Mind & Meaning: Voice and body often don't speak the same language
Tuned in: Politicians need to be good communicators and both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama understand the importance of body language
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Communication is central to human relationships and those who are articulate and consummate communicators are much admired. US President Obama is a case in point and closer to home the late Anthony Clare typified the genre.
But words in themselves have a limited capacity to convey the intentions of the individual. After all people lie, sometimes unconscious needs conflict with what a person consciously says, while others have limited verbal ability to convey their real intent.
Body language and non-verbal communication are terms that are often used interchangeably although they are not exactly identical.
Body language is just that -- the information that another gleans from the manner in which different parts of the body are used. For example, the tilt of the head, the position of the legs, the facial expression.
Non-verbal communication, on the other hand, includes body language but also incorporates style of dress, spatial proximity during conversation, body art, jewellery and so on. In this way it not only gives clues to current verbal intent but also to personality.
A researcher working in the field, Professor Albert Mehrabian from the University of Los Angeles, examined the role of various types of verbal and non-verbal communication in face-to-face encounters.
His finding, known as the 55, 38, 7 rule, is still used today, and maintains that 55pc of the meaning in any message comes from visual body language, such as posture and facial expressions, 38pc from the non-verbal part of speech, such as tone and pitch, and only seven per cent comes from the actual content of the words.
Now called a science, non-verbal communication has found a niche in training those for whom communication is central to their job, for example politicians.
After all, they have to persuade the public that their message is correct and true and that it will bring lasting prosperity and wellbeing to the citizens they represent. If they are not believed, they will simply not be re-elected.
So mastering this hidden language is crucial if they are to have success. Training in this requires dissecting every aspect of the individual's communication style.
But it's not just politicians for whom non-verbal communication is relevant. The intuition that a woman has about a potential boyfriend, the feeling that "there's just something I don't like about him", or the cliche "would you buy a second-hand car from him" are expressions of the impact of this hidden language.
Disagreement
Indeed the mismatch between verbal and non-verbal communication can be a source of dislike or of disagreement. For example the person who says "I love you" while looking at the floor is not likely to be convincing. A smile performed with the lips rather than with the eyes will seem false and even cold.
Interestingly, women are more adept at reading body language and thanks to modern neuro-imaging, which gives us a window into the minute workings of the brain, we understand how this happens.
It has been shown that men evaluate an image with the left side of the brain, which controls logic and language, while women make their assessment using both sides. The right side is concerned with emotion and creativity, thus women bring to their evaluation the combination of logic and innate instincts.
Perhaps court is the arena in which this evaluation has the most pressing impact on lives. A jury has to decide if evidence given by a witness is truthful and this takes on a special significance in criminal trials where miscarriages of justice might occur if this judgment is incorrect.
In this situation not only is the spoken evidence weighed up but body language adds another layer to the evaluation of the witness.
Worryingly however, there is evidence from experimental studies that judgments about evidence accuracy are no better than chance. Too much significance is ascribed to facial and body indicators and too little to verbal cues such as speech hesitations, voice pitch and errors of speech.
Moreover, younger looking, baby-faced cherubic witnesses are more likely to be believed than those who are older and craggy featured. Appreciating non-verbal communication and body language would appear to have a role that extends beyond pop psychology. It impacts on many aspects of life from "my wife doesn't understand me" to the courts of criminal justice. This is serious indeed.
I wonder if the politician who said, "read my lips -- no new taxes" or the man who said "I did not have sexual relations with that woman Monica Lewinsky", had ever heard of body language. By now they certainly have.
- Patricia Casey
Irish Independent
