Page 59 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

42 Chapter 2

Americans prefer direct eye contact with their conversational partners, “Look at
me while I am talking,” but in some cultures (e.g., most Native American cultures)
this is perceived as rude, and in still others (e.g., Arabic cultures) intense staring is
the norm. Hispanic children are taught to lower their gaze to indicate respect, but
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this can backfire in cases where Hispanic children interact with members of the
dominant American culture who are expecting eye contact as a sign they are
listening. For example, white American teachers and police officers sometimes
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misinterpret a lowered gaze as sullenness when it is actually offered as a sign of
respect or deference.

Facial Expressions Facial expressions indicate feelings and moods. Without a word
being spoken, you can perceive anger, support, disagreement, and other sentiments.
Eckman et al. found that at least six types of emotion could be detected accurately
from facial expressions. People with poker faces, who change facial expression very
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little, tend to be trusted less than people whose expressive faces signal their feelings
more openly. But even poker-faced people leak their feelings by physiological changes
they can’t readily control, such as sweating or blushing. If group members show few
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facial expressions, watch for other revealing physiological signs.
The face is quick! Some expressions last a mere 200 milliseconds and your eye
blinks are over in even less time. A webcam connected to a good Internet connection
can transmit 30 frames every minute, but this drops during a bad connection. The
consequence to group discussion is that many facial microexpressions are lost. 72
Be careful assuming that facial expressions, such as smiling, mean the same in all
cultures. For example, a smile in Japan may be a spontaneous expression of pleasure, but
it may also represent the desire not to cause pain for someone else. A smiling Japanese
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may say to you, “I just came from my mother’s funeral.” According to Japanese rules of
etiquette, it is extremely bad form to inflict unpleasantness on someone else; thus, no
matter how bad someone feels inside, a cheerful face must be presented to the world.

Kinesics Movements The study of how we communicate by movement is called kinesics. We
Study of reveal our feelings with bodily movements and gestures. We show tension by shifting
communication around in a chair, drumming fingers, swinging a foot, or twitching an eye. Such behav-
through movements. ior may signal frustration, impatience with the group’s progress, or annoyance. Alert
group members will attempt to track down the source of tension by pointing out the
kinesic cues and asking what may be producing them.
According to Scheflen, body orientation indicates how open to and accepting of
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others a group member feels. Members turn directly to those they like and away
from those they do not like. Leaning toward others indicates a sense of belonging,
whereas leaning away signals a sense of rejection. Members who sit at angles tangen-
tial to the rest of the group may not feel included or want to belong. In fact, group
members do change their body orientation significantly from one meeting to the
next. As they get to know, like, and trust each other, they tend to increase their eye
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contact and angle their bodies more directly toward each other.
When members are tuned in to each other, they tend to imitate each other’s posture
and movements, creating a body synchrony. Scheflen observed many instances of parallel

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