Modern Body Language
Darwin began the study of body language in the 1800s. A ballet dancer-turned-anthropologist named Ray Birdwhistell (1918–1994) picked up the ball in the 1970s and ran with it.
Kinesics
Birdwhistell referred to the study of body language as kinesics. Although he coined a new phrase, his area of interest was the same as Darwin’s—he observed and analyzed facial expressions and body movements, looking for hidden meanings in them.
Communicating with Kinesics
The study of kinesics is broken down into five main sections of interest, which you might think would make it easy to understand. Unfortunately, these cues vary from culture to culture, so understanding why a Japanese person behaves in a certain way won’t help you determine the meaning behind a Brazilian’s gestures. However, it’s pretty interesting to know that anthropologists have found a way to reduce sometimes-confusing human behavior to just a few categories. These include:
• Emblems: Emblems are nonverbal cues that clearly represent a verbal message, like a thumbs-up gesture or the hand signal for “okay.”
• Illustrators: Think about someone who talks with his hands. Those gestures are illustrators, which underscore the meaning of the verbal message.
• Affect displays: These are facial gestures that convey a nonverbal message (a grimace, a smile, a frown).
• Regulators: These are nonverbal cues that determine how well the verbal communication is going. Basically, these are body language cues that indicate the person has heard and/or understands what you’ve said (head nods or shakes, for example).
• Adaptors: Relaxed movements (like shifting in your seat or shrugging your shoulders to loosen them) are adaptors, and are a hot topic of debate. Some experts feel adaptors are the real clues to nonverbal messages; others say they’re nothing more than comfort measures.
One of Birdwhistell’s theories states that even if you don’t make a conscious note of a person’s gestures while you’re talking to her, you still subconsciously register the meaning of her nonverbal cues.
While learning to read universal gestures isn’t hard, applying your knowledge to everyday relationships isn’t always easy. But with some practice, patience, and a whole lot of perception, you can learn to decipher the spoken word and nonverbal cues and get to the bottom of almost anyone’s story.
