PsyBlog has just published a couple of short articles on non-verbal communication, one examining a common myth, and the other looking at how it indicates attraction between people who’ve just met.
The first article is on the research that debunks the myth that ‘93% of communication is nonverbal’.
Just the precision of those sorts of statements make me suspicious. To quote the wise words of comedian Vic Reeves “88.2% of statistics are made up on the spot”.
The second article examines a study that looked at the dynamic patterns of non-verbal communication when men and women met for the first time, and looked at how these patterns were related to attraction.
Contrary to many previous findings, attraction was predicted by patterns of synchronisation and not simple mirroring of body language. What emerged were rhythmic structures of movement synchrony – patterns of bodily movement people adopted. In common with previous research, Grammer et al. (1998) found it was women who tended to start and control these patterns. Indeed, the more interested a woman was in a man, the more complicated these patterns became.
There’s more on this impressive study in the PsyBlog article.
Link to article on myth of non-verbal communication.
Link to article ‘The Nonverbal Symphony of Attraction’.
Mind Hacks 
Hi, Vaughn!
Dance/movement therapist here, again. It looks like our friend at the psych blog is making some points, without adequate back up. Movement (including patterns/rhythms, synchrony) IS non-verbal communication. However, I would recomend to everyone to check out http://www.ADTA.org. It is the main website to the national organization American Dance Therapy Association. Please do not be deterred by the word, “dance”. It does not mean “dance class”, but the psychtherapeutic application of movement in psychotherapy. And…there is a load of empirical reserach done in the field of dance/movmement therapy that provides information regarding communication through movement…see PsychInfo for random journlas, or check out the Journal of Dance/movement Therapy, or The Arts in Psychotherapy journal for starters. Please check it out. I welcome communication in this arena.
To see non-verbal communication strictly through mirroring is like viewing neuroscience as occuring solely in the brain.
Best regards, and happy learning!
JFTantia, MS, ADTR, LCAT