Lecture 8: Non - Verbal communication

Question 1

What is non - verbal communication?

Answer 1

*The way the spoken is presented

Question 2

What is verbal communication?

Answer 2

*Speech content

Question 3

How do you make non verbal judgements accurate?

Answer 3

• Dominance
• Stand taller
• Talk louder
• May invade other’s space
• More gestures
• Interrupt more
• Extraverted
• Judging whether people are friends
• Lying

Question 4

What types of gender differences are there?

Answer 4

*Males are more sensitive to pre - information
Women are more sensitive to behaviour displayed by others. Women are better at non - verbal decoders than men.
Women learn to pay attention, men learn to be more dominant.
**Women:
*Smile more
*Gaze more
*Approach others more closely
*Men more than women impute sexual meaning into women’s displays of friendliness, due to a generalised tendency to see the world in more sexual terms.

Question 5

Can people detect lies in everyday life situations?

Answer 5

57% of people can tell whether or not if a stranger is lying

58% of people can tell if there friend or partner is lying or not.

Question 6

How do you make a good impression?

Answer 6

• Looking into the eyes of the conversation partner.
• Nod your head
• Don’t fidget
• Speak loud and clear
• Make supportive gestures.

Question 7

Why don’t we all show positive behaviour?

Answer 7

• People are less aware of their non verbal behaviour.

* People can’t deliberately control their non verbal behaviour very well.

Question 8

What ethnic differences are there in nonverbal behaviour? (Vrij et al 1992)

Answer 8

**Mediterranean compared to Dutch participants
*Nonfunctional movements -
*Smiling -
*Gaze aversion >
*Stutters >
Speech rate
*Smiling -
*Gaze aversion >
*Stutters >
Speech rate

Question 9

Are smiles significant?

Answer 9

• Power of smiles: When Reagan smiled observers smiled too
• Sex differences in smiling: Feminine women smile, masculine men don’t.
• Thus, man’s smiles are more informative
• Children discount mother’s smiles more often than father’s smiles.
• Happiness
• Fear
• Flirting
• Persuasion
• Be liked

Question 10

What are self - fulfilling prophecies?

Answer 10

• Your own ideas guide your behaviour.

* Your behaviour influences the other person’s behaviour in such way that your ideas are supported.

Question 11

What was Christensen & Rosenthal’s (1982) study?

Answer 11

*Interviewers interviewed interviewees.
Prior to the interview, interviewers were told that interviewees were highly sociable or neutral.
*Interviewees were asked?
- Did you like the interaction
- Did you feel liked by the interviewer?
- How positive was behaviour of the interviewer?
- How positive was behaviour of the interviewee?
- Observers were asked to assess interviews?
*High scores means positive judgement by interviewees.

Question 12

What was Vrij & Kirby’s (2003) study?

Answer 12

*45 female students and 34 males students watched a videotape of a male and female actor verbally interacting in a social environment.
*At one point during their conversation physical contact was made in that the female briefly touched the arm of the male following a joke made by the male.
*Do you consider the physical contact between the two people to be a gesture of?
Male Female
-friendship 14% 33%
-Affection 41% 40%
-Seduction 33% 17%
-Other 12% 10%
*How would you interpret the general body language of the female character?
Male Female
-friendly 16% 38%
-Flirtation 73% 47%
-Provocative 08% 15%
-Seductive 03% 00%