PSYC 2120 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Nonverbal Communication, Mirror Neuron, Display Rules
6 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
Easily observable behaviour is critical to our first impressions. We pay a lot of attention to what people say and we communicate a lot without words. Nonverbal communication refers to how people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words: facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body position, movement, use of touch, eye gaze. Our ability to read nonverbal cues is not limited to members of our species. We are also not the only species that can read nonverbal cues chimps when it comes to understanding human nonverbal: dogs can read dog nonverbals but also human nonverbal and outperform. Research shows that we automatically mimic other people"s facial expressions like happiness, sadness and disgust and the extent differs depending on our gender and the gender of the person that we are interacting with. We are more likely to mimic when we like the other person and mimicking may reflect empathy. Nonverbal cues help us express our emotions, attitudes, and personality.
