What's the most important element in oral face-to-face communication?
Is it how we speak or deliver the words? Is it the words themselves? Or is it our body language?
Many people say it’s the facial expressions and gestures accompanying the words and the how they’re said: the body language. That’s what we read and take notice of.
If you search for information on the role it plays in effective communication it's highly probable, you'll find articles echoing that opinion. Body language, they assert, is by far the most important element: more important than 'how' you speak or deliver your words, and many, many times more important than the actual words you say.
And the articles will likely claim that this has been proven in university tests.
There are strands of truth in these assertions. But that is all.
The 55%-38%-7% formula from Professor Albert Mehrabian's (Psychology, University of California, USA) research on verbal, non-verbal and body language in communication has been both widely quoted, and misunderstood, for many years.
It simply is not true that 55% of our communication is imparted through what we do with our bodies and faces as we speak. Neither is it true to say that HOW we say the words we speak accounts for 38%, and that the words themselves are only worth 7%.
If it were then I could stand in front of you delivering an impassioned speech, complete with eloquent body language, and engaging vocal variety, using gobbledygook nonsense words and you would 'get it'. Totally. Because what I do while I speak and how I say the words makes up 93% of the complete communication package.
Now, try saying this out loud, with feeling. Passionately.
"We need a more contextual and contemporary reimagining of our 'Outside the box' policy resources. After all, forward-looking companies invest in optional transitional projections. And we are one of those..."*
You, see? It's rubbish. It doesn't make sense.
Where Mehrabian's 55%, 38%, 7% rule does apply
The formula, or rule, was never meant to be a representation of all communication. It came out of research studying the communication of feelings and attitudes. It applies to instances where the words a person says are at odds with how they're said, and the accompanying body language.
Mehrabian discovered that the lack of congruency or mismatch causes people to largely discount the words they hear and go with what they see: their 'reading' of the body language and vocal delivery of the speaker.
Hear it from the man himself: Albert Mehrabian - 55-38-7 Rule vs. Myth - a 2019 interview by Jess Todtfeld, from Success In Media.
*That stunning piece of drivel came from a fabulously good gobbledygook generator. ☺ (Thanks plainenglish.co.uk)
For more on body language:
what we think we do while speaking versus what we actually do,
how we make snap judgements about people based on our interpretations their body language,
plus, a collection of easily implemented exercises to help increase the impact of our presentations by getting our words (what we say), tone (how we deliver them, and body (how we gesture and move) working together. In harmony.
That’s it for this week. Have an excellent one.
Susan
PS. As I said last week, and I’ll say next, if you have ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in this newsletter, or if you’d like to share an article on some aspect of public speaking, or a speech of your own, please get in touch. Either reply to this email or contact me through the form on my about me page on my website. I’d love to hear from you!