Nonverbal Behavior

The Perils of Pondering: Intuition and Thin Slice Judgments

“…Such judgments are ubiquitous and are communicated through nonverbal behavior that has been characterized as "an elaborate and secret code that is written nowhere, known by none, and understood by all" (Sapir, 1949, p. 556). The literature on nonverbal behavior suggests that evaluative judgments based solely on nonverbal cues are biologically based and occur automatically, outside awareness, without drawing on conscious, cognitive processing resources (Ambady & Weisbuch, 2010).…”

“…Since then more than 100 different studies have shown that a important information regarding social and interpersonal functioning can be picked up from thin slices of behavior, regardless of the channel of communication (visual, audio, verbal, or some combination of these). For instance, judgments based on carefully controlled and quite limited information, such as 20-s silent video slices of behavior, have been found to accurately predict outcome variables such as racial bias and certain personality disorders (Ambady & Weisbuch, 2010;Richeson & Shelton, 2005).Work on nonverbal communication, evolutionary psychology, and social cognition all suggest that judgments based on thin slices of behavior are hardwired and occur relatively automatically (DePaulo & Friedman, 1998;Patterson, 1995Patterson, , 1998Patterson, , 1999Tesser & Martin, 1996). But direct empirical evidence for the intuitiveness of thin slice judgments has been lacking.…”

“…Such judgments are ubiquitous and are communicated through nonverbal behavior that has been characterized as "an elaborate and secret code that is written nowhere, known by none, and understood by all" (Sapir, 1949, p. 556). The literature on nonverbal behavior suggests that evaluative judgments based solely on nonverbal cues are biologically based and occur automatically, outside awareness, without drawing on conscious, cognitive processing resources (Ambady & Weisbuch, 2010).Social psychological processes that are considered to be intuitive and automatic generally possess an important characteristic: They are efficient. That is, such processes can occur in parallel and are not disrupted by the processing of other tasks and information (Bargh, 1996(Bargh, , 1997Devine, 1989; Neuberg, 1988;Shiffrin & Schneider, 1977, Srull & Wyer, 1979.…”

“…Since then more than 100 different studies have shown that a important information regarding social and interpersonal functioning can be picked up from thin slices of behavior, regardless of the channel of communication (visual, audio, verbal, or some combination of these). For instance, judgments based on carefully controlled and quite limited information, such as 20-s silent video slices of behavior, have been found to accurately predict outcome variables such as racial bias and certain personality disorders (Ambady & Weisbuch, 2010;Richeson & Shelton, 2005).…”

Nonverbal Communication in Business Negotiations and Business Meetings

“…In nonverbal body language are available a lot of important things as human posture, dress, accessories, gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, smile, voice intonation, laughter, eye contact, eye signs, the distance between the communicators, touch, clap, dance, and physiological responses -sweating palms, forehead, paleness, resulting in acute facial and neck redness and others [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. It should be noted that part of the signs of nonverbal communication is sent consciously (natural or play signs, signals), and the other part of the body signals is emitted to the environment unconsciously, when response to information received is at once, instantly, instinctively and without thinking [6], [7], [8], [10].…”