Exploring Nonverbal Communication This website introduces various aspects of nonverbal communication through brief summaries and quiz questions--most questions are based on videos or audio clips.
Deception Detection: Search for “to tell the truth game show” on www.youtube.com. There are several videos to choose from. Pause the clip before it is revealed who is telling the truth. Try to guess who the truth teller is. What nonverbal cues seem to show honesty and dishonesty? Play the rest of the clip and consider how we are often times wrong about interpreting these cues.
Physical Appearance and Attractiveness: Research has shown that digitally averaged faces are rated more attractive than the faces that went into the composite face. Show students how this works and ask them to rate the attractiveness of the individual and the average faces at: www.faceresearch.org/tech/demos/average
Vocalics and Accent This website is an incredible resource for discussing the importance of accents to perception. You can click almost anywhere on the map and hear audio clips of speakers with distinct accents reading the same paragraphs. You can have students close their eyes or turn their backs while you click, then have them write down adjectives to describe the speaker--great for getting at stereotyped accents!
Gestures as Nonverbal Communication We have learned that nonverbal communication is influence by cultures and cultures are influences by nonverbal communication. Conduct an Internet search to find a series of nonverbal gestures that convey one meaning in a culture and a different meaning in another culture, or gestures that are the same but convey different meanings in different cultures.
