Art of Understanding a Person Without Talking to Him

The concept of body language has been developed by leading behavioral scientists.

- By: Shri K.K. Bajaj

According to their research, each important part of body and bodily gestures, voice tone, eye movement, posture, hand gestures, facial expression, muscle tension etc. are accurate indicators of intent and personality of a person. What people say is very often different from what they think or feel. Albert Mehrabian found that the total impact of a message is about 7 percent verbal (words only) and 38 percent vocal (including tone of voice, inflection and other sound) and 55 percent nonverbal. Prof. Birt Whistle made some similar estimates of the amount of nonverbal communication that takes place among humans. He also found that verbal component of a face-to-face conversation is less than 35 percent and that over 65 percent of communication is done nonverbally.

This art of studying the postures of human body is known as body language. Psychologists have studied human behavior for hundreds of years and have come to the conclusion that certain body postures can depict the character of the person. This is often done without even talking to the person as gestures indicate the possible behavior of the person irrespective of any of the facts. Body language is largely unconscious, yet a revealing aspect of our true selves. It’s not what we say but how we say something is important. Many a time we speak volumes without even uttering a word. Communication is a package of cues. It’s when we interpret all the body signals of a person, only then do we get the whole message. The pressure of body language can especially be felt in emotional situations. If someone compliments you with a smirk on his face, are you going to feel good about it?

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