Body Language and Information Transmission

We have learned that there are two channels of communication:

1. Verbal channel
2. Nonverbal channel

We use the verbal channel to convey raw information: words.
We use the nonverbal channel to confirm or negate the meaning of the raw information we sent with the verbal channel and to convey subtle and fuzzy messages that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to transmit via the verbal channel.

One of the peculiarities of nonverbal language is that, differently from verbal communication, it cannot be completely controlled.
While the verbal channel can be activated consciously, i.e. words come out of our mouth only after we have thought what to say and after we have decided that we want to transmit those thoughts to someone else, nonverbal communication can exist without our conscious consent.

Information can be transmitted even without our rationale will.
If, for example, we are scared by something, we cannot hide it.

Fear is a powerful feeling, very difficult to hide so, even if we don’t say a single word and we try to be completely “neutral”, there will always be some part of our body that we won’t be able to control, some little gesture that will reveal our emotional involvement and feelings in that situation. Facial expressions, gestures and postures don’t lie.

Besides fear, other feelings and emotions that can unconsciously be communicated through nonverbal communication are:

• joy
• shyness
• arrogance
• availability
• etc…

practically the whole spectrum of human feelings can be transmitted through body language and most of the time we don’t even realize it.