verbal appeal and body language

Experimental Report in Psychology Journal Homepage: www.rtu.edu.ph

VERBAL APPEAL AND BODY LANGUAGE Margot Bicua, Dyna Dominguez, Kairo Guimba, Ruffa Pelea, Adrian Paolo Soneres Department of Psychology, Rizal technological University, Boni Avenue, Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Keywords: Verbal persuasion Physical intimacy

ABSTRACT In society we communicate with every individual in terms of verbal persuasion and physical intimacy to show the will of communicating to a certain individual that these tools of communicating may influence social impression whether in positive or negative outcome of the situation. In this experiment the experimenters tested the effectiveness of social interaction thru the use of verbal and non-verbal expression by selling a product to random individuals as they will interact to each other. The results show that verbal persuasion is more effective than physical intimacy (gesture) on interacting to different individuals by selling a product to them.

Introduction Social ambiguity in communication may be reduced by delivering our ideas clear and without interference. Communication is not only limited by words, both body language and verbal appeal can be identified as an essential and basic feature in

communicating in our everyday lives. Body language is defined as the process of communicating nonverbally through conscious and unconscious gestures. For example, Speakers used a broad pattern of nonverbal language and it is obviously noticeable

they sometimes shrug, nod, frown their eyebrows, they sometimes show quizzical expression when they do not understand something. According to expert, a substantial portion of our communication is taken nonverbally. As far as technical studies on body language concerned, perhaps the most influential pretwentieth-century work was the 1872 publication of Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. According to research there are various types of nonverbal communication; (A. Facial Expression) facial expression is said to be responsible for a huge proportion of our nonverbal communication, consider how many information is conveyed with a single smile or frown, dramatically nonverbal expressions may vary from cultures, but facial expressions for happiness, anger ,sadness and fear are universal throughout the world. (B. Gestures) Deliberate movements and signals are an important way to communicate meaning without words. Common gestures include waving, pointing, and using fingers to indicate numeric amounts. Other gestures are arbitrary and related to culture. (C. Paralinguistic) it refers to vocal communication that is

separate from actual language. This includes factors such as tone of voice, loudness, inflection and pitch. Consider the powerful effect that tone of voice can have on the meaning of a sentence. When said in a strong tone of voice, listeners might interpret approval and enthusiasm. The same words said in a hesitant tone of voice might convey disapproval and a lack of interest. (D. Body language and posture) Posture and movement can also convey a great deal on information. Research on body language has grown significantly since the 1970's, but popular media have focused on the overinterpretation of defensive postures, arm-crossing, and leg-crossing, especially after the publication of Julius Fast's book ( Body Language). While these nonverbal behaviors can indicate feelings and attitudes, research suggests that body language is far more subtle and less definitive that previously believed. (E. Proxemics) People often refer to their need for "personal space," which is also an important type of nonverbal communication. The amount of distance we need and the amount of space we perceive as belonging to us is influenced by a number of factors including social norms, situational factors, personality characteristics and level of familiarity. For example, the

amount of personal space needed when having a casual conversation with another person usually varies between 18 inches to four feet. On the other hand, the personal distance needed when speaking to a crowd of people is around 10 to 12 feet. (F. Eye gaze) looking, staring and blinking can also be important nonverbal behaviors. When people encounter people or things that they like, the rate of blinking increases and pupils dilate. Looking at another person can indicate a range of emotions, including hostility, interest and attraction. (G. Haptic) communicating through touch is another important nonverbal behavior. There has been a substantial amount of research on the importance of touch in infancy and early childhood. “Harry Harlow's classic monkey study” demonstrated how the deprivation of touch and contact impedes development. Baby monkeys raised by wire mothers experienced permanent deficits in behavior and social interaction. Touch can be used to communicate affection, familiarity, sympathy and other emotions. (H. Appearance) our choice of color, clothing, hairstyles and other factors affecting appearance are also considered a means of nonverbal communication. Appearance can also alter

physiological reactions, judgments and interpretations. Just think of all the subtle judgments you quickly make about someone based on his or her appearance. These first impressions are important, which is why experts suggest that job seekers dress appropriately for interviews with potential employers. Human’s primary difference to other species is their use of verbal appeal and body language in communication. The use of this is indispensable to us humans. The experiment shows and prove how verbal and physical intimacy influence social impression. Evidences will also provide to answer the existing question on how does physical intimacy and verbal persuasion affects people’s reaction and perception. Participants Fifty eight participants took part of the experiment and 1 of them was taken to be part of the experimenters (Alexzander Galang) to help them facilitate the groups. Twelve were males and Forty five of them were females. Ages ranged from 17 to 25 years old BS Psychology majors. The experiment was conducted inside the RTU campus namely in the CEIT bldg, promenade canteen area, quadrangle field and Old academic bldg area. Materials

The experimenters tested how the participants manage to sell their merchandise to people on pursuing the sale by means of employing verbal persuasion and body gestures. The experimenters used non-food item as a merchandise (keychain, sanrio) to make the negotiation more challenging, tally sheets to note how they convinced their customers whether if it’s by gaze, gestures, or it may be by verbal persuasion. Timer, to control the time that has been given to spent for the experiment. Procedure The participants were instructed to sell their products to random persons at the cost of 10 pesos and they were designated into different strategic places inside the RTU campus. The experiment started at 10:30am, on their first trial they were allowed to negotiate by employing physical intimacy accompanied by mild verbal communication and following the same procedure but on that trial they’ve been more verbally persuasive. On the second trial same procedures were given but different strategy, in this trial intense verbal persuasion must be employed accompanied with physical intimacy. The experiment was expected to end at 12:30pm, but fortunately the participants were very assertive with their objective. Results/ Discussion Group 1 first trial (Table 1)

The group1 consists of 19 participants. All of them were participated well in the experiment. They divided themselves into 4 groups to minimize the crowd. They made it as their marketing strategy. In the first trial the group1 got 13 customers where 9 (see table 1) of them rejected the offer even if they employed visual gaze and a mild physical contact. They rejected the offer because some of them were too busy that they could not manage to entertain the offer, and some were not interested on the product that the group was selling because it is nonfood. Therefore many customers were refused than the customers who took and bought the product.

Group 1 second trial (Table 1.1)

physical contact with mild verbal approach. Group 2 second trial (table2.1)

On the second trial the group1 got 6 customers. Only 2 of them rejected the offer even if they employed visual gaze and intense verbal persuasion. As the same reason in the first trial customer rejected the offer because they have no time to entertain to entertain the offer. Group 2 first trial (Table 2)

On the last trial of the experiment, no one rejected the request. All four of the customers bought the products when the participants used visual gaze, physical contact and aggressive verbal approach. Group 3 first trial (Table 3)

On the first trial we got 5 customers. Only 1 rejected the offer even when they employed visual gaze. They rejected the offer because when the participants approached them they got startled and they started to avoid them. Two of the buyers bought the product by simply using visual gaze of the participants and mild verbal approach while the other two bought the product after the participants employed both visual gaze and

On the first trial 7 of the customers were refused to buy products, even if

the participants strive to pursue their products ,the observer concluded that they were too crowded that the customer became so anxious and rejected the request. The four who bought the product was thought to be harassed by the participants, they were very unorganized and do not follow the rules of the experiment. They do not even employ visual gaze as instructed, therefore they just caught their customers by means of harassment. Group 3 (table 3.1)

It can be therefore generalized here that the verbal aspect in communication greatly affects people’s perception, Might as well gestures and physical contact served as support system for the intense persuasion of the participants. Although many of the respondents got harassed at some time during the experiment, verbal persuasion was the best method in dealing with the respondents, because rejections on that part was minimized compared to the first trial that do not intensify the used of verbal persuasion. They got plenty of rejection; therefore if an individual is persuading, they can convince the respondents or other people though verbal aspect of communication mode and the gestures that should be executed in a certain situation. AUTHOR’S NOTE

On the last part of the experiment only one refused the offer, it may be for some reason that they approach the customer in an appropriate manner. Therefore the third group was not properly controlled in this experiment, this part is of the experiment was voided.

Conclusion

The authors would like to thank the participants for their cooperation with this experiment; we achieved our objective to get full attendance, although there was a part of the experiment where our participants were not followed our rules because they were deviated from the standard procedure. We would also like to thank Prof. Arby Casas for shedding light when we are in the gray area on conceptualizing our experiment. And of course to Prof. Rodrigo DP Tomas for helping us uplift our personality and for motivating us to make each of our works go beyond mediocrity and most important of all is for letting us to explore on our own and for giving us a chance to expose ourselves on how experiments in experimental psychology operates. References

Types of nonverbal communicationhttp://psychology.about.com/od/n onverbalcommunication/a/nonver baltypes.htm Color psychology -http://communicationtheory.org/b ody-language/ Psychology of linguistic and body languagehttp://www.psychologydegreeonli ne.net/resources/the-psychologyof-linguistics-and-body-language/ Expression of emotions in man and animalshttps://archive.org/stream/expres sionofemot1872darw#page/28/m ode/2up