Cultural Differences in Nonverbal Communication

Cultural Differences in Nonverbal Communication sensual coming into court butterflys an important part in non-verbal communication. It encompasses all of the physical characteristics of an individual, including consistency size , skin color , hair color and style , nervus facialis hair, and facial features. Physical air is readily observed and reveals m any(prenominal) settings of psychosocial work of goods and services2. A persons physical appearance reveals a great deal close to that person. For that reason whizz needs to lot address of his/her look prior(prenominal) to participating in oral communication, especially in business fit. For instance, a clean, neat, appropriately dressed individual call fors a positive self-image, knowledge and competence. A soil, careless(prenominal) or inappropriately dressed person conveys the message that he does not care about his or her look3.The presence of consistency olfactory perceptioning, poor hygiene, and problematically dressed clothing whitethorn be associated with any of the following depression, incompetence, impaired cognitive abilities, limited financial recourses, overwhelming care giving responsibilities, impaired vision or look, or deficiency in access to or inability to use bathing facilities4. Physical appearance includes physiological characteristics, such(prenominal) as eye color and height, as well as counselings in which we manage, or even alter, our physical appearance. For instance, umpteen plenty control their physical appearance by dieting, using steroids and new(prenominal) drugs, coloring their hair, having plastic surgery, wearing colored contact lenses, and using seduce5. Physical appearance has an influence on communication since one evaluates other(a)s in inter individualizedised exchanges6. Based on physical qualities one may bind inferences about others personalities. Although these inferences may deliver no factual basis, they can pretend ones personal and so cial relationships as well as decisions about hiring, place ment, and forwarding7. It is crucial since the first impression made during interaction lasts long. For instance, if a infantile intelligent man who graduated from the university with unadornedion and wants to snuff it a job. However, each time he would come to a job interview, he would get rejected by potential employers who would reason he doesnt suit them. The veritable issue behind those rejections would be that he has a problem with the tint that comes out of his mouth.Besides problems with the opinion of the eubstance, the color of ones skin can excessively influence the outcome of communication and affect communication process. For instance, certain individuals go forth not communicate with persons who are of a particular race or ethnicity.8In such cases, communication lead be difficult to realize, since it is a matter of choice that is already made by that person who prefers head offing interracial com munication and his opinion would be difficult to alter. There was a patch in Russia when an eleven year old school girl from Poland refuse to play with a male child from Nigeria because he was black other situation occurred in the daycare center in the USA where a small boy would not let Afro-American staff touch him as they looked dirty to him. Neither would he want to play with children of that race9.Different glossinesss have different values of physical appearance. For instance, Western culture places an extremely game value on physical appearance and on specific aspects of appearance10. Consequently, miscommunication may occur when a person with an inappropriate appearance from a different culture will attempt to conduct a talk with a person from Western culture, who will apprehend him or her incorrectly.The conventional African societies perceive full-figured bodies as signs of health, prosperity, and wealth, all of which are considered necessary. African Americans who entertain this value acknowledge or prefer women who weigh more than the example model for European American women or Caucasians11. During intercultural communication, flock will perceive each other differently and will demonstrate an attitude that they normally do in their culture. Improper usage of physical appearance in intercultural communication and setting such as a religious asylum or a corporation may result in miscommunication or even violence. Hence, one needs to adjust his/her look to a setting in which s/he will interact in the hosting culture. However, give attention only to how one looks would be insufficient if one has problems with bad intent.OlfacticsAnother aspect of the oral communication is smell of a communicator. As mentioned before, the interaction with a person who has bad smell can be the cause of failure to obtain a job. Olfactics is the study of communication via smell which is the least unders overlyd of all senses12and refers to the use and ligh t of smell as related to communication13. Smell is a principle that is al most(prenominal) only nonverbal14. It is a term for odors and scents as well as our intelligence of them15. Smell is a very strong signal to most people, close attached in many set of circumstances to strong emotions16.The tote up of human brain devoted to olfaction is a very volumed portion. Odor is first detected by the olfactory epithelium in the nose, which starts a chain of events that leads to an information flow to olfactory bulb and limbic system of the brain, which pays a key role in regulating tree trunk functions and the emotions. Smell is the only sense linked directly into the limbic system, which may be evidence of its being our most basic, primitive sense17. A tiny organ in the nasal cavity that responds to chemicals such as pheromones and inhering substances plays a role in basic human emotions such as fear, hunger, and those which are related to sex18. Smells are almost constantly proc essed in a holistic manner19.Most smells prompt olfactory responses but there is a difference in perception of smell based on gender. Women can detect odors in pass up concentrations, identify them more accurately, and remember them longer than men20. Heterosexual men and women respond to the pheromones of the opposite sex with increased activity in the hypothalamus connected to sexual behavior. Lesbians respond with elevated hypothalamic activity to the estrogen -like pheromone of other women21.It is possible to recall an event that occurred months or years ago when hurtardised smells encountered again smell as such smells are a stiff memory aid22. Hence the first impression lasts longer and that is why it needs to be good, which is why people use perfumes, soaps, and body deodorants to convey a particular image to others or to cover up natural odor which is related to hormones and DNA structures and is too a part of the olfatic code23.There are many ways in which smell is ap plied. peerless of them is in aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is the application of oils of flowers, herbs, and plants to make people feel better, which was widely effective in ancient Chinese, Egyptian, and Indian civilizations and is widely applied today in Belgium, England, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Besides, fragrance is used in the workplace in Japan in order to enhance efficiency and reduce stress among office workers24.Another application of smell is in marketing because advertisers swear that smell is important. For instance, mike Gatti, the executive director of marketing at the National Retail compact stated A lot of retail companies use it, and its purpose rightfully is to commemorate customers in your store, to create this welcoming environment and it works it does keep people in your store longer. It helps people feel better in their shopping, and in a lot of cases causes them to spend more money.25Fragrance strips in magazines enable consumers to sample a perf ume.26In other words, smell is used as a method of persuasion in mass communication.Likewise, smell refers to body odor. Certain cultures are sensitive to any body odor others conceal body odor with perfumes and colognes and still others find the odor of perfumes and colognes unpleasant. Generally, body odor is affected by the food one eats evoke enough, those who eat meat have a different body odor27. Since Attitudes to body odor vary considerably across cultures, they can sometimes cause problems28. heap will react positively or negatively to other people based on the way they smell. A persons smell remains in another persons long after he or she has left the room. For instance, citizens from the get together States consider body odors, bad breath, perspiration, or too much cologne to be offensive. In turn, as clean as US inhabitants think they are, many cultures consider their smell offensive. Because people of the United States eat much more meat than people in many other cou ntries, their body odor is different from those who are from other countries in which more vegetables and fish are consumed. Japanese and Filipinos are raised to be very conscious of different odors and often complain about the way US Americans smell. Although U.S inhabitants tend to be un loose with natural smells, Middle Easterners and Filipinos believe being able to smell a friends breath is pleasing. Without knowing how culture perceives odors and how one is expected to react to odors, one is not able to persuade appropriately in business environment. Lack of knowledge in the olfactics theatre of operations has affected many business transaction29. Here is an example how smell can affect someones career in intercultural communicationA medical checkup doctor from Saudi Arabia was completing an internship in a hospital in the southern United States. Problems arose when patients refused to have the Saudi doctor examine them. Interviews with patients revealed deuce problems he s melled bad and he breathed on the patients. The doctors penchant had apparently failed to include the incongruence between Arabic and U.S American perceptions of smell.30In order to be accepted by people from other cultures, an individual needs to ingest the hygiene practices of the country he is visiting or in which he is conducting business31. Unfortunately, that medical doctor, being in the US, was proficient only in English and Medicine. He didnt have sufficient communicative competence to avoid the misunderstanding described above.ProxemicsBesides smell, there is a need to sequestrate a look at another aspect of communication that leads people into misperception of each other proxemics. It is the study of personal space and how humans use aloofness in general. This term was first used in 1963 by an anthropologist and researcher Edward T. Hall32. Proxemics relates to spatial distance between persons interacting with each other, and their orientation toward each other. Indi viduals generally divide their personal space into four distinct geographical districts. Edward Hall identified four spatial zonesIntimate space 0- 1, 5 feet. For family members and beloved.Personal space 1, 5-4 feet. For friends.Social space 4-12 feet. For strangers.Public space 12 feet-and more33.Proxemics is nonverbal communication that deals with physical distance between people. When someone moves into intimate space with another person who does not want to be intimate with him/her, that person, whose personal space is trespassed, is likely to become uncomfortable and institutionalise up barriers. This situation is also known as invading the persons space. People who feel that their space has been violated will step back or cross their arms. However, if an individual stays within the social space zone with a close friend who prefers to be in his personal or intimate space, this may result in negative feelings34.Proxemics is the communicative aspect of personal space and or t erritory. Everyone is believed to be encircled by an covert zone of psychological comfort that follows us everywhere we travel. That invisible zone provides persons with a lot of nonverbal information regarding the aim of trust and closeness that an individual has for other people. Cooperation is a key factor in the thoroughfare negotiation and its participant must be able to read the level of comfort of the person s/he is dealing with and must take into consideration the amount of distance that an individual needs to be comfortable while being dealt with. Knowing the dynamics of personal space will also prevent one party of the interaction from unknowingly violating their counterparts personal space and causing unnecessary tension.Distance between people depends on power and authority that a person has. People who possess the most power and authority command a greater amount of personal space that they can entitle as their own. They will often distance themselves from other peo ple of less power around them. Confident people, and people of higher status, are comfortable going straight to the center of the attention while lower status, or non-confident people, to tend to have near the exits or the back of the room35.The comfort zones vary drastically between cultures. Arabs and Americans differed significantly in proxemics, the Arabs interacting with each other closer and more directly than Americans. The differences in distance between subjects from different Arab regions were smaller than those in different American regions. Arabs interact much closer to each other. Latin Americans exhibit less closeness than Arabs, but still interact much closer than Anglo Americans. Interactants stand farther apart and the frequency of tactile contact diminishes as one goes from Central to South America.