Page 119 - Essentials of Human Communication

98 ChaPter 5 Nonverbal Messages

OK sign Thumbs up Thumbs down
France: you're a zero; Japan: Australia: up yours; Germany: the Most countries:
please give me coins; Brazil: an number one; Japan: the number five; something is wrong
obscene gesture; Mediterranean Saudi Arabia: I'm winning; Ghana: an or bad
countries: an obscene gesture insult; Malaysia: the thumb is used to
point rather than the index finger

Thumb and forefinger Open palm
Most countries: money; Greece: an insult dating to ancient
France: something is perfect; times; West Africa: “You have five
Mediterranean: a vulgar gesture fathers,” an insult akin to calling
someone a bastard

FIgure 5.1
some cultural Meanings of gestures
Cultural differences in the meanings of nonverbal gestures are often significant. The over-the-head clasped
hands that signify victory to an American may signify friendship to a Russian. To a North American, holding up
two fingers to make a V signifies victory or peace. To certain South Americans, however, it is an obscene gesture
that corresponds to an extended middle finger in the United States. This figure highlights some additional
nonverbal differences. Can you identify others?

Illustrators enhance (literally “illustrate”) the verbal messages they accompany. For
example, when referring to something to the left, you might gesture toward the left. Most
often you illustrate with your hands, but you can also illustrate with head and general body
movements. You might, for example, turn your head or your entire body toward the left. You
might also use illustrators to communicate the shape or size of objects you’re talking about.
Recent research points to an interesting advantage of illustrators—namely, that they increase
your ability to remember. In this research people who illustrated their verbal messages with
gestures remembered 20 percent more than those who didn’t gesture (Goldin-Meadow,
Nusbaum, Kelly, & Wagner, 2001).
Affect displays are movements of the face (smiling or frowning, for example) but also of
the hands and general body (body tenseness or relaxed posture, for example) that communi-
cate emotional meaning. You use affect displays to accompany and reinforce your verbal
messages and also as substitutes for words. For example, you might smile while saying how
happy you are to see your friend, or you might simply smile. (Affect displays, being primarily
centered in the facial area, are covered in more detail in the next section.)
Regulators are behaviors that monitor, control, coordinate, or maintain the speech of
another individual. When you nod your head, for example, you tell the speaker to keep on
speaking; when you lean forward and open your mouth, you tell the speaker that you would
like to say something.
Adaptors are gestures that satisfy some personal need, such as scratching to relieve an
itch or moving your hair out of your eyes. Self-adaptors are self-touching movements
(e.g., rubbing your nose). Alter-adaptors are movements directed at the person with whom
you’re speaking: for example, removing lint from a person’s jacket or straightening his or her tie,
or folding your arms in front of you to keep others at a comfortable distance. Object-adaptors
are gestures focused on objects (e.g., doodling on or shredding a Styrofoam coffee cup.)
Table 5.3 summarizes these five types of body movements.