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Nonverbal Communication and Body Language

by Tori Roalef
October 3, 2023

Have you ever moved aside to make space for someone to walk by you in a crowded area without ever exchanging a word? Or have you ever picked up on someone’s excitement about a topic before they even said a word? In both of these examples, you received a message that was communicated nonverbally. So even if they never said a word, you still understood them.

This week, let’s explore how we convey information through nonverbal communication.

The Idea of the Week

Even when we are not talking, our entire body communicates. How we dress and present ourselves, how we move our body and gesture, and how we make facial expressions are all communicating information about our feelings, culture, or values. These are all forms of nonverbal communication.

We communicate nonverbally four times more than we communicate verbally; so most of our information comes from nonverbal communication. This Verywell Mind article (a 9-minute read) outlines 9 Types Nonverbal Communication:

Facial expressions, such as scrunching your nose, smiling, or droopy eyes.
Gestures, such as a thumbs-up, rolling your eyes, glancing at a watch, or waving.
Paralinguistics includes factors of vocal communication that is separate from language, such as tone of voice, loudness, inflection, pacing, and pitch.
Body language and posture, such as tapping your foot, crossing your arms, touching your face, crossing your legs, slouching, or tilting your head.
Proxemics, or personal space, refers to the amount of space that we perceive as belonging to us. So how much of a “bubble” you need for your personal space. Some may have a close bubble and stand close to other people while others have a big bubble and stand at a distance from their conversation partner.
Eye gaze, such as looking at something or someone, staring, or blinking. Sometimes, we may also look up, off to the side, or down to process information.
Haptics, or communicating through touch, such as putting a hand on a shoulder to convey affection or sympathy.
Appearance refers to our choice of clothing, hairstyle, and other appearance factors.
Artifacts, or objects and images, such as a uniform, or an avatar to represent yourself on an online forum.

Similar to language, all of these types of nonverbal communication are influenced by culture and may not be interpreted the same way across cultures.

The Practice of the Week

This week, we have 3 videos about body language tips and tricks from former FBI agent, Joe Navarro.

In this first 15-minute video, Joe Navarro Explains How to Read Body Language. Joe Navarro breaks down the myths about language, explains the various ways we communicate using our facial expressions and body, and finally, analyzes the body language of a couple examples from a casual conversation to a poker game.
In this second 19-minute video, Joe Navarro Answers Body Language Questions From Twitter, such as “why is staring so intimidating,” “how do you end a conversation politely,” and more.
Finally, in this last 14-minute video, Joe Navarro Explains How to Show Confidence. Some people can command attention when they walk into the room. Body language expert, Joe Navarro, breaks down the body language that confident people do. Then he provides a couple of exercises for you to project confidence through your body language, such as saying “no” in a certain tone of voice and the cadence you use when you’re public speaking.