ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Effective Communication Skills: Nonverbal Communication

Updated on October 14, 2012

What Is Non Verbal Communication?

Non verbal communication is all the gestures and facial movements, conscious or unconscious, that a person uses. Raised eyebrows, eye shifts to one side or another, crossed arms, and head nodding are all examples of nonverbal communication.

Nonverbal communication is often an unconscious expression. Even when you understand body language and facial gestures, it is difficult to fake what you are really thinking and feeling.

You read other people's body language all the time, even if you are not aware of it. It's how you know when a person is saying one thing but meaning another altogether. It's how you can sit in a waiting room or airport or mall and get an idea for people's personalities based on how they dress, move, or how close they are to one another.


Body Language Expert Jan Hargrave

Body Language for a Job Interview

Importance of Nonverbal Communication

Have you ever had an occasion where sending a message by email, instant message or text message just didn't feel sufficient? This may be due to the inability of those media to relate the nuances of personal messages because they lack what non verbal communication adds to a conversation.

Using those media, the speaker is also unable to see the listener, meaning the speaker can't always tell how his message was received -- again because nonverbal communication factors are absent.

Chances are you've written at least one text message or post in social media that you meant as harmless humor, but because no one can read the inflection in your voice or see you facial expression, the message was received as snarky. This likely wouldn't have happened if you were talking to someone in person.

A telephone call is a little better. Both parties can hear vocal clues to both the messages and the receipt of those messages.

But it's hard to beat face-to-face or audio-video communication to get the complete communication experience. Language experts estimate that 65 to 90 percent of communication is via non verbal communication.

How Good Are You at Reading Body Language?

Types of Non Verbal Communication

There are six major elements that comprise the total of nonverbal communication: Voice, eye contact, facial expression, touch, gestures and space.

Voice The inflection of your voice, its tone, volume -- even how fast or slow you speak -- all factor into how your message is received.

Eye Contact Are you glaring at the other person, casting your eyes downward as you speak, or looking at the other person with interest as the two of you interact?

Facial Expression Remember the seven basic emotions understood through facial expressions -- and consider how many other emotions can be read in someone's face.

Touch Touch isn't always involved in conversations, but when it's present, you can tell a lot from the type of touch and its delivery. If a friend greets you warmly with what she says, but hugs you like you're a wet fish, it might give you reason to doubt her sincerity. And we've all shaken hands with someone with a limp grip and felt a bit disconcerted afterwards.

Gestures Do you talk with your hands? Point at someone across the aisle? Show size with two fingers? Some gestures are conscious efforts on our part and others happen unconsciously; they all add to the "flavor" of our messages.

Space You can tell a lot about the relationship between two people by the amount of space between them. Good friends are closer in proximity to each other than are adversaries or strangers who are talking. Be careful not to invade the other person's personal space when communicating or you may send the wrong message.

Dr. David Matsumoto

Universal Nonverbal Communication

David Matsumoto, Ph.D., who, among other things is a professor of psychology at San Francisco State University and director of Humintell, has performed extensive research to determine what nonverbal cues are recognized universally.

What he and other experts in the field of interpersonal communications have found is that there are seven basic emotions that are shown by facial expression that are recognized the world over: anger, joy, sadness, disgust, fear, contempt and surprise.*

Matsumoto suggests that all humans are born with the knowledge of how to express these basic emotions. He has studied people who have been blind from birth, unable to learn the facial expressions by visualizing them, and has noted the use of the same facial expressions of these emotions as sighted individuals.

Almost all other nonverbal communication is unique to each culture. Consider the hand shake, the Western world's universal sign of introduction and greeting. In some Eastern cultures, such a gesture might be considered offensive because a bow from the waist is used in greeting there.

*http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2011/05/facial-expressions.aspx

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)