ABSTRACT
Sayings that attest to the importance of nonverbal communication in our lives vary from “A picture is a worth 1,000 words” to “Appearances are deceiving.” But what are we talking about when discussing nonverbal elements of communication? Many people think of “body language” when discussing nonverbal messages. However, thinking of nonverbal only as body language ignores several important elements. For our purposes, nonverbal communication will be defined as “those behaviors other than words themselves that form a socially shared coding system” (Burgoon, 1994, p. 231). Two primary aspects of this definition are worth noting: First, it includes a wide variety of behaviors besides “body language.” Second, it assumes people recognize the meaning of these behaviors within their social or cultural setting. These two aspects of nonverbal will become very clear by the end of this chapter.
