Appearance is a second important factor involved with nonverbal communication. In today’s society, the purpose of clothing has changed from fulfilling a need to expressing oneself. Teens use fashion to determine cliques such as prep, jock, punk, or gangster. Clothing communication is continued later in life by identifying someone in a suit as a businessperson, someone wearing a black robe as a judge, doctors wearing lab coats and stethoscopes or various other positions wearing required uniforms of dress. Adornments are another form of appearance. Wearing expensive jewelry communicates one message while wearing ceremonial ornaments communicates a completely different message. Appearance also takes into account personal grooming such as cleanliness, doing one’s hair, nail trimming or wearing make-up.

Overall appearance is the nonverbal that people are most aware of and manipulate the most. Appearance communicates how we feel and how we want to be viewed.

Eye Contact

Many sayings hold that the eye is the window to the mind. This is very true to illustrating the power of eye contact in nonverbal communication. Eye contact can maintain, yield, deny and request communication between people. People who use eye contact are viewed as confident, credible and having nothing to hide.

Some important do’s and do not’s of eye contact are:

Body

As mentioned earlier, there are many parts of your body that add to the nonverbal message. This type of nonverbal communication is called kinesic code. It is made up of emblems, illustrators, regulators, affect displays and adapters. These behaviors are each communicated in different behaviors and movements of your body.

The first important aspect of kinesics is posture. Standing or sitting in a relaxed professional manner is a positive posture nonverbal. Also, being comfortably upright, squarely facing an audience, and evenly distributing your weight are all aspects of posture that communicate professionalism, confidence, attention to detail and organization.

Nonverbals communicated by moving the trunk of your body are called body gestures. Several different body gesture strategies are to move to change mood or pace, draw attention, or reinforce and idea. Some examples are stepping aside for a transition or stepping forward to emphasize a point.

Hand gestures are what are most often ide ntified as nonverbal communication. One reason is because they are so obvious to a receiver and seen to be partly conscious. It is important to let your gestures flow naturally as if in conversation with a close friend. You may also use gestures to specifically describe shape and size, emphasize a point, enumerate a list, or picking out a specific item. In conjunction with hand gestures is touching. This is a very powerful communicator especially for establishing a link to a receiver or conveying emotion. However, touching is dangerous because it invades a persons intimate space and may be perceived as unwanted or breaking norms. It is important to pay attention to the other person’s nonverbal cues before deciding to initiate a touch.

The last area of physical nonverbal communication is facial expression. Facial expression is partly innate and also partly learned. Because of the number of muscles and features, such as mouth, nose, lips, cheeks, in your face, it is extremely expressive. A face can ask questions, show doubt, surprise, sadness, happiness and a wealth of other messages.

Below is a list of some body behavior and the message they communicate.

1) Slumped posture = low spirits

2) Erect posture = high spirits, energy and confidence

3) Lean forward = open and interested

4) Lean away = defensive or disinterested

5) Crossed arms = defensive

6) Uncrossed arms = willingness to listen