// The Unimportance of Words//

Anthroposemiotics is the field dedicated to understanding how people communicate. This involves communication with one’s self (intrapersonal) and with others (interpersonal).

What we know as ‘body language’ is a subsect of intrapersonal expression. It consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions and eye movements. The interpretation of these signals is almost entirely subconscious.

According to a 1960s study by Albert Mehrabian, any verbally-communicated message regarding one’s feelings or attitudes can be broken down like this:

7% words

38% vocals (volume, pitch, rhyme, etc.)

55% body movements (mostly facial expressions)

This means that up to 93 PERCENT of what we say is interpreted not by the content of the words themselves, but by how we say them and how we look when we say them.

Let that soak in a moment.

Source: You Say More Than You Think (Janine Driver)

// You say more than you speak.//

All humans are born with dyslexia.

Most of what we say to each other is not conveyed out loud. It’s a subtle movement - the blinking of an eye, the tilt of a head - that really tells the story.

Everything we say is written all over us like an open book. Yet, we often have difficulty putting all the pieces of a message together, and we miss things. A lot of things.

Not all people have the same amount of difficulty reading others. Some have a relatively keen eye, others…don’t.

But anyone can learn.

I have created this blog to explore the science of human interaction. Social psychology, which includes the interpretation of body language and behaviour, is a fascinating discipline.

I hope that you will join me on this journey.