Nonverbal Behavior

Past research (e.g., DePaulo & Kirkendol, in press) has documented a “motivational impairment effect” in the communication of deception, whereby people who are more highly motivated to get away with their lies (relative to those who are less highly motivated) are less successful at doing so whenever observers can see or hear any of their nonverbal cues. In the present study, we report a conceptual replication of the effect: Subjects who told ingratiating lies under conditions in which they thought that the ability to convey particular impressions was an important skill (high “competence-relevance”) were less successful at getting away with those lies when judges could observe their nonverbal behaviors. We also report a conceptual replication of an unpredicted finding from an earlier study (DePaulo, Stone, & Lassiter, 1985b): Under the same conditions (ingratiating lies, high competence relevance), women were more likely to show the motivational impairment effect than were men. We predicted in this study that more attractive speakers would be less susceptible to the motivational impairment effect than less attractive speakers. Consistent with this prediction, under high motivational conditions (ingratiating lies, high competence-relevance), more attractive speakers were less likely to show the impairment than were less attractive speakers. Finally, we report suggestive evidence that the motivational impairment effect may occur when subjects are trying deliberately to control simultaneously all of their verbal and nonverbal behaviors.

Impression effects of videotaped dyadic interactions were compared with 3D-computer animations based on movement transcripts of the same interactions to determine whether similar effects could be obtained. One minute sequences of movement behavior taken from three different dyadic interactions were transcribed using the Bernese Coding System (BCS). Descriptive data were converted into animation scripts for professional animation software. Original video documents and computer animations were shown to separate groups of observers and their socio-emotional impressions were assessed on a standard adjective checklist. Only marginal differences were found between the two presentation modes. On the contrary, the data point to remarkable similarities in the impression ratings in both conditions, indicating that most of the relevant social information available to observers in the video recordings was also conveyed by computer animations. Overall, the data suggest that the systematic use of computer animation techniques in nonverbal research deserves further scientific attention.

In this paper  we introduce the current  results of an ongoing three-year research and development project on automatic annotation of
human nonverbal behavior.  The present  output of the project is a
tool  that  provides algorithms and  graphical user interface  for the
generation  of ground-truth data  about  the subset of  facial and
body activities.  These data are essential for  the  experts who are
committed to unraveling  the  complexity  of  the  linkage  between
the  psychophysiological  state  and  the  nonverbal behavior  of a
human.  Our work relied on a Kinect sensor, which  computes
depth maps  together  with the coordinates of the  body  joints and
facial points.  Local binary patterns are  then  extracted from the
regions  of interests of  a  facial  video, which are  either  spatio-temporally aligned  with  the  depth maps  or  calculated  using  the
Active Shape Model. Another key idea of the proposed tool is that
the extracted feature vector is  semantically  associated with
ontological  concepts  in perspective  providing  annotations  for
most of the nonverbal activities.

ABSTRACT: Previous research has found that high emotional expressivity contributes to interpersonal attraction independently of and on par with the contributions of physical attractiveness. Using an evolutionary perspective, we argue that emotional
expressivity can act as a marker for cooperative behavior or trustworthiness. Theoretical and empirical work from social dilemma research pointing to the advantages of having a signal for cooperation is considered, as well as research from the limited number of studies that have looked at expressive behavior within a social exchange context. We also argue that we need to inject nonverbal emotional behavior into the social dilemma paradigm, which has downplayed or ignored its role in the communication processes associated with cooperation. Finally, we offer an outline for testing our theory and expanding the role of nonverbal emotional processes within research on cooperation and social exchange.

A central feature of nonverbal expectancy violations theory is that unexpected behaviors trigger a cognitive-affective appraisal of such behavior, leading to a valencing of the behavior(s) as positive or negative. It has been proposed that communicator reward mediates the interpretation and evaluation of such violations but may be more important when the violative act is ambiguous in meaning than when it is not. Unclear is whether nonverbal behavioral composites introduce greater or less equivocality of interpretation. Two experiments employing multi-cue conversational involvement violations addressed this issue. In the first, dyads (N=51) engaged in a 10-minute baseline interview, after which participants rated each other on several measures of reward valence. One randomly selected member then served as a confederate interviewee during a second interview and either significantly increased or decreased involvement. In the second experiment, reward was manipulated as physical attractiveness, status, and task expertise. Dyads (N = 60) engaged in prolonged problem-solving discussions during which the confederates either committed an involvement violation or not. In both experiments, the involvement changes were sufficiently unexpected, arousing, and distracting to qualify as violations of expectations. Analysis of message interpretations indicated that (1) relative to normal involvement levels, increased nonverbal involvement was interpreted as most immediate/affectionate, receptive, similar, dominant, and composed, and decreased involvement as least so, and (2) reward mediated only the interpretation of formality. High involvement violations in turn produced greater attraction, credibility, and persuasiveness than low involvement violations for high as well as low-reward communicators, as predicted.

Participants (N= 441) rated from 1 to 10 how frequently or well they believed hypothetical women and men performed each of twenty nonverbal behaviors or skills. Women were believed to use more expressive and involved nonverbal behaviors than men, and to be more skilled at sending and receiving nonverbal messages. Men were believed to be louder and more interruptive, and to display more nervous, dysfluent behaviors. Ratings given to females by females were higher than were ratings in the other gender combinations for over half the variables, which may accurately describe female—female interaction. Perceived gender differences correlated positively with differences reported in observational studies, indicating that beliefs about nonverbal gender differences were generally accurate.

This paper attempts to integrate the scattered studies on Chinese emotion and proposes some methodological and substantive suggestions for future work. Emotions are construed as interpretations of physiological response to important social events with these interpretations guiding behavior. Concerning interpretation, the dimensions used by Chinese to understand emotion-eliciting events are the same as those found in many other cultures. Which sorts of events are keyed to these dimensions appear to differ, however, in ways consistent with theorizing about power distance and collectivism. Concerning physiological reactions, there appears again to be evidence for universality in the pattern of response for given emotions. What differs in Chinese culture is the lower frequency, intensity and duration with which emotions are typically experienced. Cultural beliefs about emotions support this general moderation and have implications for conceptions of psychopathology. Concerning the action component of emotions, evidence suggests that the expression of emotion is carefully regulated out of concern for its capacity to disrupt group harmony and status hierarchies. It is concluded that all these features of Chinese emotional responding are likely to be found in other groups that share cultural characteristics with the Chinese. Virtue is the establishing of perfect harmony. —Chuang Tzu

Nonverbal Behaviors, Persuasion, and Credibility JUDEE K. BURGOON THOMAS BIRK University of Arizona MICHAEL PFAU Augustana College ... Judee K. Burgoon is Professor of Communication at the University of Arizona, Tucson, where Thomas Birk is a doctoral candidate. ...

This dissertation aimed at exploring the field of nonverbal communication (NVC), highlighting and identifying some of the main contributions to the scientific research in the field. Furthermore, the concluding chapter was devoted to the application of the research on NVC to the sphere of politics, in order to underline its connections to the perception of leadership.
The way theories and facts are presented is meant to be chronological, although the aim of this work is to merge together different approaches to the subject, with the linguistics approach serving as overarching framework.
The second chapter is entirely focused on one of the most common applications of the theoretical studies on NVC: politics.
Since the positive implications of a powerful non-verbal communicative behaviour have been foregrounded, many experts identified its potential when applied to fields where persuasion plays a crucial role, such as teaching, marketing, sales, negotiation and political campaigns.
I chose this topic after I developed a strong interest in the verbal counterpart of communication, which was one of the core courses in the final year of my undergraduate studies. My aim was to delve into the different aspects of communicative behaviour displays and to develop a broader picture of the recent studies on human communication.

This second of the two articles on the Swadeshi Movement published earlier in 'Gandhi Marg' brings into relief its symbolic impact with the help of a few theories from the vast field of nonverbal communication. As a result, Gandhi’s rare ability to invest clothing-related objects and events with extraordinary socio-political significance is amply demonstrated.