Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
THE SILENT SPEECH OF POLITICIANS

1. Definition:

Nonverbal communications (NVC) is usually understood as the process of communication

through sending and receiving wordless messages. i.e, language is not one source of
communication, there are other means also. NVC can be communicated through gestures and
touch (haptic communication), by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye
contact.1

In 1971 Albert Mehrabian found that the nonverbal aspects are a significant part of the
communication process. According to him in any face-to-face communication we pay
attention to 3 elements- the 3 Vs- Verbal, Vocal, Visual.

the "7%-38%-55% Rule“
a. words= 7% (that means only 7% of the message we want to convey is
done verbally via words)
b. tone of voice = 38%
c. body language= 55% (i.e. facial attitude communication)

All 3 elements must be congruent, otherwise the message receiver will be irritated by the
incongruent messages he receives.
Eg. Verbal: "I do not have a problem with you!"
Non-Verbal: person avoids eye-contact, looks anxious, has a closed body
language, etc.
In the above situation it is very likely that the receiver will trust the nonverbal more, rather
than the literal meaning of the words.

Many scientist have criticized the 7-38-55 ratio (Mehrabian’s experiment relates only to the
communication of positive versus negative emotions. In addition, it also relates only to

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

women, as men did not participate in the study.). Mehrabian clarifies the misunderstanding
explaining that the ration should not be applied to any communication situation: ““Please
note that this and other equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal
messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and
attitudes (i.e., like-dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or
attitudes, these equations are not applicable.”

2. Functions of nonverbal communication

Argyle (1988)2 concluded there are five primary functions of nonverbal bodily behavior in
human communication:
a) Express emotions
b) Express interpersonal attitudes
c) To accompany speech in managing the cues of interaction between speakers and
listeners
d) Self-presentation of one’s personality
e) Rituals (greetings)

When communicating, nonverbal messages can interact with the verbal messages in 6 ways:
1. “Repeating” – Gestures or body language that support a statement.
(eg. pointing to the object of discussion)
2. “Conflicting” – Body language that contradicts what the speaker is saying.
(eg.smiling while making a critical statement)
3. “Complementing” – Genuine behavior that reinforces the spoken word.
(eg. when a person illustrates a physical items by using the hand to
show how big or small it is.)
4. “Substituting” – Nonverbal behavior that someone uses in place of words.
(e.g. thumb up- for OK/Great job!)
5. “Accenting” – Body language used to emphasize a point of view.
(eg. movements of the head and hand are frequently used to
underline/accent the verbal message)

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

6. “Regulating” – Nonverbal communication that punctuates or paces a conversation.

Nonverbal behaviors are also used to regulate the communicative flow between the
interactants. (eg turn-talking regulations)

Nonverbal communication must not be given a secondary place, as an auxiliary element of

the verbal communication, even if sometimes it is done independently.

Nonverbal communication transmits information, manages the interaction, is actively

involved in the production and processing of messages. It is also used to express and control
emotions, and contributes to the management of impression.

3. Gesture in speech

Everyday language reflects this reality: the study of gesture in speech (eg. expressions such
as: “speaking hands”, etc.)

If we follow the daily lives of people’s hands while talking, we will notice that they often use
gestures to draw the illustrative form of the physical object to which they relate to. One
interesting thing about these gestures is that they tend to occur before the individual says
something about the object.1

This anticipatory property of gestures shows that our thoughts can influence our actions
before we manage to put them into words - or, more controversially, that our gestures may
actually shape what we think and say.

Gestures that people make when they speak have an important role in communication
because they provide information to the co-participants about the semantic content of
verbal messages (Kendon, 1994, 192).
Gesture facilitates the communication process.

1
The hand, which is a support set, moves “before” the language/words, expressing thoughts quicklier by
gestures. It often provides indications of our intentions and sends a large part of the message before our words,
which accompany or follow it.(P. Collett, 2005)

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

4. Classification of gestures

Paul Ekman şi Wallace V. Friesen (1969, "The Repertoire of Nonverbal Behavior:

Categories, Origins, Usage, and Coding") developed a classification system identifying five
types of hand movements which have communication functions.

1. EMBLEMS
− are gestures with a specific meaning, being used as substitutes for words
− their meaning is known by most people (also called "symbolic gestures"), therefore
they are used intentionally & consciously
− politicians who use such gestures have full control over them as emblems are less
dependent on context. Emblems are used more frequently where speech
communication is not possible because of noise or distance barriers encountered by
individuals.
− are pictorial images of concepts such as: "OK" and "Victory."

Every culture has a set of emblems considered conventionalized signs. Here are some
examples3:

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

2. ILLUSTRATORS
− are nonverbal acts that are directly linked with words, or accompany speech and serve
to illustrate what is being said verbally.
− These may be movements that emphasize words or ideas, sketch a path of thought,
point to present objects, depict a spatial relationship, depict the rhythm or pacing of
an event, draw a picture of the referent, or depict a bodily action.
− help the speaker accelerate the flow of his ideas
− some of them are innate gestual reactions and, therefore, universal. People are partly
aware of illustrators as they seem to be natural.
− are not used independently of the verbal language, being thus seen as "joining
elements". They are useful because they add details to the mental image a person is
trying to convey. We would expect people who are excited and enthusiastic to display
more illustrators than those who are not & also people facing difficult communication
situations (eg. not being able to find the right words to express a thought).
− The timing of iconic gestures in synchronization with speech can show you whether
they are unconscious or are being deliberately added for conscious effect.2
− Are usually gestures that tell the story, that reveal and perhaps shape the speaker;s
thoughts.

2
In an unconscious usage, the preparation for the gesture will start before the words are said, whilst in
conscious usage there is a small lag between words and gesture (which can make the speaker appear
manipulative).

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

Paul Ekman şi Wallace V. Friesen (1972) identified 8 types of hand illustrators:

1. Batons: hand vertical movements, usually repeated, that stresses a particular word
or sentence;

"... It's not the power of the Minister of Defense. The power to propose sending troops in Iraq belongs to
the Prime Minister and not to the Defense Minister ...”

- also known as „beat gestures”: the hand moves along the rhythmical pulsation of
speech. Beat gestures assumes the same form regardless of content.
- By putting stress on a word, beat gesures index that word as significant, not for its
content , but for its role in the discourse. (McNeill, 1992)
- in general, batons are considered signs of aggression and desire for domination.

2. Ideographs: movements which sketch the path or movements of thoughts (indicate

direction of thought)

- in both examples Basescu and Tariceanu are ticking off point to be followed. This
finger listing, which aims to conduct a logical argumentation, is doubled by the verbal
message.

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

3. Deicitc movements: pointing to an object, place or event from the real world

- Basescu’s index finger, gently curved, points to the unseen referent from the real
world: the public opinion.

4. Spatial movements: movements which depict a spatial relationship

Romania will participate to actions only if they are under UN auspices (Fig 8), EU (Fig 9) or
NATO (Fig 10)."

- In the above pictures we see three different movements of the hand according to the
enumeration in the verbal message.

5. Underliners: movements which emphasise a particular word or phrase in a speech

or message.

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

- the index finger held up and still stands for attention. Simbolically it looks loke an arrow
launched on a target, defining it precisely.

6. Kinetographs: show the movement of a person or object

Fig.11 & 12. So he…the Defense Minister is obliged to inform the country's Supreme Defense
Council what is the Romania’s capacity… He is not required/asked to opiniate if we should or
not remain in Iraq.

- in the above example, Basescu’s hands are initially oriented towards his own person, then
outside his body to suggest the movement of Romanian troops on Iraqi territory.

7. Pictographs: movements which draw the shape of a picture/object in the air

Fig.13, 14. "Romanian troops are allowed to do mining only in areas where they
operate.”

- Basescu’s hands take the form of the object presented, in this case the space that it delimits.
- are very spontaneous gestures that literally shape a picture for the listeners. Like many other
forms of body language they supplement verbal messages increasing accuracy and adding
extra information.

8. Emblematic movements: emblems used to illustrate a verbal statement, either repeating

or substituting for a word or phrase. (eg. V sign- is an emblem as long as it’s not pronounced,
just shown. If the sign is dispayed and the victory word is uttered, then we have an
emblematic illustrator).

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

The eight illustrators are not mutually exclusive.

3. AFFECT DISPAYS
The communication of affect dispays or emotions is much more closely linked with
facial expressions than with bodily cues. Although the face is the primary source of affect,
the body can also be read for global judgements of affects; for example, a drooping, sad
body.
- affect dispalys are used with less awareness and intentionality than emblems or
illustrators. As a result, they are apt to provide some personal information about
the communicator who otherwise will be reluctant to disclose it voluntarily.
- Affect displays can repeat, augument, contradict, or be unrelated to verbal
affective statements.
- They are often not intended to communicate, but they can be intentional.
- They show what emotions the communicatior is experiencing. In addition, for a
proper decoding, the receiver relies on bodily cues to determine the intensity of
the emotion being experienced.

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

4. REGULATORS

- are bodily cues used by interactants to exercise a mutual influence over the initiation,
length, and termination of spoken messages.
They tell the speaker to continue, repeat, elaborate, hurry up, give the other the
chance to talk, become more interesting and so forth. Some of the greetings and goodbyes
may be regulators to the extent that they indicate the initiation or termination of face-to-face
communication.
In recent years the various nonverbal behaviours associated with turn-talking are the
regulators. Ekman and Friesen (1969), Knapp (1978), Collett (2005) etc have developed a
particularly useful classification of turn-taking behaviour:
1. turn avoiding: We demonstrate we don’t want to take over the role of speaker and
that we are happy to remainn in the listening role. Consequently we produce:
a. attentiveness display:

Maintain a relaxed listening pose

Maintain silence

Agreement smiles

Widen your eyes

Nodding or shaking the head
b. unintention dispays (actions that hinder your ability to speak):

Folding your arms

Pressing your lips together

Pressing a hand or a finger over your mouth

No visual contact / gaze or stare at something in the surrounding environment

2. turn taking or requesting: When we don’t have the floor and we want to talk we
exhibit one or more of the following intention dispay, that are preparatory movements for
speaking, which discourages the speaker from continuing:

Upraised index finger (symbolizes an instrument for creating a conversational
„hole” in the speaker’s stream of words) or a raised hand.

Leaning forward; invading one’s private space; touching his hand

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

Raise the volume of your voice

Rapid head nods accompanied by verbalization of pseudoagreements („yeah”,
„mm-hmm”). Rapid head-nodding towards the end of a conversation serves to
reinforce the speaker for what he or she is saying, but it is rather empty
reinforcement since it also signals a desire to terminate the conversation.

3. turn yielding: means you are giving up your turn and you expect the ohter person
to star talking. The signals are sent BEFORE the end of the turn.
- termination of one’s utterance can be communicated with kinesic markers such as:

Dropping your pitch level (clear indication you expect your partner to
respond), a slowed tempo, am extended unfilled pause

body movements that have accompanied the speech, may be terminated. Also,
illustrative gestures come to rest.( the body becomes relaxed)

gazing at the other person will also help to signal the end of your utterance.

Raising and holding the eyebrows in expectation.

4. turn-holding or maintaining: in order to hold the floor, the speaker must give the
impression he has a lot more to say.

Voice loudness will be increased

Animated/excited gesticulation

Frequency and duration of silent paused will be decreased.

A light touch of the other person by the speaker, which seems to say, „hold on
a little bit longer” or raise your hand and freeze it in mid-air

Start enumerating a series of points, each finger shows where you are in your
list (i.e ideographs)

5. ADAPTORS
- are a potential rich source of involuntary information about the psychological states of
individuals who exhibit them (i.e. an individual’s attitude, level of anxiety and self-
confidence)
- a person manipulates an object in order to release tension.

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

There are 3 categories of adaptors:

1. self-adaptors: movements that people direct towards themselves or their bodies

Holding, rubbing, squeezing, scratching, biting finger-nails, sucking a thumb,
adjusting a collar, tapping a foot, etc. These self-adaptors will often increase
as a person’s anxiety level increases.

2. alter-directed adaptors: the same movement of the body but directed to the bodies
of others

3. object- adaptors: the movement of objects

playing with glasses/keys/lighter; twisting the ring on one’s finger

Peter Collett (2005) identifies 5 main “protective adaptors”: eye-cover, mouth-cover, face-
cover, head-clasping and the ‘cradle’.

Non-verbal communication includes all types of physical behavior that supports or

replaces verbal communication. These behaviors include gestures, eye movement or eye
contact, moans and grunts, touching, the moving toward or away of parts of the body from
others, changes in facial expressions, physical proximity and more. The role of non-verbal
communication, mainly in the political field, is to inform the electorate of the unstated
attitude or emotional content of the politicians.

EXAM QUESTIONS:
1. Nonverbal communication. Definition & functions.
2. Gesture classification. Description.

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Lecture 4 – Teaching note Lecturer Marina Militaru, Phd

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonverbal_communication
2
Argyle, Michael. (1988). Bodily Communication (2nd ed.) Madison: International Universities Press.
3
From: The definitive book of body language, by Allan & Barbara Pease, 2004

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