Nonverbal communication and culture. Identity, stereotypes and prejudices, страница 2

What Nonverbal Behavior Communicates.Although language is effective and efficient at communicating explicit information and the content of messages, nonverbal communication conveys relational messages: how we really feel about the person, and so on. Nonverbal behavior also communicates status and power. For example, a supervisor may be able to touch subordinates, but usually it is unacceptable for subordinates to touch a supervisor. Large expansive gestures are associated with status; conversely, holding the body in a tight, closed position communicates low status.

Most nonverbal communication about affect, status and deception happens at an unconscious level. For this reason, it plays an important in intercultural interactions. Being unconscious it communicates how we feel about each other and about our cultural groups.

Your emotions are reflected in your posture, face, and eyes— be it fear, joy, anger, or sadness—so you can express them without ever uttering a word. For this reason, most people rely heavily on what they learn through their eyes. In fact, you will believe nonverbal messages instead of verbal messages when the two contradict each other.

Nonverbal communication is important in human interaction because it is usually responsible for first impressions. In fact, in most instances nonverbal messages arrive before the verbal. Think for a moment of how often your first judgments are based on the color of a person's skin, facial expression, manner of dress, or if he or she is in a wheelchair. More importantly, those initial messages usually influence the perception of everything else that follows. Even how you select friends or approach certain people depends on how attractive you find them.

Culture-Bound. While much of your nonverbal communication is part of a universally recognized and understood code, a great deal of your nonverbal behavior is rooted in your culture (Burgoon et al.). A culture's nonverbal language can be as unique as its verbal. From your use of eye contact to the amount of volume you employ during interaction, your culture influences the manner in which you send and receive nonverbal symbols. For example, in many cultures, outward signs of emotion are accepted as natural. People from the Middle East and the Mediterranean are generally expressive and animated. For the Japanese, excessive and public displays of emotion are often considered a mark of rudeness, a lack of control, and even an invasion of another person's privacy (Leathers).

The bottom line of what has been said so far is that learning about the alliance between culture and nonverbal behavior is useful to students of intercultural communication. By understanding important cultural differences in this behavior, you will be able to gather clues about underlying attitudes and values. You have already seen that nonverbal communication often reveals basic cultural traits. Smiling and shaking hands tells us that a culture values amiability. Bowing tells you that another values formality and rank and status. The study of nonverbal behaviors can assist you in isolating your own ethnocentrism.

Nonverbal communication involves all those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or receiver. This definition not only marks the boundaries of nonverbal communication, but also reflects how the process actually works. It also permits us to include unintentional as well as intentional behavior in the total communication event. This approach is realistic because you send the advantage of nonverbal messages without ever being aware that they have meaning for other people.

In verbal communication, you consciously dip into your vocabulary and decide what words to use. Although you often consciously decide to smile or select a certain piece of jewelry, you also send countless messages that you never intend to be part of the transaction: For example, frowning into the sun and making someone believe you are angry, leaving some shampoo in your hair and having someone think you look silly, and holding someone's hand for an extended period of time and having that person think you are flirting are all examples of how your actions can send a message to someone else.