Professor Ram Lakhan Meena, Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer (INDIA) +91 94133 00222
Body
language is a powerful concept which successful people tend to understand well.
The study and theory of body language has become popular in recent years
because psychologists have been able to understand what we 'say' through our
bodily gestures and facial expressions, so as to translate our body language,
revealing its underlying feelings and attitudes. Body Language is also referred to as
'non-verbal communications', and less commonly 'non-vocal communications'. The
term 'non-verbal communications' tends to be used in a wider sense, and all
these terms are somewhat vague. For the purposes of this article, the terms
'body language' and 'non-verbal communications' are broadly interchangeable.
This guide also takes the view that body language/non-verbal communications is
the study of how people communicate face-to-face aside from the spoken words
themselves, and in this respect the treatment of the subject here is broader
than typical body language guides limited merely to body positions and
gestures. If you carry out any serious analysis or discussion you should
clarify the terminology in your own way to suit your
purposes. For example: Does body language
include facial expression and eye movement? - Usually, yes.
What
about breathing and perspiration? - This depends on your definition of body
language. And while tone and pitch of
voice are part of verbal signals, are these part of body language too? - Not normally, but
arguably so, especially as you could ignore them if considering only the spoken
words and physical gestures/expressions. There
are no absolute right/wrong answers to these questions. It's a matter of
interpretation. A good reason for broadening the scope of body language is to
avoid missing important signals which might not be considered within a narrow
definition of body language. Nevertheless confusion easily arises if
definitions and context are not properly established, for example: It is commonly and carelessly quoted that
'non-verbal communications' and/or 'body language' account for up to 93% of the
meaning that people take from any human communication. This statistic is
actually a distortion based on Albert Mehrabian's research theory, which
while itself is something of a cornerstone of body language research, certainly
did not make such a sweeping claim.
Mehrabian's
research findings in fact focused on communications with a strong emotional or
'feelings' element. Moreover the 93% non-verbal proportion included vocal
intonation (paralinguistics), which are regarded by many as falling outside of
the body language definition. Care must
therefore be exercised when stating specific figures relating to percentages of
meaning conveyed, or in making any firm claims in relation to body language and
non-verbal communications. It is safe to say that body language represents a
very significant proportion of meaning that is conveyed and interpreted between
people. Many body language experts and sources seem to
agree that that between 50-80% of all human communications are non-verbal. So
while body language statistics vary according to situation, it is generally
accepted that non-verbal communications are very important in how we understand
each other (or fail to), especially in face-to-face and one-to-one
communications, and most definitely when the communications involve an emotional
or attitudinal element.
Body
language is especially crucial when we meet someone for the first time. We form our opinions of someone we meet for
the first time in just a few seconds, and this initial instinctual assessment
is based far more on what we see and feel about the other person than on the
words they speak. On many occasions we form a strong view about a new person
before they speak a single word. Consequently body language is very influential
in forming impressions on first meeting someone.
The
effect happens both ways - to and from:
- When
we meet someone for the first time, their body language, on conscious and
unconscious levels, largely determines our initial impression of them.
- In
turn when someone meets us for the first time, they form their initial
impression of us largely from our body language and non-verbal signals.
And
this two-way effect of body language continues throughout communications and
relationships between people. Body
language is constantly being exchanged and interpreted between people, even
though much of the time this is happening on an unconscious level. Remember -
while you are interpreting (consciously or unconsciously) the body language of
other people, so other people are constantly interpreting yours. The people with the most conscious awareness
of, and capabilities to read, body language tend to have an advantage over
those whose appreciation is limited largely to the unconscious. You will shift
your own awareness of body language from the unconscious into the conscious by
learning about the subject, and then by practising your reading of non-verbal
communications in your dealings with others. Body language is more than body positions and
movements. Body
language is not just about how we hold and move our bodies. Body language potentially (although
not always, depending on the definition you choose to apply) encompasses:
- how
we position our bodies
- our
closeness to and the space between us and other people (proxemics), and
how this changes
- our
facial expressions
- our
eyes especially and how our eyes move and focus, etc
- how
we touch ourselves and others
- how
our bodies connect with other non-bodily things, for instance, pens,
cigarettes, spectacles and clothing
- our
breathing, and other less noticeable physical effects, for example our
heartbeat and perspiration
Body
language tends not to include:
- the
pace, pitch, and intonation, volume, variation, pauses, etc., of our
voice.
Arguably
this last point should be encompassed by body language, because a lot happens
here which can easily be missed if we consider merely the spoken word and the
traditional narrow definition of body language or non-verbal communications.
Voice type and other audible signals are typically not included in body
language because they are audible 'verbal' signals rather than physical visual
ones, nevertheless the way the voice is used is a very significant (usually
unconscious) aspect of communication, aside from the bare words themselves. Consequently,
voice type is always important to consider alongside the usual body language
factors. Similarly breathing and heartbeat, etc., are typically excluded from
many general descriptions of body language, but are certainly part of the range
of non-verbal bodily actions and signals which contribute to body language in
its fullest sense.
More
obviously, our eyes are a
vital aspect of our body language. Our reactions to other people's eyes -
movement, focus, expression, etc - and their reactions to our eyes - contribute
greatly to mutual assessment and understanding, consciously and unconsciously.
With no words at all, massive feeling can be conveyed in a single glance. The
metaphor which describes the eyes of two lovers meeting across a crowded room
is not only found in old romantic movies. It's based on scientific fact - the
strong powers of non-verbal communications.These effects - and similar powerful
examples - have existed in real human experience and behaviour for thousands of
years.
The
human body and our instinctive reactions have evolved to an amazingly clever
degree, which many of us ignore or take for granted, and which we can all learn
how to recognize more clearly if we try. Our interpretation of body language,
notably eyes and facial expressions, is instinctive, and with a little thought
and knowledge we can significantly increase our conscious awareness of these
signals: both the signals we transmit, and the signals in others that we
observe. Doing so gives us a significant
advantage in life - professionally and personally - in our dealings with
others.
Body
language is not just reading the signals in other people. Importantly,
understanding body language enables better self-awareness and self-control too.
We understand more about other people's feelings and meanings, and we also
understand more about these things in ourselves. When we understand body
language we become better able to refine and improve what our body says about
us, which generates a positive improvement in the way we feel, the way we
perform, and what we achieve.
As
explained, the terms body language and non-verbal communications are rather
vague. So what is body language? And more usefully, what might we regard it to
be, if we are to make the most of studying and using it? The
Oxford English Dictionary (revised 2005) definition is:
"Body language - noun - the conscious
and unconscious movements and postures by which attitudes and feelings are
communicated [for example]: his intent was clearly expressed in his body
language." The Oxford Business English Dictionary offers a slightly
different definition. Appropriately and interestingly the Oxford Business English
Dictionary emphasizes the sense that body language can be used as a tool,
rather than it being an involuntary effect with no particular purpose: "Body language - noun - the process of
communicating what you are feeling or thinking by the way you place and move
your body rather than by words [for example]: The course trains sales people in
reading the customer's body language." The OED dictionary definition of kinesics - the technical term for body
language - depends on the interpretation of 'non-verbal communication':
"kinesics - the study of the way in
which certain body movements and gestures serve as a form of non-verbal
communication."
Body
language is more than those brief descriptions.
- Body
language certainly also encompasses where the body is in relation to other
bodies (often referred to as 'personal space').
- Body
language certainly also includes very small bodily movements such as
facial expressions and eye movements.
- Body
language also arguably covers all that we communicate through our bodies
apart from the spoken words (thereby encompassing
breathing,perspiration,pulse,blood-pressure, blushing, etc.)
In
this respect, standard dictionary definitions don't always describe body
language fully and properly. We could define body language more fully as:
"Body language is the unconscious and conscious
transmission and interpretation of feelings, attitudes, and moods, through:
- body posture, movement, physical state,
position and relationship to other bodies, objects and surroundings,
- facial expression and eye movement,
(This transmission and interpretation can be quite
different to the spoken words)." Words alone - especially emotional words (or
words used in emotional situations) - rarely reflect full or true meaning and
motive. We find clues to additional or
true meaning in body language. Being able to 'read' body language therefore
helps us greatly:
- to
know how people feel and what they mean, and
- to
understand better how people might be perceiving our own non-verbal
signals, and (often overlooked)
- to understand
ourselves better, deeper than the words we hear ourselves saying.
Philosophers
and scientists have connected human physical behaviour with meaning, mood and
personality for thousands of years, but only in living memory has the study of
body language become as sophisticated and detailed as it is today.
Body
language studies and written works on the subject are very sparse until the
mid-1900s. The first known experts to consider aspects of body language were
probably the ancient Greeks, notably Hippocrates and Aristotle, through their
interest in human personality and behaviour, and the Romans, notably Cicero,
relating gestures to feelings and communications. Much of this early interest
was in refining ideas about oration - speech-making - given its significance to
leadership and government.
Isolated
studies of body language appeared in more recent times, for example Francis
Bacon in Advancement of Learning, 1605, explored gestures as reflection or
extension of spoken communications. John Bulwer's Natural History of the Hand
published in 1644, considered hand gestures. Gilbert Austin's Chironomia in
1806 looked at using gestures to improve speech-making. Charles Darwin in the
late 1800s could be regarded as the earliest expert to have made serious
scientific observation about body language, but there seems little substantial
development of ideas for at least the next 150 years.
Darwin's
work pioneered much ethological thinking. Ethology began as the science of
animal behaviour. It became properly established during the early 1900s and
increasingly extends to human behaviour and social organization. Where ethology
considers animal evolution and communications, it relates strongly to human
body language. Ethologists have progressively applied their findings to human
behaviour, including body language, reflecting the evolutionary origins of much
human non-verbal communication - and society's growing acceptance of
evolutionary rather than creationist theory. Austrian zoologist and 1973 Nobel
Prizewinner Konrad Lorenz (1903-89) was a founding figure in ethology. Desmond
Morris, author of The Naked Ape, discussed below, is an ethologist, as is the
evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (b. 1941) a leading modern thinker in
the field. Ethology, like psychology, is an over-arching science which
continues to clarify the understanding of body language.
The
popular and accessible study of body language as we know it today is very
recent. In his popular 1971 book 'Body Language', Julius Fast (1919-2008)
wrote: "...kinesics [body language] is still so new as a science that its
authorities can be counted on the fingers of one hand..." Julius Fast was
an American award winning writer of fiction and non-fiction work dealing especially
with human physiology and behaviour. His book Body Language was among the first
to bring the subject to a mainstream audience.
Significantly the references in Julius Fast's book (Birdwhistell,
Goffman, Hall, Mehrabian, Scheflen, etc - see body language references and books below)
indicate the freshness of the subject in 1971. All except one of Julius Fast's
cited works are from the 1950s and 1960s.
The
exception among Fast's contemporary influences was Charles Darwin, and
specifically his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,
written in 1872, which is commonly regarded as the beginnings of the body
language science, albeit not recognised as such then. Sigmund Freud and others
in the field of psychoanalysis - in the late 1800s and early 1900s - would have
had good awareness of many aspects of body language, including personal space,
but they did not focus on non-verbal communications concepts or develop body
language theories in their own right. Freud and similar psychoanalysts and
psychologists of that time were focused on behaviour and therapeutic analysis
rather than the study of non-verbal communications per se.
A
different view of human behaviour related to and overlapping body language,
surfaced strongly in Desmond Morris's 1967 book The Naked Ape, and in follow-up
books such as Intimate Behaviour, 1971. Morris, a British zoologist and
ethologist, linked human behaviour - much of it concerned with communications -
to human 'animalistic' evolution. His work remains a popular and controversial
perspective for understanding people's behaviours, and while his theories did
not focus strongly on body language, Morris's popularity in the late 1960s and
1970s contributed significantly to the increasing interest among people beyond
the scientific community - for a better understanding of how and why we feel
and act and communicate.
An
important aspect of body language is facial expression, which is arguably one
part of body language for which quite early 'scientific' thinking can be
traced:
Physiognomy is an obscure and related concept
to body language. Physiognomy refers to facial features and expressions which
were/are said indicate the person's character or nature, or ethnic origin. The
word physiognomy is derived from medieval Latin, and earlier Greek
(phusiognominia), which originally meant (the art or capability of) judging a
person's nature from his/her facial features and expressions. The ancient roots
of this concept demonstrate that while body language itself is a recently
defined system of analysis, the notion of inferring human nature or character
from facial expression is extremely old. Kinesics (pronounced 'kineesicks' with stress on the 'ee') is the
modern scientific or technical word for body language. The word kinesics was
first used in English in this sense in the 1950s, deriving from the Greek word
kinesis, meaning motion, and seems to have first been used by Dr Ray Birdwhistell,
an American 1950s researcher and writer on body language. (See references). The
introduction of a new technical word - (in this case, kinesics) - generally
comes after the establishment of the subject it describes, which supports the
assertion that the modern concept of body language - encompassing facial
expressions and personal space - did not exist until the 1950s.
Proxemics is the technical term for the personal space aspect of body
language. The word was devised in the late 1950s or early 1960s by Edward
Twitchell Hall, an American anthropologist. The word is Hall's adaptation of
the word proximity, meaning closeness or nearness. (See personal space.) From
the word kinesics, Ray Birdwhistell coined the term kine to refer to a single body language signal. This is not to be
confused with the ancient and same word kine, meaning a group of cows. Neither
word seems to have caught on in a big way, which in one way is a pity, but in
another way probably makes matters simpler for anyone interested in the body
language of cows. The Greek word kinesis is also a root word of kinesthetic,
which is the 'K' in the VAK ('see hear feel') learning styles
model.
Kinesthetic (also known as kinesthetics) in the study of learning styles, is
related to some of the principles of body language, in terms of conveying
meaning and information via physical movement and experience.
Body
language is among many branches of science and education which seek to
interpret and exploit messages and meaning from the 'touchy-feely' side of life.
For example, the concepts of experiential learning, games and exercises, and love and spirituality at work - are all
different perspectives and attempts to unlock and develop people's potential
using ideas centred around kinaesthetics, as distinct from the more tangible
and easily measurable areas of facts, figures words and logic. These and
similar methodologies do not necessarily reference body language directly, but
there are very strong inter-connections. Bloom's Taxonomy, and Kolb's Learning Styles are also
helpful perspectives in appreciating the significance of kinaesthetics, and
therefore body language, in life and work today. The communications concepts of
NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) and Transactional Analysis are
closely dependent on understanding body language, NLP especially.
Body
language is part of human evolution, but as with many other aspects of human
behaviour, the precise mixture of genetic (inherited) and environmental
(learned or conditioned) influences are not known, and opinions vary. Julius Fast noted this, especially regarding
facial expressions. To emphasise the shifting debate he cited for example:
- Darwin's
belief that human facial expressions were similar among humans of all
cultures, due to evolutionary theory.
- Bruner
and Taguiri's opposing views - in the early 1950s, after thirty years of research, they
largely rejected the notion that facial expressions were inborn.
- and
Ekman, Friesan and Sorensen's findings -
in 1969, having discovered consistent emotional-facial recognition across
widely diverse cultural groups, which supported Darwin's
evolutionary-centred ideas.
The
discussion has continued in a similar vein to the modern day - studies
'proving' genetic or environmental cause - 'nature' or 'nurture' - for one
aspect of body language or another. The situation is made more complex when one
considers the genetic (inherited) capability or inclination to learn body
language. Is this nature or nurture?
Body language is partly genetic (inborn - 'nature') - hugely so in
certain aspects of body language - and partly environmental
(conditioned/learned - 'nurture'). Some body language is certainly genetically
inherited and consistent among all humans. Other body language is certainly
not. The use and recognition of certain fundamental facial expressions are now
generally accepted to be consistent and genetically
determined among all humans regardless
of culture.
However
the use and recognition of less fundamental physical gestures (hand movements
for example, or the winking of an eye), and aspects of personal space
distances, are now generally accepted to be environmentally determined (learned, rather than inherited), which is significantly dependent on local
society groups and cultures. Certain vocal intonation speech variations
(if body language is extended to cover everything but the spoken words) also
fall within this environmentally determined category. (See the 'other audible signals'
section.)In summary, we can be certain that body language (namely the conscious
and unconscious sending and receiving of non-verbal signals) is partly inborn,
and partly learned or conditioned. Body language is part 'nature' and part
'nurture'.
The
evolutionary perspectives of body language are fascinating, in terms of its
purpose and how it is exploited, which in turn feeds back into the purpose of
body language at conscious and unconscious levels. Human beings tend to lie,
deceive, manipulate, and pretend. It's in our nature to do this, if only to a
small degree in some folk. For various reasons people intentionally and
frequently mask their true feelings. (Transactional Analysis theory is very
useful in understanding more about this.) In expectation of these 'masking'
tendencies in others, humans try to imagine what another person has in their
mind. The need to understand what lies behind the mask obviously increases
according to the importance of the relationship.
Body
language helps us to manage and guard against these tendencies, and also -
significantly especially in flirting/dating/mating rituals - body language
often helps people to communicate and resolve relationship issues when
conscious behaviour and speech fails to do so. Body language has evolved in
spite of human awareness and conscious intelligence: rather like a guardian
angel, body language can help take care of us, connecting us to kindred souls,
and protecting us from threats. While
the importance of body language in communications and management, etc., has
become a popular interest and science in the last few decades, human beings
have relied on body language instinctively in many ways for many thousands of
years.
Early
natural exponents of interpreting body language were for example the poker
players of the American Wild West. The winners had not only to be handy with a
six-shooter, but also skilled in reading other people's non-verbal signals, and
controlling their own signals. Before these times, explorers and tribal leaders
had to be able to read the body language of potential foes - to know whether to
trust or defend or attack. Earlier than this, our cavemen ancestors certainly
needed to read body language, if only because no other language existed.
Humans
have also learned to read the body language of animals (and vice-versa),
although humans almost certainly had greater skills in this area a long time
ago. Shepherds, horse-riders and animal trainers throughout time and still
today have good capabilities in reading animal body language, which for many
extends to the human variety. Monty Roberts, the real
life 'Horse Whisperer' is a good example. Body language, and the reading of
non-verbal communications and feelings, is in our genes. Were these factors not
in our genes, we would not be here today.
Women
tend to have better perception and interpretation of body language than men.
This is perhaps a feature of evolutionary survival, since females needed good
body language skills to reduce their physical vulnerability to males and the
consequential threat to life, limb and offspring. Females might not be so
physically vulnerable in modern times, but their body language capabilities
generally continue typically to be stronger than the male of the species. Thus,
women tend to be able to employ body language (for sending and interpreting
signals) more effectively than men. Katherine Benziger's theory of brain
types and thinking styles provides useful additional perspective. Women
tend to have more empathic sensitivity than men, which naturally aids body
language awareness and capabilities. Aside from gender differences, men and
women with strong empathic sensitivity (typically right-basal or rear brain
bias) tend to be better at picking up body language signals.
the six universal facial expressions - recognized around the world
It
is now generally accepted that certain basic facial expressions of human
emotion are recognized around the world - and that the use and recognition of
these expressions is genetically inherited rather than socially conditioned or
learned. While there have been found to
be minor variations and differences among obscurely isolated tribes-people, the
following basic human emotions are generally used, recognized, and part of
humankind's genetic character: These emotional face expressions are:
- Happiness
- Sadness
- Fear
- Disgust
- Surprise
- Anger
Charles
Darwin was first to make these claims in his book The Expressions of the
Emotions in Man and Animals, published in 1872. This book incidentally
initially far outsold The Origin of Species, such as its wide (and
controversial) appeal at the time. Darwin's assertions about genetically
inherited facial expressions remained the subject of much debate for many
years.
In
the 1960s a Californian psychiatrist and expert in facial expressions, Paul
Ekman, conducted and published extensive studies with people of various cultures to
explore the validity of Darwin's theory - that certain facial expressions and
man's ability to recognize them are inborn and universal among people. Ekman's
work notably included isolated tribes-people who could not have been influenced
by Western media and images, and essentially proved that Darwin was right -
i.e., that the use and recognition of facial expressions to convey certain
basic human emotions is part of human evolved nature, genetically inherited,
and not dependent on social learning or conditioning.
Body
language is instinctively interpreted by us all to a limited degree, but the
subject is potentially immensely complex. Perhaps infinitely so, given that the
human body is said to be capable of producing 700,000 different movements . As with
other behavioural sciences, the study of body language benefited from the development
of brain-imaging technology in the last part of the 20th century. This
dramatically accelerated the research and understanding into connections
between the brain, feelings and thoughts, and body movement. We should expect
to see this effect continuing and providing more solid science for body
language theory, much of which remains empirical, i.e., based on experience and
observation, rather than scientific test. Given the potential for confusion,
here are some considerations when analysing body language.
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