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Telling fact
Dropping your pitch at the end of a sentence is associated with statements, certainty and dominance. Source: The Book of Tells by Peter Collett |
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The last 50 years Still, it was not until the 1950s with the work of Ray Birdwhistell, and more properly, since the 1960s through the work of scientists like Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen, that nonverbal communication has been studied on any scale. In 1967, the psychologist Albert Mehrabian found that in spoken communication only 7% of the meaning was conveyed through spoken words; the other 93% was conveyed nonverbally. His results fascinated his colleagues, thrilled the media and wowed the public. The same year, Desmond Morris published his best-selling book, The Naked Ape, a zoologist's study of the human animal, which was translated into 24 languages worldwide. The public were hooked on body language. The tech effect The big boom in body language is closely associated with the development of sophisticated recording apparatus, which made close study of people's behaviour possible. Most contemporary studies are now based either on film or on video tape, and using computers scientists can decode body language with increasing efficiency and objectivity. Technology in the form of television has also played its part in popularising body language with the general public. Not since the era of the silent film have people paid so much attention to the nonverbal behaviour of others. But in a TV culture where reality shows reign supreme in the listings, watching our fellow humans and their curious behaviour has become a national pastime. On Big Brother, the mother of all reality TV shows, psychologists analyse the contestants' behaviour on screen. With the modern benefits of replay and freeze-frame they demonstrate how the contestants reveal their feelings and thoughts through their deliberate gestures and their unwitting body language. The way you wear your hat... Nonverbal communication has come of age. It's on TV. It's at work in training programmes. It's in magazines as ways to win your man. It's a game played by statesmen on the world stage and it's the amateur psychologist's speciality. It's helping us learn not just more about others, but more about ourselves. Page | 1 | 2 | |
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