Why is body language important?
The importance of body language in communication cannot be stressed enough.
Body language is also known by another term called Nonverbal Behavior. Nonverbal behavior is a complex signal system of the body to communicate our mental states, thoughts and feelings.
Examples of Body Language
Body language is one of the most complex signal systems of the body because it includes different channels like:
- Facial expressions
- Tone of voice
- Your hands
- Gestures
- Body posture
- The way you walk
- How much space we take when we talk with each other
- Whether or not we touch each other
Each of those channels are important in communication and can communicate different messages.
They communicate specific or generic emotions. They communicate cognitive processes or specific cognitions; some kind of physiological states and some other things.
When you put all those channels together with all those signals it’s really easy to see why nonverbal behavior or body language is one of the most, or the most, complex signal system in the body. When we’re trying to observe and understand body language, it’s just so overwhelming because there’s so many channels and messages.
Want to learn more about body language?
Check out our intro to body language webinar series! More info here.
So what channel should you focus on?
Research has shown that of all of the channels and all of the messages coming at us, one of the most important is facial expressions of emotion. That’s why we focus on facial expressions of emotion.
That doesn’t mean that everything else is not important because we also focus on the other things, like gesture and voices and everything else. But facial expressions of emotion are the most important channel that we have.
What’s unique about Humintell?
One thing that’s unique about our work and our approach to body language is that we focus on what we call validated indicators.
These are behaviors that have been validated by research and science over the last thirty to fifty years and that have been vetted in the field by the thousands of people that we have been fortunate enough to train and use our system in their daily lives.
Benefits of Reading and Understanding Body Language
Fortunately, research and practical experience can tell us which behavior to pay attention to and which to ignore, which are more important than others, and the kinds of messages we can get.
Learning to read facial expressions of emotion remains one of the most important channels of nonverbal behavior.
Here are a few of the many benefits to learning how to read facial expressions:
Strong Predictor of Workplace Performance
The ability to read emotions in others and in oneself has proven through research to be the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence.
A recent study even suggests people who are in tune with their colleagues’ emotions are more likely to bring home a bigger paycheck than their emotionally-stunted colleagues!
Increased Ability to Detect Deception
Research has demonstrated that when motivated people lie, and there are stakes if they are caught, clues to deception do emerge, and appear as leakage across multiple channels.
The number one channel where this leakage occurs? You got it, facial expressions of emotion.
In addition, while there has been a general consensus that microexpressions (facial expressions that last less than ½ second: they occur when people are consciously or unconsciously trying to conceal or repress what they are feeling) play a significant role in deception detection for decades, in reality there had never been a research study published in a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that documented that claim.
Until now.
New and exciting evidence comes from Humintell’s own Drs. David Matsumoto and Hyisung Hwang in a recently published paper in Frontiers in Psychology. In their study, they sought to determine whether microexpressions could reliably indicate deception in a mock crime experiment. Ultimately, they found that microexpressions served as a helpful guide both in detecting deceit and also in evaluating future misconduct.
Alleviates Facial Affect Recognition Deficits in Children with Autism
Multiple research studies have concluded that be using a computerized emotion recognition training program (like MiX), children with autism could improve their facial expression recognition ability.
More information on these research studies conducted can be found here and here.
Reduce Subsequent Crime in Juvenile Offenders with Antisocial Behavior
Researchers in the UK found that boys who improved their ability to recognize fear, anger and sadness in others’ faces were significantly less violent and severe that those who did not receive training.
The study involved 50 boys who had been convicted of a crime. More on this fascinating research can be found here.