Communication, Nonverbal

Nonverbal communication, also sometimes known as body language, encompasses the various ways people communicate without language. Although verbal, linguistic communication is a unique and vital part of human communication, considerable meaning is communicated nonverbally. Though estimates vary, most communication and relationships researchers agree that nonverbal communication is every bit as important as or more important than verbal communication, particularly in human relationships. The relative significance of verbal and nonverbal communication is not important. What is important is that extensive research shows that the various aspects of nonverbal communication—eye behavior, touch, body movements, interpersonal distance, facial expressions, and all the other components of nonverbal communication, separately or together—are vitally important to human relationships. This entry discusses how nonverbal communication differs from language, the biological foundation of nonverbal communication, and its multichanneled nature including physical appearance, body language, eye behavior, interpersonal distance, touch, vocal characteristics, the use of time, and the environmental context in which communication occurs. It concludes with a comment regarding the centrality of nonverbal behavior in close relationships.

Nonverbal communication encompasses all communication other than language. Nonverbal communication is analogic, iconic, and does not rely on symbols, in contrast to language that employs symbols that are arbitrarily related to their referent. Substantial research suggests that verbal and nonverbal communication employ different cognitive systems. Typically, nonverbal communication is processed in the right brain hemisphere rather than in the language centers of the left brain hemisphere.

Nonverbal communication is primarily analogic, meaning that nonverbal messages have a more direct relationship with their referent compared with verbal or linguistic messages that are arbitrarily related to their references. Generally, nonverbal messages feel, look, or sound like what the things they refer to or represent; for example, a pat on the back is an abbreviated hug and standing closer represents more relational closeness than standing far away. Analogic messages are usually a matter of degree as opposed to a digital on-off message. A hug can range from brief and obligatory, to moderately warm and affectionate, to prolonged and passionate. Smiles can run the gamut from smirks, to grins, to broad beaming smiles. Interestingly, because iconic and analogic communication are continuous, people cannot stop sending relational messages nonverbally. There is no neutral facial expression or nondistance between two people. Thus, as long as two people are in each other's presence, relational communication is occurring via nonverbal communication. This leads to the famous communication axiom, one cannot not communicate.

Nonverbal communication employs a variety of channels, all of which are nonlinguistic. Most gestures are nonlinguistic, but sign language and emblems, which are gestures with dictionary definitions (e.g., the okay sign), constitute gestural languages that are processed in the same left hemispheric brain centers as speaking or writing. Tactile communication is usually nonlinguistic and nonverbal, though Braille print is read tactilely; it is a linguistic form of communication. Tone of voice and nonlinguistic vocalizations such as grunts or screams are nonverbal, but the spoken word is verbal. The mode is not the key to understanding nonverbal communication. The key is that nonverbal communication is nonlinguistic, is not arbitrarily related to its referent, and is not dependent on the language centers of the left brain hemisphere, unlike verbal communication.

...