http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E0hTktMIyE
I ran across this video on youtube and thought it was pretty interesting. It also reminded me a lot of one of our recent assignments where we intentionally held steady eye contact, or maintained no eye contact at all while in a conversation to see how it affected the speaker.
This video talks about how the non verbal behavior of the listener can send cues to the speaker. I've always found this topic kind of interesting. I feel like when I am talking with my friends, or someone I am comfortable with, my non verbal cues happen naturally and I don't even notice them. On the other hand, when I'm talking with someone I'm not as comfortable with, I'm very aware of my non verbal communication and I attempt to manipulate it to say certain things about me.
The best example I can think of is job interviews. Whenever I am interviewing with someone, I find myself extremely aware of the messages I am sending via my face and body language. For instance, I usually make a pretty concentrated effort to sit with perfect posture, and I really over exaggerate positive facial expressions to try and show them how interested I am in the conversation. Several times in the past I have caught myself grinning excessively (and probably causing them to wonder what was wrong with me in the process), making overly intense eye contact, and nodding my head to almost everything they say.
I am sure this behavior didn't come across as I had intended, and instead looked very awkward. That got me thinking...is natural or forced non verbal behavior more effective and reliable when being sent from a listener to a speaker. Natural behavior can obviously be argued to be the one that speaks most honestly. Is it really as effective as we think to used forced non verbal communication to try and get a point across? Does it instead end up looking awkward and missing the mark all together? What do you guys think?
I feel like usually forced expressions do look awkward and usually do not end up being nearly as effective as a person's natural expressions. Usually you can tell, or at least I can tell, when a person is not being genuine in their expressions, which I associate with being "fake". In order to get a point across, I feel that it is definitely more sensibile to use your natural expressions since usually a person can see right through forced, or fake expressions, which, if anything, makes the person less effective than before.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting first post!