Although technology has diminished?Face to face?in dialogue, establishing good communication involves being face to face, since the language of gestures is the great silent communicator that, in the background, says more?or at least it ends what we’re trying to convey through speech. Nonverbal language is crucial in the transmission of a message. So what is the most appropriate distance between people to establish effective communication?
The world of gestures, micro-movements and movements is part of nonverbal language, i. e. the gesture can be considered the basic unity of this type of language, and is defined as a movement or arrangement of the hands, face or other members of the body. used to establish communication with other human beings in direct and immediate relationship.
- The gesture can be considered an expressive movement of psychic content in tension.
- That is.
- Gestures are muscle movements that seek their release and earn it.
- Whether they are willing.
- That is.
- With intention.
- Or if they are involuntary.
- The product of unconscious dynamism.
A mimicry or gesture usually occurs with a complexity that escapes the possibility of being able to measure them accurately, there is such synergy of almost imperceptible micro-movements for conscious capture that it is extremely difficult to achieve a complete and global perception. of the registration universe.
The gesture in human interactions is a symbolic movement that expresses and demonstrates something that needs to be deciphered, that is, the gesture is an empty role to be interpreted.
Each interlocutor can encode the gestures of their communicative repertoire according to their beliefs, their values, their personal meanings, their knowledge of the other, the context in which the interaction takes place, etc.
However, the gesturality of the face, trunk and limbs, the use of space and the actions that our body performs make paraverbal language a spontaneous element of transmission of the message, a resource marginalized or relegated to a background of verbal language.
In fact, generations of listeners have been formed who not only listen, but also watch as they listen, the need to see the interlocutor as he speaks is rarely aware, that is, we are not aware that we must look at the interlocutor to fully understand reality. message you’re trying to convey to us.
In general, when we communicate, we say “I hear you” and we don’t “see you. “
Gesture, body expressions, speech tone, cadence and rhythm, movements that occur between volumes – more or less prominent bodies develop in a space between delimited communicators. A space that means the ideal distance for two or more people to engage in a conversation.
Hall (1966) distinguishes the management of space and movement from proximity or relational distance and classifies four types of distances:
In the latter three types of distances, the length of the space between the interlocutors ranges from 60 to 80 cm, which is neither more nor less than the width of the doors or some corridors.
Thus, architecture expresses, in a way, lifestyles and interactions, either in the design of a house designed according to the specific requirements of a family or in impersonal designs in the construction of buildings, the interior doors, in general, are less wide than those that border it. the outside.
Modern interior doors, such as corridors, are 65 cm wide, while entrance doors are about 80 cm wide. Similarly, the constructions of the first half of the twentieth century were characterized by interior doors wider than the current and exterior ones with double doors.
It should be thought that today, although we live in an era of more impersonal relations, personal, social and public distances have been reduced.
In the first decades of the last century, while interactions were closer and involved greater knowledge (neighbors on the street, time for visits from friends and family, etc. ), a formal distance quota was imposed in which, for example, physical contact did not occur. prevailed and formal treatment was expected. As with doors, relational distance was much greater than it is today.
However, relational distance depends on each sociocultural context, each culture imposes the type of space between those who communicate, some contexts have a closer social distance, equivalent to the intimate distance of other cultures.
This can lead to misunderstandings between people from antagonistic relational contexts, and even more so in cases where the way words are accompanied involves physical contact.
An example, mentioned by Paul Watzlawick (1976), shows such differences. Researchers explored a phenomenon that took place at Rio de Janeiro Airport.
The airport had a terrace with balcony not too high, where in recent years several people had fallen, these accidents occurred with foreigners, mainly Europeans, linked to Brazilians.
This terrace was in a meetinghouse and was used for receptions and farewells. What they discovered was that when Brazilians engaged in dialogue with Europeans, they tended to distance the therself to stipulate an ideal space for that time, precisely because Brazilians have a shorter social distance. as a custom?perhaps equivalent to the intimate distance of Europeans.
Thus, the Europeans began to go back a little, widening the distance, to which the Brazilians responded moving forward, trying to establish their own social distance. In this way, many Europeans ended up falling from the balcony on the ground floor of the airport.
Beyond the distances of interaction imposed by culture, there are also the distances that each one, in a particular way, determines to establish communication with the other.
Does the standard distance of 80 cm allow you to focus your gaze on the person’s face and, thanks to peripheral vision?Not clearly, observe the rest of the body with which we send sign messages.
Finally, gestures are impossible to control. In other words, in verbal messages, in some way, we have the conscious area of what we want to express (despite, of course, bad deeds), but in gestures, it is impossible.
Thus, to be aware of our estrangement from communication and speech when we have doubts about the attribution of meaning that we give to the gesture of others is to promote healthy communication.