In a public setting, men and women adopt various ways for ensuring nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication comprises of all communication elements such as body language, hand gestures, etc except words. The patterns are different because of difference in way of communication. In a public setting, nonverbal communication is associated with culture and gender, and culture exerts its influence on non verbal communication of males and females (Wood, 2015). In the same manner, verbal communication is influenced by culture, which can be analyzed from the fact that masculine speaking style is preferred in public speaking. People communicate in non verbal manner according to their cultural beliefs and norms. With the help of nonverbal communication men and women can communicate in social gatherings with friends, family, and other people. The gestures that they adopt in greeting others indicate their love and affection towards other people. Further, Men communicate to transmit or transfer information and solving particular problems; whereas women communicate for expressing their feelings and attaining emotional attachment or intimacy (Tingley, 1996).So, use of nonverbal communication is more in women than in men (Wood, 2008). Use of eye contact is more obvious in women as compared to men (Giddens & Griffith, 2006).
However, women like to maintain a distance from people who shout, while men like to maintain same distance irrespective of the fact people are shouting or talking in normal manner. Women do not always consider that touching by men is a sign of sexual invitation, but men usually consider that such actions like touching by women is a sign of sexual invitation. Research is also indicative of the fact that men and women use different ways to communicate in nonverbal manner. For example, women use more facial expressions as compared to men. Men use more eye contact as compared to women. Non verbal communication plays a significant role in conveying the message without use of words. With the help of nonverbal communication both genders can convey those messages that cannot be delivered by words.
Traditional expectations from non verbal communications are that the message is delivered to male and female receivers and attempts are made in order to make them understand. In the non verbal communication, messages are sent via the body language. In this regard, posture, gesture, facial expression, eye contact, and touching plays useful role. Non verbal messages in a public setting are, however, produced by the body, and they are produced by the broad setting in which space, time, and silence matters. In public setting non verbal communication helps in regulating interactions. This is because non verbal communication helps in sending cues whether other is speaking or not speaking. In verbal communication, words are spoken in order to convey information. In a public setting, the capability of an individual to communicate with a language depends on an organized system of words instead of just focusing on sounds.
Patterns of non verbal communication are different in men and women. This can be considered form the fact that women stand close to each other while they are conversing, while men like to maintain a distance from each other. Females take less space as they hold their legs joint together, while men prefer to have their legs far apart. Women make use of few gestures, but men use more gestures for communicating. Men have destructive or negative reaction to crowd, but this is not true in case of women (Cameron, 2007). Women like to keep their hands on arms of a chair, but this pattern is not obvious in case of men. Further, women claim less territory but men claim more territory. This is because of the fact that females are restricted in their personal territory or space that they occupy, but this is not the case with men. For example, touching is common in males, but it is not common in females. This is because men are culturally given more freedom as compared to women. Men like to communicate purposefully, but in case of females they even communicate when there is no purpose behind communication (Wood, 2015).
But, when men and women behave differently, they violate norms, and this depends upon their cultural values as in this case they do not express aspects of non verbal communication in proper manner. In this regard, important aspects of non verbal communication are proximity, body orientation, eye contact, facial expression, gestures, postures, and touch. However, violations can be positive and negative. For example, research has indicated that some behaviors such as slap on the face is regarded as negative (Guerrero &Floyd, 2006). Individuals creating disturbance in library by touching several things and making noise is also a violation of norms. While communicating expectation is formed regarding reaction of others, and violation of this expectation can, pave the way to formation of perception that can be negative or positive. Further, personal space is also significant in this regard. Personal space, however, indicates a boundary which is kept by individual, and it also represents freedom that is given to people with whom close contacts are established (Means, 2009). Because of these violations, the sender fails to deliver message properly, and it becomes difficult for the receiver to understand the message as a result of which basic objective of communication is destroyed. Non verbal communication violation paves the way to violation of norms such as geographic, cultural, and ethnic norms. These violations, however, lead to creation of communication issues that are difficult to analyze and detect. Person violating expectations and norms create negative impression, paves the way to risk of personal rejection, creation of conflict, and destruction of interpersonal relations.
References
Cameron, D. (2007). The Myth of Mars and Venus: Do men and women really speak different languages? Oxford UniversityPress, New York
Giddens, A., & Griffith, S. (2006).Sociology.Polity Press, Cambridge
Guerrero, L.K.&Floyd, K. (2006). Nonverbal Communication in Close Relationships. Routledge, New York
Means, T. (2009).Business Communication. Cengage Learning, Stamford
Tingley, J.C. (1996).Say What You Mean Get What You Want: A Businessperson's Guide to Direct Communication. American Management Association, New York
Wood, J. (2008). Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture. Cengage Learning, Stamford
Wood, J. T. (2015). Gendered lives: Communication, gender and culture.Cengage Learning, Stamford
Wood, J.T. (2015). Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters. Cengage Learning, Stamford
