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I stumbled a great site about body language and figured I would share.
As we all know, communication is essential in society. Advancements in technology have transformed the way that we correspond with others in the modern world, yet when conversing face-to-face, it’s not only speech we verbalize that matters. Body language is truly a language of its own. We all have quirks and habits that are uniquely our own. What does your body language say about you? And what can you learn about others by becoming aware of what some of the signs mean?
I thought it would be fun to list some of the well-known signs that body language experts study and recognize. It is said that when talking to a person the information that we receive can be broken down as:
- 10% from what the person actually says
- 40% from the tone and speed of voice
- 50% is from their body language.
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And yet, people pay no attention to it. Does that make sense?
I think we are taught to disregard our insticts in favor of being “polite”. I think its a spit in the face of humanity and an unexplainable step backwards in human evolution.
Well said. I use it in my writing because it intrigues people, even if we don’t ‘believe’ it. Thanks for the data.
I’m the one who’s intrigued now. When you say “we don’t ‘believe’ it”. I’m not sure what part you’re speaking of, evolution, body language, or the fact that its a cultural norm to disregard our instincts. Btw, I checked out your blog and its amazing. Many of the subjects you blog about are another one of my addictions. I know, I’m a nerd. So be it. But I must admit i’d read about Chomsky and the like any day of the week.
http://delamagente.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/understanding-early-man/
This particular blog post caught my eye right away. You cite many articles in the blog. Are you able to link them to the articles themselves so that your readers may explore with ease the references you so wisely point towards?
I began my exploration of early man ten years ago. I must confess, I didn’t keep good enough notes on the articles. Many of the books, I own, and am enjoying revisiting as I write reviews of them for my blog. Others, I’ve lost track of. It’s from this research–knowing early man had the ability to speak words and didn’t in any meaningful way for quite some time–that I developed my appreciation for body language. Early man, as well as so many other primates and animals in general, used body language to communicate most of what he needed to say.
I will see if I can find more of the references than I linked so far. I developed a habit of spending hours in whatever library I was close to (I have a fond memory of three days in the Notre Dame library) so I’ll never track those back.
Your word–addictions–is so accurate. I believe I know how you feel. Thanks for chatting.
I have no formal training in this field of study but in my own reading and exploration of human interaction and communication I have a suspicion that verbal communication in humans became a practice and sought after trait for its ability to manipulate. Humans, including our earliest of ancestors, would have certainly found verbal communication to be an indispensable tool to gain life sustaining resources. Not to go to deep into my own theory, I will summarize by simply saying, humans talk to “GET”. Get= bonding with others creating closeness that offers safety. Get= manipulate how others read our body language. Aka: lie, skew, mislead, or lessen the message our body language is screaming to cause doubt. The bottom line is body language don’t lie but our mouths can…and do.
Interesting take on things. Anthropologists used to think primates (chimps, bonobos, etc) weren’t devious, but Jane Goodall and other researchers in the field changed all that. It became clear that part of the daily life of higher primates was deception (through actions rather than language or body movements) so I’m sure that’s part of our genome. I think as speech became part of our life, we could ignore other instincts.
It’s fascinating, isn’t it?
Fascinating indeed. And this has been a lovely conversation. One that I don’t get to have often as it seems the majority of my peers don’t find it quite as interesting as you and I. Hope to chat with you again.