Non-verbal Communication

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The use of body language, gestures, facial expressions, and tone to convey meaning and emotion.

Body language: The physical movements and gestures that people use to express themselves.
Facial expressions: The various expressions that people make with their faces to convey emotions or thoughts.
Eye contact: The level of eye contact that people make with one another, which can indicate interest or disinterest in a conversation.
Tone of voice: The way that people use their voice and the intonation they use to convey meaning.
Posture: The way that people hold their bodies, which can indicate confidence or insecurity.
Proximity: The distance that people maintain between themselves and others, which can indicate intimacy or distance.
Touch: The physical touch that people give and receive, which can indicate closeness or discomfort.
Appearance: The way that people dress and groom themselves, which can convey social status or identity.
Cultural differences: The ways in which different cultures use non-verbal communication to convey meaning.
Gender differences: The ways in which men and women use non-verbal communication differently.
Facial expressions: Facial expressions include different emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, etc., conveyed through facial muscle movements.
Body posture: Body posture refers to the way a person carries themselves, which shows their level of attentiveness, confidence, and interest in the interaction.
Gestures: Gestures refer to physical gestures such as waving, pointing, or making hand signals, which convey specific meaning and emotions.
Eye contact: Eye contact can show interest or disinterest in the conversation, and it can indicate the level of attention and the speaker's trustworthiness.
Touch: Touch refers to the use of nonverbal communication to convey emotions or feelings through physical touch like patting, hugging, or shaking hands.
Tone of voice: Tone of voice communicates emotions and feelings, conveying clues as to whether the speaker is happy, sad, angry, or neutral.
Proximity and personal space: Proximity and personal space show the comfort level within the interaction or the relationship between the speaker and the listener.
Appearance: Appearance reflects an individual's style, social class, and even emotional state, revealing aspects of their personality, beliefs, and overall image.
Time: Timekeeping, punctuality, waiting, and lateness can communicate a lot about a person.
Silence: Silence is essential in communication, and it can communicate information about the person's thoughts, feelings, or emotions while also indicating the level of closeness or distance between the speaker and the listener.
Quote: "Nonverbal communication (NVC) is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture, use of objects and body language."
Quote: "It includes the use of social cues, kinesics, distance (proxemics) and physical environments/appearance, of voice (paralanguage) and of touch (haptics)."
Quote: "A signal has three different parts to it, including the basic signal, what the signal is trying to convey, and how it is interpreted."
Quote: "These signals that are transmitted to the receiver depend highly on the knowledge and empathy that this individual has."
Quote: "The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin."
Quote: "Darwin began to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals such as lions, tigers, dogs etc. and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions."
Quote: "Today, scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication."
Quote: "Ray Birdwhistell concludes that nonverbal communication accounts for 60–70 percent of human communication."
Quote: "Just as speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, as well as prosodic features, so written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the physical layout of a page."
Quote: "much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on interaction between individuals, where it can be classified into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction."
Quote: "Nonverbal communication involves the conscious and unconscious processes of encoding and decoding."
Quote: "Encoding is defined as our ability to express emotions in a way that can be accurately interpreted by the receiver(s)."
Quote: "Decoding is called 'nonverbal sensitivity', defined as the ability to take this encoded emotion and interpret its meanings accurately to what the sender intended."
Quote: "For example, in the picture above, the encoder holds up two fingers, and the decoder may know from previous experience that this means two."
Quote: "Both of these skills can vary from person to person, with some people being better than others at one or both."
Quote: "women are found to be better decoders than men since they are more observant of nonverbal cues, as well as more likely to use them."
Quote: "Culture plays an important role in nonverbal communication, and it is one aspect that helps to influence how learning activities are organized."
Quote: "In many Indigenous American communities, for example, there is often an emphasis on nonverbal communication, which acts as a valued means by which children learn."
Quote: "Within cultures around the world there are extreme differences and similarities between a lot of nonverbal gestures or signals."
Quote: "In this sense, learning is not dependent on verbal communication; rather, it is nonverbal communication which serves as a primary means of not only organizing interpersonal interactions but also conveying cultural values, and children learn how to participate in this system from a young age."