S5 Intercultural Issues with nonverbal communication

Question 1

I. Defining nonverbal communication (NVC)

Answer 1

Communication through means others than language : the process of intentionally or unintentionally signaling meaning through behavior other than language(actions, facial expressions, eye contact, the use of time, tone of voice, silence, and/or space).

Question 2

A. Comparing verbal and nonverbal communication

Answer 2

• Both are symbolic, both communicate meaning and both are patterned (governed by rules that are determined by particular contexts and situations)
• Different societies have different spoken languages and different nonverbal languages.
• Nonverbal behaviors reinforce, substitute for, or contradict verbal behaviors.

Question 3

NVC operate at a subconscious level

Answer 3

• We rarely think about how we stand, what hand gestures we use, what facial expressions we’re using.
• When misunderstandings arise, we are more likely to question our verbal communication than our nonverbal communication.
• It is generally more difficult to identify and correct nonverbal miscommunications or misperceptions.

Question 4

Strategies for NVC

Answer 4

• W e learn nonverbal communication behaviors as part of being socialized about appropriate behavior.
• We learn most of what we know of nonverbal meanings and behaviors more unconsciously; intuitively.

Question 5

B. What nonverbal behavior (NVB) communicates

Answer 5

• Because nonverbal communication operates at a more subconscious level, we tend to think that people have less control over their nonverbal behavior. We often think of verbal behavior as containing the “real” message.

Question 6

Guidelines to prevent hasty interpretations of NV behaviors

Answer 6

1. To think about the context: what is going on in the situation that might help you interpret someone’s nonverbal message?
2. To consider the person’s other nonverbal behaviors: do not interpret nonverbal behaviors in isolation.
3. To remember to consider the verbal messages along with the nonverbal messages.

Question 7

NVB communicates status

Answer 7

• Status = the relative position a person occupies in an organizational or social setting.
• Expansive gestures and control over space are associated with high status; conversely, holding one’s body in a tight, clenched position communicates low status.

Question 8

NVB communicates deception (tromperie)

Answer 8

• Early researchers believed that some nonverbal behaviors indicated lying.
• But more recent research examining hundreds of studies shows that it is very difficult to detect deception.
• The clear cues of nervous behaviors do not appear to be directly related.
• Each individual has his/her own distinct way of communicating deception.

Question 9

II. Cultural variations in NVB

Answer 9

How universal is nonverbal communication? Do people in most countries communicate in the same way nonverbally?

Question 10

A. Nonverbal behavior: universal or culture-specific?

Answer 10

• Basic and perhaps universal: nonverbal behavior, namely our facial expressions and facial gestures convey emotions and attitudes. Ex: smiling or laughing fill a universal human need for promoting social connection and bonding.
• Researchers: people in all cultures use these NVB to influence others and over time, these behaviors contributed to positive relationships and became automatic and nonconscious

Question 11

Universal facial gestures

Answer 11

• Eyebrow flash (raising the eyebrow to communicate recognition),
• Nose wrinkle (indicating slight social distancing)
• “Disgust face” (sending a strong signal of social repulsion)

Question 12

Same facial expressions for 6 basic emotions

Answer 12

• Happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, anger, and surprise (in most societies)
• The fact that facial expressions for these emotions are recognized by most cultural groups as having the same meaning seems to suggest some innate, universal basis for these behaviors.

Question 13

NVC variating from culture to culture

Answer 13

• The stimulus that causes the NVB may vary from one culture to another: a smile may universally indicate pleasure and happiness but there is a lot of variation in what causes someone to smile.
• What exactly prompts a person to smile may be culture-specific.

Question 14

B. Nonverbal codes

Answer 14

NVC varies from culture to culture. Brief review of important NVB such as paralinguistics, personal space, eye contact, gestures, time orientation, and silence.

Question 15

1. Paralinguistics

Answer 15

• Refer to the study of the paralanguage, namely vocal behaviors that indicate how something is said, including speaking rate, volume, pitch, and stress. Ex: say sthg quickly and loudly VS quiter tone of voice at a slower rate.
• Paralinguistic aspects of speech reveal moods and emotions, also allow us to emphasize or stress a word or idea, create a distinctive identity, and (along with gestures) regulate conversation.
• We can actually distinguish between two types of vocal behavior: voice qualities and vocalizations.

Question 16

Voice qualities or tone of voice

Answer 16

• Includes speed, pitch, rhythm, vocal range, and articulation – namely, what makes up the “music” of the human voice.
• Speakers vary in how they articulate sounds (how distinctly they pronounce individual words and sounds).
• We tend not to notice these paralinguistic features unless someone articulates very precisely or very imprecisely.
• Paralinguistics often leads people to negatively evaluate speakers in intercultural communication contexts even when they don’t understand the language. Ex: Chinese speakers often sound rather musical and nasal to English speakers, while Arabic speakers generally sound rather harsh and guttural to French speakers.

Question 17

Vocalizations

Answer 17

• They are the sounds we utter that do not have the structure of language. Ex: Tarzan’s yell.
• Vocalizations include vocal cues such as laughing, crying, whining, and moaning, as well as the intensity or volume of one’s speech.
• They also include sounds that aren’t actual words but that serve as fillers, such as “uh-huh,” “ah,” and “er.”

Question 18

Paralanguage

Answer 18

Confusing factor in intercultural communication.
- Ex: Europeans interpret the loudness of US Americans as aggressive behavior, while US Americans might think the British are secretive because they talk quietly.
- Amount of silence in conversations and the speaking rate also differ among cultures: the Finnish and the Japanese are comfortable having pauses in their conversations, while most US Americans talk rapidly and are pretty uncomfortable with silences.

Question 19

2. Personal space

Answer 19

• It is the “bubble” around each of us that marks the territory between ourselves and others.
• How big your bubble is depends to a large extent on your cultural background: in some cultures, people stand very close together to talk, while in others they feel a need to be farther apart when talking.
• This difference in personal space rules can cause misunderstandings and even some discomfort in intercultural interactions.

Question 20

Contact VS noncontact cultures

Answer 20

• Contact cultures are those in which people stand closer together while talking, make more direct eye contact, touch frequently, and speak in louder voices. Ex: societies in South America and southern Europe.
• By contrast, those in northern Europe, North America, East Asia, and the Far East are noncontact cultures, in which people tend to stand farther apart when conversing, maintain less eye contact, and touch less often.

Question 21

External factors: geography and climate

Answer 21

• Many high-contact cultures are located in warmer places, closer to the equator, while low-contact cultures are in cooler climates.
• Even within many northern countries, southerners are more nonverbally expressive and interpersonally oriented than northerners.
• We cannot say categorically that these patterns are found everywhere. Ex: many Asian countries have warm climates and are considered low-contact(influence of Confucianism with emphasis on self-control and proper behavior may be a greater influence).

Question 22

Other factors

Answer 22

Many other factors besides culture determine how close together or far apart people stand: gender, age, ethnicity, the context of the interaction, and the topic of discussion all influence the use of personal space.
Ex: in some Muslim countries (contact cultures), gender might be more important than nationality in determining amounts of personal space – at least in the public sphere. Similarly, in China (a noncontact culture) it is quite normal for girls to hold each other’s hands or arms.

Question 23

3. Eye contact

Answer 23

• Often considered an element of personal space because it regulates interpersonal distance.
• Direct eye contact shortens the distance between two people, while a lack of eye contact increases the distance.
• Eye contact communicates meanings related to respect and status, and it often regulates turn taking in conversations.

Question 24

Patterns of eye contact vary from culture to culture

Answer 24

Primary indicator of culture: in many societies, avoiding eye contact communicates respect and deference, although this may vary from context to context.

Question 25

4. Gestures

Answer 25

Arm and hand movements that communicate nonverbally. 4 kinds:
1. Emblems
2. Illustrators
3. Regulators
4. Adaptators

Question 26

a. Emblems

Answer 26

• Emblems are those gestures that have a specific verbal translation.
  Ex: when you wave your hand as someone is leaving, it means goodbye. Or when you give “the finger,” it is interpreted as an insult.
• We think that there are some universal gestures, or at least some universal categories of gestures (ex: obscene gesture) but it is not true. Ex: Netherlands, Norway, or Switzerland have no obscene gesture.
• Emblems are the easiest gestures to understand cross-culturally, because they are easy to reproduce (when people are in a different country and not know the language, they often resort to emblems).
• When emblems have the same meaning cross-culturally, there is no problem. However, if an emblem varies slightly from culture to culture, there can be misunderstanding. Ex: “hook ’em horns” greeting.

Question 27

b. Illustrators

Answer 27

• All those gestures that go along with our speech. Ex: a speaker would emphasize a point by shaking a finger (cf. Bernie Sanders), it all seems very natural.
• Yet, different cultural groups use different types and amounts of illustrators. Ex: Italians are often characterized as “talking a lot with their hands,” or using a lot of illustrators.

Question 28

c. Regulators

Answer 28

• Much of our conversation is regulated by nonverbal gestures called regulators. Ex: greeting and leave-taking (shake hands or hug someone / gather our stuff together)
• Each language has a uniqus set of regulators, ex: in Japan, turn taking is regulated more by pauses than by gestures. For them, difficult to jump into a European or an American conversation because they are waiting for the regulating “pause” that never comes.

Question 29

d. Adaptators

Answer 29

• Related to managing our emotions. Ex: we may tap our feet or fingers when we’re nervous, or rub our eyes when we feel like crying, or clench our fists when we’re angry.
• From a cultural perspective, it’s important to recognize that the adaptors we use are part of our particular cultural upbringing, and that other people may use other types of adaptors to manage or reflect their emotions.

Question 30

Dane Archer

Answer 30

• After studying the many variations of gestures around the world, the researcher said he was amazed by the “power, nuances, and unpredictability of cultural differences” in nonverbal behavior.
• On a practical note, he urged travelers and tourists to practice what he called “gestural humility,” namely:
  1) assume that the familiar gestures of our home culture may not mean the same things abroad
  2) do not assume that we can intuitively interpret the meaning of any unfamiliar gestures we observe in other cultures.

Question 31

5. Time orientation

Answer 31

There are many cultural variations regarding how people understand and use time. One way to understand these variations is to look at the differences between monochronic and polychronic time orientations.

Question 32

a. Monochronic concept of time

Answer 32

• Most people in Western societies, regard time as a commodity: time can be “gained,” “lost,” “spent,” “wasted,” or “saved”.
• Time is linear, with events happening one after another.
• In general, monochronic cultures value punctuality, completion of tasks, and adherence to schedules.

Question 33

b. Polychronic concept of time

Answer 33

• People conceptualize time as more holistic, and somewhat more circular, many events can happen at once.
• Schedules are less important than personal obligations in polychronic cultures, and tasks are often accomplished because of personal relationships, not in spite of them.
• Polychronic persons therefore take a more flexible approach to keeping a schedule, making it often difficult for them to collaborate with monochronic-oriented persons.

Question 34

6. Silence

Answer 34

• Cultural groups may vary in the relative emphasis placed on speaking and on silence.
• One of the major reasons for communicating verbally in initial interactions with people is to reduce uncertainty. People therefore employ active uncertainty reduction strategies, such as asking questions. However, in many other cultural contexts, people reduce uncertainty by more passive strategies, such as remaining silent, observing, and perhaps asking a third party about someone’s behavior.

Question 35

Silence in Wester / Eastern cultures

Answer 35

• Silence in Western societies has often been associated with negative, unhealthy relationships, or with disempowerment, as when women and/or minorities feel their voices are not heard, or even suppressed. However, a number of communication scholars also point to the fact that these same societies increasingly recognize the positive and sometimes powerful uses of silence in certain contexts.
• On the contrary, in many cultural contexts, silence is viewed rather positively. For example, silence in Japan is not simply the absence of sound or a pause in the conversation that must be filled: silence can convey respect for the person who has spoken, or it can be a way of unifying people.

Question 36

Silence in intercultural encounters

Answer 36

Silence can therefore be tricky in intercultural encounters. It can be useful when trying to sort out uncertainty in intercultural interactions because it gives one time to think through attributions. However, silence is not only a function of conversation, but an expression of culture and identity; in intercultural contexts, however, it may be confused with a lack of communication competence – which it is of course not.

Question 37

C. Cultural variation or stereotype?

Answer 37

• One of the problems with identifying cultural variations in nonverbal codes is that it is tempting to overgeneralize these variations and to stereotype entire groups of people.
• Therefore, we must be careful not to assume that every member of a given cultural group exhibits the exact same nonverbal behaviors, and we also need to consider the contexts in which these nonverbal behaviors may be used.

Question 38

Prejudice

Answer 38

Often based on nonverbal aspects of behavior: the negative judgment is triggered by physical appearances or physical behavior.
Ex: female and minority professors rated lower overall than their White, male peers. Or immigrant Asian children who are sometimes discriminated against because of their cultural practice of remaining quiet in the classroom out of respect for the teacher.

Question 39

Mental map

Answer 39

From these kinds of experiences with prejudice, people start to develop a “mental map” that tells them where they belong and where they are likely to get rejected. In turn, victims can often spot prejudicial behavior and people with surprising accuracy: in an interesting study, Blacks were able to detect prejudiced people after only 20 seconds of observations, with much higher accuracy than Whites. For this reason, members of minority groups may avoid places where and situations in which they do not feel welcome.

Question 40

Allan Johnson, list of NVB interpreted as prejudicial

Answer 40

• Not looking at people when we talk with them;
• Not acknowledging people’s presence, but making them wait as if they weren’t there;
• Not listening or responding to what people say;
• Avoid touching people’s skin when giving or taking something;
• Watching people closely to see what they are up to;
• Avoiding someone walking down the street, or even crossing to the other side.

Question 41

III. Cultural space

Answer 41

• Relates to the way communication constructs meaning of various places.
• The meanings of cultural spaces are also dynamic and ever-changing
• The relations between people’s cultural spaces and identities are negotiated in complex ways.

Question 42

A. Cultural identity and cultural space

Answer 42

• “Home” is variously defined as specific addresses, cities, states, regions, and even nations.
• NVC involves issues of status, and the home is not exempt of such issues. Ex: in most U.S.-American movies and TV series, the social class of an household is often expressed nonverbally.These signs are not always so obvious for all social positions, but they often provide important clues about social class.
• Even if our home does not reflect the social class we wish to be in, we often identify with it strongly. We often model our own lives on the way things were done in our childhood homes. Although this is not always the case, the home can be a place of safety and security.

Question 43

Relationship between place and identity

Answer 43

• Some people have feelings of fondness for the region of the country were they grew up, but others feel less positive about where they come from.
• Relationships between various places and our identities are complex. Where you come from and where you grew up contributes to how you see yourself, to your current identity.
• Many people experience ambivalence about the regions of the country where they grew up. They may have fond memories, but they may now also see the area in a new way – as perhaps provincial, or conservative, or segregated.

Question 44

Neighborhood

Answer 44

• A living area defined by its own cultural identity, especially a social, but also an ethnic or racial one.
• Cities typically developed segregated neighborhoods, reflecting common attitudes of prejudice and discrimination, as well as people’s desire to live among people like themselves (Ex: Desperate Housewives)

Question 45

“Whites-only” areas

Answer 45

• Very common in U.S. history. These types of neighborhoods are good examples of how power influences intercultural contact.
• In these segregated neighborhoods, certain cultural groups defined who got to live where and dictated the rules by which other groups had to live.
• Ex of Chinatown
• Although it is no longer legal to mandate that people live in particular districts or neighborhoods based on their ethnic backgrounds, the continued existence of such neighborhoods underscores the importance of historical influence.

Question 46

Set of familiar cultural spaces on the Internet

Answer 46

• These spaces are primarily for recreational purposes and people can assume their own or another identity.
• There are other Internet spaces, like social networks or discussion boards, where people connect for fun, to gain information or to experience a supportive community.

Question 47

Virtual spaces

Answer 47

• Some communication scholars suggest that this disembodied communication and lack of shared reality, a kind of “absence-presence,” can lead to social isolation.
• Other experts think that mobile communication may result in a psychological “emptying out” of public space, where people’s bodies are present, but personalities are engaged elsewhere (on cellphones, tablets, etc.), and that this in turn may result in the stress of always being somewhere else no matter where one might be physically.
• Finally, other scholars suggest that virtual spaces offer a different cultural space for interacting and that cyber relationships are formed, maintained, and dissolved in much the same way as offline relationships.

Question 48

B. Changing cultural space

Answer 48

• Changing cultural spaces means changing who you are and how you interact with others. Perhaps the old saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” holds true today as we cross cultural spaces more frequently than ever.
• However, this is not always easy to do, and it raises a number of questions along the way:
• Should people alter their communication style when they encounter travelers who are not in their traditional cultural space?
• Do they assume that the travelers should interact in the ways prescribed by their own cultural space?

Question 49

Traveling VS migrate

Answer 49

• With traveling, the change is temporary and, usually, desirable: it is generally something people seek out.
• By contrast, people who migrate do not always seek out this change, and many immigrants leave their homelands simply to survive. But they often find it difficult to adjust to the change, especially if the language and customs of the new cultural space are unfamiliar.
• They may suffer culture shock. Even within a given country, people often find it difficult to adapt to new surroundings when they move.
• And ignoring or even ridiculing the customs of the new cultural space may simply lead to further intercultural communication problems.

Question 50

C. The dynamic nature of cultural spaces

Answer 50

• It stands in sharp contrast to more traditional Western notions of space, which promoted land ownership, surveys and census, borders, colonies, and territories. No passport is needed to travel in the current dynamic cultural space, because there are no border guards.
• In fact, the dynamic nature of current cultural spaces underscores their relationship to changing cultural needs. In other words, the space exists only as long as it is needed in its present form.

Question 51

Phoenix, Arizona

Answer 51

• No Chinatown, no Japantown, no Koreatown, no Irish district, no Polish neighborhood, and no Italian area.
• Ethnic identity, therefore, is only one of several identities important to people of foreign ancestry living today in Phoenix. The markers of ethnic life in Phoenix are the urban sites where people congregate when they desire ethnic cultural contact.
• At other times, people may frequent other locations to express other aspects of their identities. In this sense, this contemporary urban space is dynamic and allows people to participate in the communication of identity in new ways.

Question 52

Rise of the Internet

Answer 52

• New dimension to the creation of cultural spaces.
• We can now enter (virtually) a number of spaces where we can communicate in new ways that express different aspects of our cultural identities.
• Our physical space or location is no longer the most significant barrier to communicating with others who share our cultural identities.
• We are no longer bound by our physical bodies. We can therefore “pass” as men or women, members of many different religious and ethnic communities, or people with different political perspectives or sexualities.
• While it is still difficult to communicate in languages we do not speak, the Internet even makes some (rudimentary) translation sites available.