Whether it is professional or personal, good communication is fundamental to any successful relationship. However verbal communication, the explicit meaning of the words, is only a smaller part of communication between people.

It is the wordless cues, called nonverbal communication, we send and receive that build the impressions we have of each other. Nonverbal communication includes facial expressions and body language (kinetics), eye contacts, the distance between people (proxemics) and the tone and pitch of the voice (paralanguage). It delivers implicit messages, intentionally or not, that influence the perception of our interlocutor. Culture can have a huge influence on nonverbal behavior, for example, body language is culture-specific. In most eastern countries, two persons shake their hands for greetings while in Japan there is no physical contact but a bow of the upper part with different angles according to the hierarchy status.

Thus research in nonverbal communication can have a large range of applications like psychology, building business relationships, communication in the workplace or management. The Nonverbal Synchrony Lab of the University of Berne developed a video analysis software of nonverbal behavior called Motion Energy Analysis (MEA) which enables quantification of movement from interactions.

You will find on Scientist, labs working on nonverbal communication, both academic and private.