverbal communication is to be found in a book by Peter Bull entitled Communication under the Microscope: The Theory and Practice of Microanalysis (London: Psychology Press, 2002). This is part of a wider discussion of detailed (micro) approaches to the analysis of communication.
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