Nonverbal Communication Is Ambiguous
Page 99
Record a new episode of your favorite scripted television show. Try watching it with the sound turned all the way down (and closed captions turned off ). Can you guess what’s going on in terms of plot? How about in terms of what the characters are feeling? Now watch it again with the sound on. How accurate were your interpretations of the nonverbal behaviors shown? How successful do you think you would have been if it were an unfamiliar show, one with characters you didn’t know as well?
Professional players like Caro might have a system for reading nonverbal behaviors, but even they know that it’s more of an art than a science. That’s because nonverbal communication is often ambiguous. Blinking, stammering, or hesitations in speech can indicate deception. But they can also indicate anxiety or uncertainty. In many cases, you can pick up clues about the meaning of behavior from the situational context. If your friend is sighing deeply and blinking rapidly as she heads off to her biochemistry final exam, she’s probably anxious. But you can’t know for sure. Perhaps her boyfriend broke up with her twenty minutes ago and she just doesn’t feel like talking about it. For this reason, it’s best to regard nonverbal behavior (and poker “tells”) as cues to be checked out rather than as facts.