There is a level of non-verbal communication that is well known, and many books have been written about human body-language. How important is interactive body language? How much deeper of a human connection exists for a person who often engages in deep enough conversations that the body takes part in it with its own language?

 

I very much doubt the difference is quantifiable, but most people do use stance, gesture, facial expression and touch to communicate more meaning than their words carry. For people who are not very articulate or confident in their verbal skills, adding those extra dimensions can make the difference being understood and a failure to communicate.

OTOH, those expressions and gestures can also be used to mislead and deceive and they can, with skillful interpretation also be used to glean more from one's declarations than one intends to reveal.

Certainly, it's more difficult to maintain a relationship through words alone - though people who have managed it successfully.

1 hour ago, Peterkin said:

For people who are not very articulate or confident in their verbal skills, adding those extra dimensions can make the difference being understood and a failure to communicate.

But then you get politicians and media presenters who study this, and end up all over-using the same body-language, so they all start to look the same and it all looks a bit false. But then we, the public, get used to that, and begin to expect it, so that ordinary people end up looking a bit lifeless, and tv people are selected for freakiness. 

Edited November 29, 20232 yr by mistermack

54 minutes ago, mistermack said:

But then you get politicians and media presenters who study this, and end up all over-using the same body-language, so they all start to look the same and it all looks a bit false. But then we, the public, get used to that, and begin to expect it, so that ordinary people end up looking a bit lifeless, and tv people are selected for freakiness. 

A lot of the US politicians, their random gesticulations posing  as expressive body language is garbage visual data that adds nothing to their message. If you can't do properly don't do it. It seems to be an accepted behavioural prop there. There is little synchronization of their speech style/cadence/intensity/tone  with their movements.

 

Edited November 29, 20232 yr by StringJunky
Added visual

1 hour ago, mistermack said:

so that ordinary people end up looking a bit lifeless, and tv people are selected for freakiness. 

I have not observed this.

I often watch people on tv, and imagine them talking to me in real life, using those gestures and that way of speaking, and it would be ridiculous. But we see it so often onscreen, that it becomes normal, in that environment.