Non-Verbal Communication Studies

A Study on the Paralinguistic: Tone of Voice

Aim: To see if tone of voice has any effect when interpreting a verbal message.

Method: Different groups of participants listened to either a friendly or hostile message spoken in either a friendly or hostile tone of voice. 

Results: When participants were asked to interpret the messages, they found that tone of voice had about 5 times the effect of the verbal message itself.

Conclusion: Tone of voice is extremely important in how people interpret verbal messages.

A Study on the Effects of Paralinguistics on Emotion

Aim: To see the effect of paralinguistics on the assessment of emotion.

Method: Participants were asked to listen to tape recordings and to assess the speakers' emotions from the paralinguistic cues: tone of voice, emphasis and intonation.

Results: There was a very high level of accuracy in recognising these emtions: affection, amusement, disgust and fear.

Conclusion: Paralinguistics has great importance when judging emotion.

A Study on the Function of Eye Contact: Ensuring the Smooth Flow of Conversation

Aim: To see how interrupting eye contact affects conversation.

Method: Pairs of participants were observed having conversations, in half the conversations, one of the participants wore dark glasses so that the other couldn't receive eye contact.

Results: When one of the partcipants wore dark glasses, there were more pauses and interruptions than when dark glasses weren't worn.

Conclusion: Eye contact is important in ensuring the smooth flow of conversation.

A Study on the Function of Eye Contact: Conveying Emotion

Aim: To see the effect of pupil dilation on emotion.

Methd: Participants were shown nearly 2 identical pictures of teh same girl and asked which picture was more attractive. The only difference between the 2 pictures was that, in one of the pictures the girl's pupils were dilated and in the other they weren't.

Results: The majority of participants said that the picture of the girl with dilated pupils was more attractive, but they couldn't say why.

Conclusion: Pupil dilation has an unconscious but powerful effect on emotion.

A Study on Facial Expressions

Aim: To look at the relationship between facial expressions and the hemispheres of the brain. 

Method: Pictures of people's faces showing different emotions were cut down the middle. New pictures were created with each half face and its mirror image. Then each pair of new faces was shown to participants and they were asked which they liked better. 

Results: The majority of participants said that they preferred the picture of the left half face and its reflection. When asked why, they said the person in the picture looked warmer.

Conclusion: The left side of the face seems to express meotion much more than the right side. 

A Study in Postural Echo

Aim: To see the effect of postural echo when having a conversation.

Method: A confederate of the experimenter approached individuals in a social setting and had a conversation with them. In half of the meetings, the confederate echoed the posture of the person they were talking to and in the half half they didn't. Afterwards, the experimenter approached the individuals and asked them what they thought of the confederate.

Results: When postural echo was used, the people questioned liked the confederate and thought that they got on well together. When postural echo wasn't used, the confederate wasn't liked as much and the conversation felt awkward.

Conclusion: Postural echo givEs an unconscious message of friendliness.

A Study on Open and Closed Posture

Aim: To see the effect of open and closed posture when having a conversation.

Method: A confederate of the experimenter approached individuals in a socail setting and had conversations with them. In half of the conversations, the confederate adopted an open posture and in the other half he used a closed posture. Aterwards, the experimenter approached the individuals and asked them what they thought of the confederate. 

Results: When showing an open posture, the confederate was seen as friendly and attractive. When showing a closed posture, the confederate was seen as unfriendly and less attractive.

Conclusion: The posture that someone adopts will make a difference to how much they are liked.

A Study on Gestures

Aim: To see the effect of gestures used by the waiters and waitress on the tipping behaviour of customers in a restaurant.

Method: While taking orders from seated customers, waiters and waitresses were instructed to either stand upright or squat down near the customer.

Results: When the waiters and waitresses squatted down, larger tips were received compared with when they took orders standing upright.

Conclusion: The gesture of squatting down near a seated customer to take an order will have a positive effect on tipping behaviour.

A Study on Touch

Aim: To see the effect of touch on people's attitudes.

Method: Female students in a library were handed books by the librarian who was a confederate of the experimenter. Half of the students were briefly touched on the hand by the librarian when the ooks were handed to them, the other students weren't touched by the librarian.

Results: When wuestione later, the students who were touched had  much more positive attitude towards the librarian than those who were not touched. The students however, didn't know that they had been touched.

Conclusion: Touch will have an unconcious and positive effect on attitudes.

A Study on the Factor that Affects Personal Space: Sex Differences

Aim: To see if sex differences affects personal space.

Method: One at a time, participants were askedto sit and have a conversation with another person who was actually the confederate. Sometimes the confederate was the same sex as the particiant and other times the confederate was of the opposite sex. The confederate sat at different distances from the participant and continually looked into the other participant's eyes.

Results: The participants tended to break eye contact with the confederate of the opposite sex ata a greater distance apart than when the confederate was the same sex. Argyle and Dean thought that this was the point at which personal space was being invaded.

Conclusion: We prefer to have a greater amount of personal space bewteen ourselves and members of the opposite sex during normal conversations.

A Study on a Factor that Affects Personal Space: Cultural norms

Aim: To see if there are cultural differences in the use of personal space.

Method: Summer observed groups of white English people and groups of Arab people in conversation.

Results: The comfortable conversation distance for the white English people was 1-1.5m, whereas the comfortable conversation distance for teh Arab people was much less than that.

Conclusion: The use of personal space in normal conversation varies with culture.

A Study for a Factor that Affects Personal Space: Statu

Aim: To see if status has an effect on personal space.

Method: Zahn observed people of equal status approaching each other to have a conversation. He also observed people of unequal status approaching each other.

Results: Zahn found that people of lower status did not approach higher-status people with the same degree of closeness as those of equal status.

Conclusion: The use of personal space varies with differences in status when approaching other people.