Importance of Nonverbal Communications to your case

Impact on believably

• Spoken Words - 7%

• Nonverbals - 93%

Nonverbal communication is incredibly important because it often conveys more information than verbal communication alone. In fact, studies suggest that up to 65-93% of communication can be nonverbal, depending on the context and how it's measured. Here's why nonverbal communication is so crucial:

1. Conveys Emotion and Intention

• Facial Expressions: Our faces are incredibly expressive, often revealing emotions before we even say a word. A smile, frown, raised eyebrows, or even a subtle eye movement can express feelings like happiness, confusion, anger, or surprise, often more clearly than words.

• Tone of Voice: The way something is said can convey emotion just as much as the words themselves. The tone, pitch, volume, and rate of speech can signal whether someone is excited, sarcastic, angry, or sincere.

• Body Language: Gestures, posture, and movements can convey openness, defensiveness, confidence, or nervousness. For example, crossed arms may indicate a defensive attitude, while leaning forward might suggest interest and engagement.

2. Reinforces or Contradicts Verbal Communication

• Consistency: Nonverbal cues can either support or contradict what someone is saying. If someone says they’re “fine” but their posture is slumped and they avoid eye contact, their nonverbal cues may suggest they are not, in fact, fine. This is why paying attention to nonverbal signals is crucial to fully understanding a message.

• Congruence: When verbal and nonverbal communication align (e.g., someone says, “I’m happy” while smiling), the message is more likely to be accepted as truthful. When they don’t align, it may cause confusion or mistrust.

3. Cultural Significance

• Cultural Variations: Nonverbal cues are often culturally specific. A gesture that is positive in one culture might be offensive in another. For instance, the thumbs-up gesture is a sign of approval in many Western cultures, but can be seen as rude in some parts of the Middle East. Understanding the cultural context of nonverbal communication is vital, especially in global or multicultural interactions.

• Social Norms: In some cultures, maintaining eye contact is a sign of confidence and respect, while in others, it may be considered impolite or confrontational. Similarly, personal space can vary widely between cultures, affecting how comfortable individuals feel in interactions.

4. Helps Build Relationships

• Trust and Rapport: Nonverbal communication plays a key role in establishing and maintaining trust. Open, relaxed body language (like leaning slightly forward and nodding) can make someone feel heard and understood. Eye contact, smiling, and mirroring someone’s posture are also ways to build rapport and establish positive relationships.

• Social and Emotional Bonding: Nonverbal communication is key to expressing empathy and emotional connection. For example, comforting a friend by placing a hand on their shoulder or offering a hug can express support and understanding without needing to say anything.

5. Aids in Communication When Words Are Insufficient

• Expressing the Inexpressible: Sometimes, words are inadequate to express the depth of a feeling or sentiment. In these cases, nonverbal cues can fill in the gaps. For example, a look of concern can communicate sympathy far more effectively than a simple “I’m sorry” when someone is grieving.

• Crossing Language Barriers: Nonverbal communication can be especially useful when verbal language is a barrier. For instance, a smile, handshake, or gesture of kindness can bridge differences in language and culture, fostering understanding even when words fail.

6. Enhances Persuasion and Influence

• Nonverbal Influence: People often make decisions based on nonverbal cues, sometimes more than the actual content of what is being said. For example, a confident posture, steady eye contact, and expressive gestures can enhance the persuasive power of a message. In fact, leaders, politicians, and marketers often use nonverbal communication deliberately to convey authority, charisma, or trustworthiness.

• Confidence and Authority: The way someone carries themselves—through posture, gestures, and eye contact—can project confidence and authority, which can make them more persuasive or credible in certain situations.

7. Effective Communication in High-Stress Situations

• Calming Others: In tense or high-pressure situations, nonverbal communication is crucial in calming down individuals or diffusing potential conflict. A calm, measured tone of voice, coupled with open body language and a steady presence, can help soothe anxiety and promote cooperative behavior.

• De-escalation: In confrontational or aggressive situations, nonverbal signals—like avoiding direct eye contact, using open palms, or lowering one’s posture—can de-escalate tensions and avoid physical confrontation.

8. Nonverbal Cues and Leadership

• Leadership Presence: Leaders often rely on strong nonverbal communication to assert their authority, connect with their teams, and inspire confidence. Effective leaders tend to have open and confident body language, speak with clarity, and make strong eye contact.

• Public Speaking: A speaker’s nonverbal cues (such as gestures, posture, facial expressions, and pacing) are crucial in maintaining audience engagement. A well-timed gesture or expression can make an argument more compelling and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message.

Key Types of Nonverbal Communication:

1. Facial Expressions: The face is highly expressive, able to convey a wide range of emotions without a word being spoken.

2. Gestures: Hand movements, nods, and other physical gestures help emphasize or clarify spoken words.

3. Posture: How we sit or stand conveys a lot about our feelings and attitudes.

4. Eye Contact: This can communicate attention, interest, trustworthiness, and respect.

5. Proxemics (Personal Space): The distance we maintain from others speaks volumes about the nature of our relationship or the level of comfort.

6. Touch: Physical contact, such as a handshake, hug, or pat on the back, can communicate warmth, support, or dominance.

7. Tone of Voice: The pitch, volume, and speed of our voice add emotional context to our words.

8. Appearance: Our clothing, grooming, and overall appearance can nonverbally communicate status, professionalism, and personality.

As much as many nonverbals are hard wired universal responses, many of them are learned cultural behaviors, prone to misinterpretation. To make nonverbal interpretations useful what needs to happen is simultaneous assessment of multiple data points which are simultaneously cross compared to rule in and rule out the validity of any and all data.

Context is King:

Just like each region has its own names for the same item (hero, sub sandwich, submarine, poor boy, po-boy, grinder, hoagie, deli sandwich, etc) There are very few independent universal signs in the world of body language. Everything must be taken in context of person, place and prior experiences. A raised eyebrow might mean skepticism in a boardroom, playful flirtation on a date, confusion in a classroom, or s Star Trek Mr Spock fan move..

Congruity and coexistence.: 

Spoken words and nonverbal communication must sync up.   AKA Mind-Body connection.  There is a whole area of your brain that specializes in detecting deception. It actively looks for mis-match and sends out subconscious alerts when it finds them.  Most people may not be able to recognize them to their conscious mind but everyone acknowledges "Gut Feeling" sense of lingering doubt, etc.  If your client answers verbally truthful but simultaneously cross communicates an involuntary inconsistent stress response, their whole testimony can go out the window. The more redundancy in the synchronization the more believable the person is regarded.  The more incongruity the more deceptive they are perceived to be and credibility is lost..

Facial Micro-expressions:

These lightning-fast facial expressions can reveal true feelings before a person has a chance to mask them. While not foolproof, learning to spot these micro-expressions can give you valuable insights into what someone’s really thinking.

Don’t Over-interpret: 

While body language is powerful, it’s not mind-reading. Crossing arms might mean someone’s closed off… or just cold. Misreading these cues can lead to serious misunderstandings. This is where a multi-disciplined, multi-cultural interpreter is helpful to assist in decoding the messages more accurately..

KEY POINT - Authenticity Over Technique

People can often sense when you’re faking it. Instead of trying to "fake it till you make it" and manipulate your body language, the focus needs to be on genuine engagement. Authentic connection beats rehearsed gestures 99% of the time.

Simply telling a client how to act will typically fail under stress. They'll forget it under stress and fumble trying to recall it. Even trained professional actors usually cannot pull it off reciting words alone. In learning the role they create a new persona such that when onstage their actions are real biological actions of that persona not just hollow words..

By clearing out old baseline learned behaviors, cultural beliefs and personal fears then teaching your client to relax into their truth and tell their story appropriately and authentically holds up FAR better, even when aggressively challenged by opposition counsel.  When the story is true and the bad stress behaviors are removed and replaced, the clients cage can't be rattled conveying credibility to everyone in the room.

Nonverbal communication is not just an accessory to verbal communication; it is an essential part of how we understand and relate to others. By paying attention to nonverbal cues, we can communicate more effectively, understand emotions more deeply, and build stronger relationships both personally and professionally.

Nonverbal communication is a way to convey information “achieved through facial expressions, gestures, touching (haptics), physical movements (kinesics), posture, body adornment (clothes, jewelry, hairstyle, tattoos, etc.), and even the tone, timbre, and volume of an individual’s voice (rather than spoken content)” (Navarro & Karlins, 2008, p. 2–4).

Marco Iacoboni (2008, p. 81), author of Mirroring People, takes it a step further, stating that “gestures accompanying speech have a dual role of helping the speakers to express their thoughts and helping the listeners/viewers understand what is being said.”​​​

Check out our other posts in Witness Prep series to give you a better handle

 on Psychology of Stress and Behavior Modification