Nonverbal communication is the process of
communication through sending and receiving wordless (mostly
visual) cues between people. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as
body language (
kinesics), but nonverbal communication encompasses much more, such as use of voice (
paralanguage), touch (
haptics), distance (
proxemics), and physical environments/appearance.
[1] Typically overlooked in nonverbal communication are
proxemics, or the informal space around the body and
chronemics: the use of time. Not only considered eye contact,
oculesics comprises the actions of looking while talking and listening, frequency of glances, patterns of fixation, pupil dilation, and blink rate. This subject is diverse in meaning, relative to culture and not limited to these definitions specifically.
Even speech contains nonverbal elements known as
paralanguage, including
voice quality, rate, pitch,
volume, and speaking style, as well as
prosodic features such as
rhythm,
intonation, and
stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the physical layout of a page. However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on interaction between individuals,
[2] where it can be classified into three principal areas:
environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction.