Nonverbal Immediacy

• Nonverbal "immediacy behaviors are approach behaviors which increase sensory stimulation and produce interpersonal closeness" (Andersen, Andersen, & Jensen, 1979, p. 153).
• Put another way, "nonverbal immediacy refers to the use of nonverbal communication behaviors to create feelings of physical or psychological closeness" (Thomas-Maddox, 2003, p. 3).
• Mehrabian and Williams (1969) found that the perceived persuasiveness of a speaker was significantly positively related to the speaker's eye contact, speech rate, speech volume, intonation, facial expressiveness, gesturing, and smoothness of speech.
• More recently, Burgoon, Birk, and Pfau (1990) found that the perceived persuasiveness of a speaker was significantly positively related to the speaker's eye contact, facial expressiveness, variation in pitch, and random body movement.
• In this learning program, we discuss four components of nonverbal immediacy: (1) Paralinguistics, (2) Kinesics, (3) Proxemics, and (4) Haptics (Andersen, 1985; Mehrabian, 1969).

Components of Nonverbal Immediacy

(1) Paralinguistics

• According to Stewart and Logan (1998), paralinguistics refers to "the nonverbal, vocal aspects of language that include rate of speech, pitch variation, volume, and vocal quality" (p. 407).
• The more an individual varies his or her pitch and rate of speech, the more nonverbally immediate the individual tends to be (Andersen, 1985).

Components of Nonverbal Immediacy

(2) Kinesics

• Wittenberg, Goldsmith, Ferrell, and Ragan (2012) pointed out that "Kinesics involves every form of movement of the body, including gestures, eye contact, and body position" (p. 5).
• According to Mehrabian (1969), the more an individual gestures, gives eye contact, nods his or her head in agreement, leans forward, and displays cheerful facial expressions, the more nonverbally immediate the individual tends to be.

Components of Nonverbal Immediacy

(3) Proxemics

• Stewart and Logan (1998) defined proxemics as "the study of the communicative effects of space or distance" (p. 95).
• The closer an individual is to his or her addressee, the more nonverbally immediate the individual tends to be (Mehrabian, 1969).

Components of Nonverbal Immediacy

(4) Haptics

• According to Adler and Proctor (2014), "Social scientists use the word haptics to describe the study of touching" (p. 205).
• Mehrabian (1969) asserted that "Increasing degrees of [nonverbal] immediacy correspond to greater degrees of touching" (p. 203). However, particularly in professional settings (e.g., at work or school), individuals need to constrain their touching behavior to meet formal and normative guidelines (Thomas-Maddox, 2003).

Language Power

• Language power can be understood as power that is generated by or "accomplished through a speaker's use of specific linguistic and paralinguistic features" (Ng & Bradac, 1993, p. 190).
• In a 2012 study of the use of high versus low language power during a sales presentation, Gadzhiyeva found that "participants reported higher levels of willingness to buy ... [a book] when the speaker used powerful as opposed to powerless speech" (p. 17).
• In a similar study, Areni and Sparks (2005) found that the use of a high level of language power was more persuasive than the use of a low level. Based upon their findings, Areni and Sparks (2005) cautioned that even "an acknowledged expert with excellent reasons for advocating a position already accepted by an audience may, nevertheless, fail to be persuasive if he or she uses powerless language" (p. 523).
• In this learning program, we discuss six characteristics of low power speech: (1) Hedges, (2) Tag Questions, (3) Vocalized Pauses, (4) Verbal Fillers, (5) Disclaimers, and (6) Polite Expressions (Adler & Proctor, 2014; Conley, O'Barr, & Lind, 1978; Lakoff, 1975).

Characteristics of Low Power Speech

(1) Hedges (Conley, O'Barr, & Lind, 1978)

• According to Prokofieva and Hirschberg (2014), "hedging is a phenomenon in which a speaker communicates a lack of commitment to what they are saying" (p. 1). They offered the following example: "'I think it's a little odd'" (p. 1). In this example, they claimed that there are actually two hedges, "'think' and 'a little'" (p. 1).

Characteristics of Low Power Speech

(2) Tag Questions (Lakoff, 1975)

• Hackman and Johnson (2013) asserted that tag questions added to "the end of a sentence indicate uncertainty. These expressions make a declarative statement much less forceful" (p. 147). They provided the following example: "'That presentation was unorganized, wasn't it?'" (p. 147).

Characteristics of Low Power Speech

(3) Vocalized Pauses (Conley, O'Barr, & Lind, 1978)

• A vocalized pause is "A pause that occurs when a speaker fills the silence between words with vocalizations such as 'uh,' 'er,' and 'um'" (Lucas, 2012, p. 245).

Characteristics of Low Power Speech

(4) Verbal Fillers (Conley, O'Barr, & Lind, 1978)

• Geddes (1995) described verbal fillers as "words or phrases that we use to fill in silences. Examples: 'well,' 'okay,' 'right,' [and] 'you know'" (p. 18).

Characteristics of Low Power Speech

(5) Disclaimers (Gadzhiyeva, 2012)

• According to Adler and Proctor (2014), a disclaimer "attempts to distance a speaker from remarks that might be unwelcome" (p. 165). They offered the following example to illustrate this functionality: "'I don't mean to sound judgemental, but ...'" (p. 165).

Characteristics of Low Power Speech

(6) Polite Expressions (Lakoff, 1975)

• In her discussion of the "Rules of Politeness" (p. 64), Lakoff (1975) identified three characteristics of speech that may singularly or jointly (but only in certain combinations) be perceived as polite. According to Lakoff (1975), these speech characteristics are: "Formality: keep aloof" (p. 65), "Deference: give options" (p. 65), and "Camaraderie: show sympathy" (p. 65).