Language
Part 1
Part 2
I found Part I of the experiment to be extraordinarily challenging, though not as much so as Part II (more on that in a bit). I found the experiment difficult because it involved me not communicating! It was interesting to see the way that my partner would respond as well. For instance, because I was not communicating a response, they began to get ansy, hesitant, and almost nervous. They didn't appear to like talking without any reciprocity. I would say that they were definitely in control of the conversation, being that I was unable to communicate with them.
They initiated everything...topic choice, topic changes, questions, etc. They asked questions and I did not answer, which made them act differently. Conversation is certainly a balance of power, and they had it all. Interestingly, I felt as if I did have some power in the conversation because they were caught so off guard by my lack of communication.
If we were part of two separate cultures I would imagine that the person speaking would have an anecdotal advantage. What I mean by that is that it's only an advantage in certain situations. Being able to speak doesn't increase their ability to be aware of their surroundings, but I could motion to them to not go over to a certain area because it is dangerous. A modern situation that may mirror this situation would be two individuals speaking different languages. Both parties may be capable of complex verbal communication, but are unable to utilize it and then must rely on non-verbal communication.
This assignment was more difficult than Part 1 was, and I think it is because communicating without body language seems (to me) to almost be communicating void of all emotion. I found that my partner was made very uncomfortable by my lack of body language. They seemed to understand me without issues but made efforts to be even more flamboyant themselves almost as to entice me to utilize body language.
This experiment shows us how much that we rely on signs and other non-speech language to communicate. We do not only rely on non-speech communication to communicate emotion, but also importance, and to clarify. We can read their non-speech language to have better clarity surrounding their mood or delivery method. For instance, we can hear them say something that sounds rude, but when we see them smiling then we know that they are being sarcastic. We can hear them say that something was large, but we may not fully comprehend the size of what they are talking about unless they show us with some form of sign language.
Scientifically, the use of body language can help us to simply understand communication more effectively. Anytime we have more clarity on a subject, then we are better equipped to survive and thrive. Seeing how much friends or family members struggle in hunting, cleaning, or other every-day life activities can help us in ensuring that we do things differently. Essentially, humans are communicating with their body language at all moments of the day, intentionally and unintentionally. To be able to read that body language can be very enlightening.
There are certainly people who are less socially adept and therefore less capable of efficiently reading body language.
A situation where body languag may hinder my ability to accurately understand what they are communicating might be where their body language communicates a lot of emotion to support an argument that is factually incorrect. For example, if I am crying and wailing and hurting myself in the middle of the street then you might think that I am terribly distraught and perhaps you should listen to what I have to say. If I then communicate that I think cars are evil and kill people (even though they are innanimate objects) and that all cars should be banned then you would say that I am crazy.
Hello Philip,
ReplyDeleteI am curious... did you let your partner in on the assignment prior to beginning the conversation? You said they were caught off guard so I wanted to clarify because it sounds like they were not made aware. I was worried about to not letting my partner know! Now I am curious about how it would have been a different experience if I didn't let him know. Hmmmm...
I like how you stated that there would be an anecdotal advantage in that it would be based upon the experiences of the person speaking. I think it's so great and interesting that your partner tried to get you to mimic his or her movements by acting in a more dramatic way. I hear you on the idea that removing body language is almost like speaking without ("void") any emotion. Regardless of how we communicate, the idea that emotions would be lacking does seem to render that conversation unproductive. Great example of how reading (incorrect) body language could be a hinderance!
Hey Phillip,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you part two was far more difficult than part one. Being a communications major it was hard to just sit there and not even gesture or communicate through haptics or kinesics was very hard because in every communication class I have taken they always critique you big time for not doing this. I thought it was interesting that you think their is a balance of power between you both in the conversation. For me it was the opposite, I had more power being non-verbal than my friend who was verbal the whole time. I valued your point on how incorrectly reading body language can be a hindrance. Great post.
Good description of your first experiment:
ReplyDelete" I felt as if I did have some power in the conversation because they were caught so off guard by my lack of communication. "
Power can be expressed in different ways, and power can be over different things. You did not have power in this conversation. That was clear, but you experienced a measure of power over your partners in their friendship with you. Keep in mind that, had you tried this with perfect strangers, it would have been very unlikely that they would have hung around and put up with this. Your friends are invested in your relationship with them and that's why they agreed to this. In a sense, you used the power of that friendship to get them to do this experiment with you. I suggest you owe them a pizza to re-balance that power relationship. ;-)
"What I mean by that is that it's only an advantage in certain situations."
Yes, but this was asking about a very specific circumstance, namely regarding the ability to communicate complex ideas within their population. Understand what "complex ideas" actually are. Would you be able to explain Darwin's theory of natural selection or Einstein's theory of relativity without symbolic language? I don't think I could. If body language was better at communicating these complex ideas, we wouldn't need spoken symbolic language. Because symbolic language is pervasive in all cultures, that tells us that it is advantageous in communication, particularly with concepts that are just ideas and not things to demonstrate and show.
What would you expect the attitude of the speaking culture might be toward the non-speaking culture?
"A modern situation that may mirror this situation would be two individuals speaking different languages."
On the right track, but remember that this goes beyond language differences. To find a real life example of this experiment, we need to find a situation where you have a speaking population and another group that doesn't speak that language, and this results in a power differential, with the speaking culture having power over the non-speaking. We see that in the interaction between English speakers and non-English speaking immigrant populations. Think about how non-English speaking immigrants are treated in Southern California? Are they treated as equals?
(Google is limiting my comment size. I'll add the second half here.)
DeletePart (B):
" I found that my partner was made very uncomfortable by my lack of body language."
Why? What was missing in this conversation that would make them uncomfortable?
I don't disagree with your conclusions regarding the information we receive from body language, but you are only considering the situation where body language matches and supports the information you receive from spoken language. What does it tell you when the body language doesn't match the spoken language? Humans tend to use body language as a type of lie detector. If spoken words don't match with the body language, we are more inclined to believe the body language and doubt the words. Think about how being able to detect liars might help an individual's ability to survive and reproduce (which applies to the next section).
This goes back to your observation that your partner was uncomfortable. We expect that, in conversations, we will have body language available to us to help us confirm the validity of a person's words, so we can know that they are speaking the truth to us. Without body language, we have no way of evaluating the validity of those words and we face the possibility that this person is lying to us. Are you comfortable with a person blatantly lying to you?
Okay on the benefits of body language, but what type of benefits do you get by being able to detect liars?
Missing the first question in the next section: Are there groups of people who have difficulty reading body language?
With regard to your example, wouldn't you want to know that the person was crazy? In that situation, I'm not sure I would want to give up any information, spoken or non-spoken, that would help me interact safely with a person who was clearly not behaving rashionally. In fact, body language may be the only reliable information if the words spoken are blatantly false.
We need to think of a situation where body language lie to you, not because the person is intentionally misleading you but because you are misreading the body language. When might body language of others mislead you and it would be better to ignore it? Do all cultures use the same system of body language? They all use different systems of spoken/written language, so why would we assume their body language isn't different? If you travel to another country, can you trust the information you get from their body language?