"Body language," the lay term for "nonverbal communication," was popularized in 1970 with the publication of Body Language by Julius Fast. Though college textbooks (e.g., Burgoon et al. 1989) omit references to the book and its author, Julius Fast--more than any academic--brought public attention to the expressive force of gestures and body-motion cues. INDEBTED TO USE OF David B Givens 2005 Non Verbal Dictionary online http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/diction1.htm#The%20NONVERBAL%20DICTIONARY comms exercise sitting back to back To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. --Marilyn vos Savant Concept . 1. The process of sending and receiving wordless messages by means of facial expressions , gaze , gestures , postures , and tones of voice . 2. Also included are grooming habits, body positioning in space , and consumer product design (e.g., clothing cues , food products , artificial colors and tastes , engineered aromas , media images and computer-graphic displays). Nonverbal cues include all expressive signs , signals and cues (audio, visual, tactile, chemical, etc. [see AFFERENT CUE ])--which are used to send and receive messages apart from manual sign language and speech . Usage : Each of us gives and responds to thousands of nonverbal messages daily in our personal and professional lives--and while commuting back and forth between the two. From morning's kiss to business suits and tense-mouth displays at the conference table , we react to wordless messages emotionally, often without knowing why. The boss's head-nod , the clerk's bow tie , the next-door neighbor's hairstyle --we notice the minutia of nonverbal behavior because their details reveal a. how we relate to each other, and b. who we think we are. Evolution . Anthropologist Gregory Bateson has noted that our nonverbal communication is still evolving: "If . . . verbal language were in any sense an evolutionary replacement of communication by means of kinesics and paralanguage, we would expect the old, predominantly iconic systems to have undergone conspicuous decay. Clearly they have not. Rather, the kinesics of men have become richer and more complex, and paralanguage has blossomed side by side with the evolution of verbal language" (Bateson 1968:614). FAQ : A frequently asked question is, "What percent of our communication is nonverbal?" According to Kramer, " 94% of our communication is nonverbal, Jerry" ( Seinfeld , January 29, 1998). Kramer's estimate (like the statistics of anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell [ 65% ; Knapp 1972] and of psychologist Albert Mehrabian [ 93% ; 1971]) are hard to verify. But the proportion of our emotional communication that is expressed apart from words surely exceeds 99% . (See below, Media .)
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