Isabel Robertson and Emily Weiler
Whitworth University
Introduction
Humans communicate in so many ways beyond using words. Faces, bodies, hands, and eyes provide a world of information, but how do they make us think about other people?
Non-verbal Communication
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Facial expression is the most widely studied form of non-verbal communication
Of the main groups of non-verbal cues, facial expressions are the most widely studied for their effects on impression formation, social judgements, and accuracy of personality evaluations. Research has found that children as young as age three can make adult-like inferences about traits based on facial appearance (Cogsdill et al., 2014). This demonstrates that non-verbal cues can begin to impact social perceptions in children who are still learning the intricacies of speech.
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Other commonly studied forms include physical appearance and body movements
Beyond facial expressions, little research has been conducted on other forms of non-verbal communication and their relationship to social perception. Of the research that has been done, other non-verbal cues of focus include physical appearance, body movements and body pose. In a study of personality judgments and physical appearance, researchers found that while personality judgements can be made accurately on static physical appearance, such as a blank face and standardized pose, traits are more easily detected and judgements more accurate, when expressive appearance cues such as unique facial expressions and dynamic postures are available (Naumann et al., 2009). These results demonstrated that physical appearance as a non-verbal cue may play more importance in personality judgements than previously considered.
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Little research focuses on cues from the body such as hand gestures and posture
While research on emotional perception has primarily focused on facial expression and vocal cues, body cues such as body movement and gestures have been linked to other forms of social perceptions such as emotion identification and differentiation (Montepare et al., 1999). Despite these major findings, most research on non-verbal cues and communication does not focus on the body at large, but rather only certain elements that are perhaps more easily perceptible.
Trait Attribution
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Definition:
Dispositional attribution, also known as trait attribution, occurs when people explain other's behaviors or non-verbal cues by their disposition: their attitudes and traits (Myers, 2013)
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The Big-Five Traits of Personality
Most research in this area utilizes the Big Five model, which highlights openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, or emotional stability, as the five universal traits of human personality.
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1. openness to experience- curiosity, imagination, innovation
2. conscientiousness- dependability, organization, grit
3. extraversion- sociability, assertiveness, optimism
4. agreeableness- integrity, honesty, kindness
5. neuroticism/ emotional stability- confidence, resilience, self-esteem
Former research:
Examples from past research:
- Body movement was significantly associated with traits of extraversion and agreeableness (Koppensteiner et al., 2015)
- Static and dynamic posture differences can be associated to high accuracy in judgements of emotional stability or neuroticism (Naumann et al., 2009).
Our research:
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While much research on personality utilizes the Big Five model, as the current study also does, more research is necessary to determine the effects of non-verbal communication on general positive or negative trait attributions as opposed to specific traits.
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The Big-Five
Non-verbal communication
Non-verbal communication
Specific Traits
overall positive or negative traits
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Focus of prior research on non-verbal communication and traits
While many studies have assessed non-verbal cues and their impact on the accuracy and consistency of personality trait identification, little research has focused on how non-verbal cues, especially bodily cues, can result in personality trait attributions as social impressions or judgments.
Former research:
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Luo et al. (2016) found that presentation of affective (moods and emotions) personality information has an implicit influence on facial processing. These results demonstrate how presented trait information may result in facial perception and recognition.
Our research:
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The current study aims to understand the reverse: how presented non-verbal cue information might result in personality trait attributions.