Nonverbal Communication by Mehrabian

Nonverbal Communication by Mehrabian

by Alfred Mehrabian Transaction Publishers, 1972 Reece and Whitman (1962) studied the effect of an investigator's warmt and coldness upon a subject's verbal output while the subject free-associated. Warmth of the experimenter was defined as more frequent smiling, the absence of finger tapping movements, more eye contact with the subject, and a greater degree of forward bodily lean toward the subject. -21 

 A subject produced more words when the experimenter nonverbally indicated a more positive attitude toward him. -21 

 Higher-status members in a social situation are more relaxed than are lower-status members. Relaxation is also related to liking. We tend to be moderately relaxed with those we like and to assume very relaxed postures with those we dislike or do not respect. -30 

 For instance, parents referring to their son's fiancee might say, "our daughter-to-be," "our son's fiancee," "his fiancee," "his lady friend," "his friend," "she," "the person," or "that thing." These examples show decreasing degrees of denotative specificity and are interpreted as expressing decreasing degrees of liking. -35 

 Some additional examples may be helpful. A speaker describing an event in which he participated can say: "I danced," "We danced," "The gang danced," or "There was dancing," with decreasing degrees of inclusion and, therefore, decreasing denotative specificity in denoting I. -35 

 Some actions ordinarily associated through habit with certain states of mind may be partially repressed through the will, and in such cases the muscles which are least under the separate control of the will are the most liable still to act, causing movements which we recognize as expressive. In certain other cases the checking of one habitual movement requires other slight movements; and these are likewise expressive. (Darwin, 1965, p.28) -quoted on 84 

 He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his finger-tips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore. (Freud, 1959, p.94) -quoted on 84 

 Ekman and Friesen's hypothesis was that the areas of the body with lower channel capacity are more informative about deception. Specifically, then, when a person is deceitful his feet/legs should be the most informative about the affect he conceals, then his hands, and finally his face. -85 Specifically, when being deceitful communicators nodded and gestured less, exhibited less frequent leg and foot movements, assumed less immediate positions relative to their addressees, talked less, talked slower, had more speech errors, and smiled more. -103 

 In general, it was found that, when there was inconsistency among components, the implicit cues dominated the verbal cues in determining the total impact. Further, when the various components were consistent with one another, the intensity of the attitude inferred from the total message was enhanced. -131 

 The first, and probably more important of these traditions is restraint in the expression of feelings, particularly negative ones, outside the sphere of intimate relationships. The second is the absence of explicit instruction on the subject of implicit messages within the framework of formal education. The continued emphasis on language skills both at home and in school is a sharp contrast to the neglect of implicit communication. -178 

 When two persons are together, the one of higher status is more relaxed. His limbs and trunk tend to be asymmetrically positioned (legs crossed, leaning sideways, or reclining). -181 

 In contrast to the earlier approaches, which sought discrete nonverbal behaviors and explored their specific referents or conversely identified the discrete behaviors associated with certain feelings, our approach relied on a multidimensional characterization of the referents of implicit communication as variations in liking, potency, and responsiveness. -184-85 

 For example, the therapist verbally asserts an unwillingness to be directive, because being directive would imply his higher status in the situation and might be resented by the client. But both informal observations and recent experimental findings have shown that even those who completely deny a directive therapeutic role nevertheless use nonverbal cues to shake their clients' behaviors (Truax, 1966). -188 

 It would seem that when the verbal component includes a denial of manipulative intent, but the nonverbal cues nevertheless systematically communicate liking or respect, more effective shaping of another person's behavior will result, particularly when that person is openly resistant to influence or manipulation by a peer. -189 

 General Notes about Mehrabian -His chapter titled "language within language" is a GREAT treatment of verbal immediacy behaviors. Namely, comparing all possible ways of saying the same thing can provide a great deal of insight into the speaker's attitude toward the subjects being spoken of. (there is more to this...) - He lists a number of personality measures related to affective communication. These include a measure of affiliative tendency and a measure of sensitivity to rejection on pages 200-201