Non Verbal Communication Skills

In 1971 Albert Mehrabian conducted a study in non-verbal communication. The results of his study have been generalised into the a rule that states communication is delivered and understood in the following way:

• 7% through verbal content
• 38% through tonal content
• 55% through facial expression and body language

This is actually a gross generalisation of what Mehrabian was concluding. He studied contexts in which people were portraying liking and understanding. The above statistics are a general reflection of what happens when poeple are displaying their liking for something or when they are confused.

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Mehrabian was essentially referring to the congruence of someone's communication and how we do communicate using multiple channels simultaneously. Sometimes when poeple communicate the messages coming out of these channels are contradictory - their communication is said to be incongruent. typically it is the verbal message that contradicts what the non-verbals are saying.

The two video clips below are my Japanese tutor speaking in Japanese, in one clip she is discussing something she enjoyed and in the other something that was not so pleasant. I don't know what the content is (as my Japanese is fairly basic right now). Watch the clips and notice how easily you can detect which one is the clip of something pleasant and which is something less pleasant.