Benefit of Using Gestures
Face-to-face conversation feels more genuine and thorough than a phone call or email because of the connection we get through non-verbal communication. In the 1960s, "Mehrabian's rule" contended that 80 percent of human communication is non-verbal. Since then, considerable research has reinforced the importance of gestures.
Other People Are Reading
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Benefits
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Many gestures can replace the need for words. Relationships and trust are established through mutually understood gestures. You can minimize or maximize emotions, send subconscious messages and even replace communication altogether with the right gesture.
Features
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Eye contact speaks volumes. The dimensions of gestural communication include proxemics, the space between communicators; oculesics, eye contact; emblematic gestures, which include symbols like the OK sign; and mutually entrained gestures, where you "talk with your hands."
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Research
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Paolo Bernadis and Maruizio Gentilucci of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Parma in Italy in 2006 published in the Neuropsychologia journal a study that found that gestures physically enhance the quality of vocal vibrations.
Significance
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Non-verbal communication enhances public speaking. Non-verbal communication plays a key role in business presentations, public speaking and persuasion, sales and marketing, and on the more personal level of social interaction.
Theories/Speculation
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The evolution of speech involved gestural communication. The motor theory of speech perception is the belief, bolstered by decades of research, that physical gestures were the first form of language.
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References
Resources
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