Communication Research

Here is a revision of a little quiz to introduce the topic of height in a nonverbal or other communication class.  It contains both historical and contemporary personalities and should play well in the classroom. The Self-test Try estimating the heights of the following famous people whom you�ve probably read about or heard about (but probably not seen in person) by circling the guessed height. In each of these examples, one of the heights given is correct. 1.       Baby Face Nelson (bank robber and murderer in the 1930s): 5'5", 5'11", 6'2" 2.       Ludwig Van Beethoven (influential German composer): 5�6�, 6�0�, 6�5� 3.       Kim Kardashian (media personality): 5�2�, 5�5�, 5�8� 4.       Buckminster Fuller (scientist, credited with inventing the geodesic dome): 5�2�, 5�10�, 6�3� 5.       Bruno Mars (singer): 5�5�, 5�8�, 5�10� 6.       ...

I wrote this little piece to respond to some concerns voiced on the Basic Course List and I thought it might be relevant more generally. The recent posts about increasing class size and the new student learning objectives/outcomes are alarming. And, as the economic pressure on colleges continues, it only looks like it�s going to get worse. Now may be the time to reconsider and reconceptualize the basic course. Traditionally, the basic course in communication has been a course designed to teach the skills of public speaking. Then in the early 70�s courses in interpersonal communication were developed, again to teach basic skills. For those who wanted a broader spectrum of skills, there was the hybrid course, designed to teach the skills of interpersonal communication, interviewing, small group and leadership, and public speaking�with varied emphases.             These skills courses are most departments� �bread and butter.� Consequen...

One of the most difficult of all conversational tasks is to ask someone for a favor. Of course, it depends on the favor and on the relationship you have with the person from whom you want the favor. If it�s a close friend and the favor is relatively easy to perform, there is little difficulty and little conversational awkwardness. If the favor is to a superior, say a work supervisor, and the favor one that would be difficult or time-consuming to perform, there would be much difficulty and much conversational awkwardness. Asking a total stranger poses still other problems.  Yet, despite these many differences, some general suggestions may be offered. So, how do you ask for a favor? Here are a few steps:             First and foremost, select an appropriate communication context. Consider the time, place, and medium of communication�at the very least. Is this the appropriate time? Is this the appropriate place? Is this the most a...

Get Ready to Study Interpersonal Communication This post is designed for users of my Interpersonal Communication Book but the idea can easily be adapted to any text you might be using. To explain: In revising my Interpersonal Communication Book , I developed an introductory feature that opens the discussion of the chapter by asking students to consider a how the contents of the chapter relate to their own experiences.  Pearson�the publisher�thought this feature would interfere with the learning objectives�that the student would be confused between these items and the learning objectives. At any rate, I eliminated the feature from the text�maybe it would have been too much introductory material, though I doubt that any college student would be confused between these questions and the learning objectives. Yet, I still think this is an excellent way to open the discussions for each of the various chapters.             These �Get ...

Here�s an article on body language that you should avoid; body gestures that can create a negative impression in another person. It's best to look at these gestures as creating negative impressions under certain circumstances but, certainly, not in all situations: 1.  Crossing your arms across your chest can indicate defensiveness. 2.       Leaning forward can indicate aggressiveness. 3.       Breaking your eye contact too early in the interaction. 4.       Putting your hands on your hips when standing can indicate aggressiveness. 5.       Taking a step or two back when asked a question or for a decision. 6.       Putting your hands behind your back or in your pockets can make you look overly stiff. 7.       Nodding more than usual can make you look less than serious.

Here�s an interesting article on lying and the nonverbal cues that often (but, not always) reveal that a person is, in fact, lying. The author correctly points out that the first thing one needs to know is how the person behaves normally�what we call establishing a baseline of behavior. Deviations from this baseline are the most revealing. Here are the 11 signs.  1. Liars change their head position more than truth-tellers 2. Liars' breathing changes 3. Liars stand still 4. Liars repeat words and phrases 5. Liars provide more information than needed 6. Liars touch or cover their mouth 7. Liars cover vulnerable body parts 8. Liars shuffle their feet 9. Liars find it difficult to speak 10. Liars stare without blinking 11. Liars point a lot

Here's an interesting article reporting on research claiming that Facebook actually increases loneliness.

Here�s a wonderful brief article on excuse making ( Psychology Today , August 2014, p. 22--doesn't seem to be online yet), a topic covered in the Interpersonal Communication Book and Interpersonal Messages by Amy Nordrum. Among the conclusions are these: (1)     Excuses work; they can often deflect/stave off/lessen retaliation. (2)      Too frequent excuses--such as self-handicapping excuses--will lead to a loss of faith. (3)    Effective excuses accomplish two goals: (a) they accept responsibility and offer assurances that this will not happen again and (b) they show empathy for the difficulties they caused.

Here's an interesting infographic: 9 Simple Conversation Hacks: How to Turn Any Interaction in Your Favor , sent to me by Sarah Johnson. Thank you, Sarah. It's sure to spark some interesting class discussion on the uses of communication skills or with the section on conversation or persuasion.

Here is an interesting case that would work well in any communication class dealing with ethics.  In Sunday's New York Times ,  Chuck Klosterman, the Ethicist, was asked if it was ethical for a beer company to bottle the exact same beer but package it in two different type bottles with different labels, one �regular� and one �premium.� The answer from the ethicist was that this was not unethical since the brewer didn�t say these beers were different; it was left it up to the customer to make the inference.  �It only becomes unethical,� says Klosterman, �if the brewer claimed the premium beverage was literally different.� This is nonsense, IMHO. The brewer did say, claim, communicate that the beers were different by the different bottles and the different labels. The label �premium� means that the product is different from one that is not labeled �premium.�  To limit communication to words seems a bit na�ve and leaves us with a conclusion that is intuitively incorrec...

Here's a wonderful  Infographic  on communication sent to me by Michael Yunat, coordinator/GetVolP. It should make a good discussion starter in interpersonal or fundamentals of communication courses.

Here is a New York Times  article on deception detection at airports or, rather, the lack of it. And after a $1 billion plus investment! There is also a great interactive link within the article that will prove interesting in a class discussion.

Here is a report on a study which provides some interesting evidence that although we are only able to detect lying at about 50 percent accuracy (consciously), we may do better relying on our unconscious mind. Briefly, the researchers found that subjects took longer to attach "truthful" labels such as truthful , honest , and valid to visuals of people (shown at speeds below the level of consciousness) who were identified as liars. They also took longer to attach "lie" labels such as dishonest, deceitful, and invalid to visuals of those identified as truth tellers. Conversely, truth labels were more quickly attached to truth-tellers and deception labels were more quickly attached to liars.

In the current issue of Wired (May 2014) there�s a brief article on Menssana Research and their efforts to detect sickness from breath samples. According to their website, they do NOT provide diagnostic tests for disease but instead a breath test to tell you if you don�t need to get more tests. So, for example, in the case of a lung cancer test, if the breath test is negative, the person need not go for additional tests. If the test is positive, then additional testing (such as a chest CT) is needed.  We do something similar when we make judgments about someone having, say, an upset stomach from their bad breath. So, in The Nonverbal Communication Book the four functions of smell that I identify--to attract others, to aid taste, to aid memory, and to create an image�need to be increased to add: to detect illness and well-being.

Here is a study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that shows that partial confessions/apologies may actually increase the guilt a person experiences. The reason, it seems, is that guilt is created by the lying implicit in the partial confession and this is added to the guilt felt over the original transgression. It's unlikely that this will apply in all such situations and a full confession--depending on the situation--may actually increase the interpersonal problems. We see this on Maury and Jerry Springer and similar shows where a guest confesses to, say, a one-time affair but the lie detector reveals multiple affairs. The confessor may indeed experience added guilt for lying but this is likely to be minor compared to the interpersonal problems the couple now confronts. So, while partial confessions may create added guilt, this does not mean that we should advise total confession in all situations. This "added guilt" is just one additional factor th...