6.3.1 Kinesics
Facial expressions and eye movement. Next to speech, the face is the richest source of information. The face can adopt 250,000 different expressions! It rarely sends a single message at a time, instead sending a series or a blend of messages. For example, when you meet a customer or friend whom you have not seen recently, your facial expression may show anxiety, recognition, hesitation and pleasure in rapid succession. It has been suggested that there are six basic facial expressions - surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness.
Because we have greater control of the muscles in the lower part of our face and, therefore, can more voluntarily manipulate facial expressions in this section of the face, we involuntarily use our eyes for a great deal of communication. For example, when an individual is excited, aroused or disturbed, the pupils of the eyes involuntarily dilate. Our eyes can 'give us away' more easily than other parts of our face. In addition, research shows that people's eyes generally approach what they like and avoid what they do not like. They usually maintain more eye gaze and mutual eye gaze with people whose approval they want and with people they like. However, as we often find with non-verbal communication, cultural differences must be considered. For example, in some Asian cultures it is impolite to look directly at a superior even if you would like their approval.
Body movement. Most of the communicative movement of the limbs is unintentional but it serves to illustrate, emphasise or punctuate speech and to show emotion. The way that we sit, walk or stand reveals whether we are timid, defensive or aggressive. At an interview, for example, the posture may be rigid and formal, but when at home and entertaining, we will probably be more relaxed and informal.
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