I believe that understanding and
reading body language is a profoundly useful method for us to read the hearts
of others. There is a world of meaning in our nonverbal communication from a
glance, a gesture, a tone of voice and more.
But, I am I would like to debunk the myth that 55% of communication is
nonverbal. How many times have you seen
the
inaccurate statistics about nonverbal communication by Albert Mehrabian
saying that the meaning of a message is communicated:
- 7% by your words
- 38% by you tone
of voice
- 55%. by your
body language
This interpretation of Mehrabian has been debunked many times, but
still it persists. Let’s talk what is
true about the experiments by Mehrabian. And what his research looked like.
The research subject heard one word
said different ways and was able to detect different meanings. Yes, that’s
right, the subjects heard only one word and were asked what meaning was
communicated!
First, what is true about the meaning
being communicated nonverbally? The meaning of the
message can be changed by its
nonverbal delivery. Take for example how someone says a particular word or
words like “love”, “hate” or “my boss” in a sentence. What someone really intends to communicate
can vary depending on their tone of voice, how their inflection rises and falls
or how they stress certain words. That
is their paralanguage changes. Writer Clella Jaffe gives an example "A movie character is accused of shooting a clerk in a convenience
store. When the sheriff asks, "Why did you shoot the clerk?" the
suspect responds, "I shot the clerk?"(pause)" I shot the
clerk?" At the trial, the sheriff testifies that the accused confessed
twice, clearly saying "I shot the clerk." The sheriff says
the statement as if it were factual, whereas the suspect's rising voice
inflection and stressed words indicates that
he's asking a question-drastically changing the meaning of the literal words".
Mehrabian’s
experiments
The Mehrabian formula comes from two
studies in nonverbal communication carried out by Mehrabian and two colleagues
in 1967. That’s correct people are
quoting research from over 40 years ago. There is no current research that
replicated this particular finding. Twenty years later in my Masters and
Doctoral Program in nonverbal communication our textbooks still quoted this
research and we talked about its inaccurate referencing. We are still quoting
it and we are still using it and debating it today.
To summarize, Mehrabian’s studies asked participants to judge the feelings of a speaker by
listening to a recording of a single word spoken in different tones of voice.
In the first study, the participants
had to rate the feelings of the speaker after listening to each of nine
different words. Each word spoken separately rather than in a sentence with
context. The words spoken were often
inconsistent with the tone of voice used. For example, the word “brute” spoken
in a positive tone. Each time they had to make a rating just on the single word
they had listened to.
In the second study, only one word
was used. It was chosen to be as neutral as possible: the word was “maybe.” They
listened to a recording of the word “maybe” said in different tones and at the
same time were shown photos of different facial expressions.
It’s from these experiments that
Mehrabian suggested – but did not prove – the formula.
The
limitations of Mehrabian’s formula
Mehrabian
has himself attempted to limit the application of this formula:
Please note that this and other
equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were
derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes
(i.e., like-dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or
attitudes, these equations are not applicable.
So if we limit the formula to the
specific conditions of the experiments, it is only applicable if:
- a speaker is using only one word,
- their tone of voice is inconsistent with the meaning of
the word, and
- the judgment being made is about the feelings of the
speaker.
What
do other researchers say?
Mehrabian’s findings were frequently
discussed in the psychological literature on nonverbal communication through
the 1970s and 1980s. Researchers have made the following critiques of the
methodology of his studies:
- They only used two or three people to do the speaking
for the experiments.
- They take no account of the extent to which the
speakers could produce the required tone of voice.
- They were artificial situations with no context.
- The communication model on which they were based, has
now been shown to be too simple.
- They take no account of the characteristics of the
observers making the judgments.
- The purpose of the experiments was not hidden from the
participants.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at
www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at
www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at
http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
