Page 328 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 11 Delivery: Engaging Your Audience 295

through a single channel of communication, such as your mouth or eyes or
hands. You’ll soon see that it is diffi cult if not impossible. At the same time,
you’ll recognize that we use these multiple channels simultaneously rather than
sequentially. When happy, we express the emotion all over our face, not with
our eyes fi rst, mouth second, eyebrows and forehead third and fourth.

The Spontaneous Nature of Nonverbal Behavior

As the preceding characteristics might lead you to believe, another distinguish-
ing characteristic is that nonverbal behavior is spontaneous. With the possible
exception of so-called Freudian slips, when people unintentionally say what
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they really mean, verbal behavior is planned behavior. We consciously think
about the words we speak and write, though we do so with such speed it may not
occur to us.
Smiles, gestures, and body language occur at a subconscious level. This
doesn’t mean that people never plan or orchestrate gestures when they speak.
Sometimes they do, and their nonverbal behavior is likely to look phony. Most
of us learn to distinguish between authentic and phony nonverbal behaviors by
the time we reach our teens. Unless nonverbal behavior is rehearsed to the point
it becomes habit, planned gestures especially will be recognized as insincere.
This is a major reason for people putting so much stock in the meaning they
infer from nonverbal behavior.

What Nonverbal Behavior Reveals

Finally, adults tend to believe what they think nonverbal behavior reveals about
people in general and speakers specifi cally. This is especially true when people
perceive that a speaker’s nonverbal behavior contradicts what the person says.
In North American culture, for example, adults associate the truth with eye con-
tact. In other cultures, however, direct eye contact is associated with disrespect
if the speaker and listener have different levels of status.
A couple of points need to be made in this regard. Nonverbal behavior can be
revealing about a person, but research tells us that we are far more confi dent in
our conclusions about what it reveals than we should be. As an audience member,
be cautious about inferring too much about a speaker on the basis of nonverbal
behavior alone. As a speaker in this culture, though, you cannot afford to ignore
the importance an audience will attach to your eye contact, posture, and manner
of gesturing. This is particularly so with respect to audience perceptions of your
credibility. Avoid innocent but consequential mistakes such as failing to look di-
rectly at audience members when you make claims you want them to believe.

A Few Words of Caution

Before moving on, we want to reinforce the complementary relationship between
verbal and nonverbal behavior. Many people mistakenly claim that meaning is
90 percent the result of nonverbal behavior. While it is true that we infer much
of what a person “feels” on the basis of such behaviors as eye contact and fa-
cial expressions, we need to balance these inferences with what the person actu-
ally says. We also need to evaluate these inferences on the basis of the cultural
context in which we observe them. Some cultures are simply more nonverbally