14 DAY TRIAL // Investigators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are using advanced technologies to study how nonverbal communication patterns influence discussions and arguments in today's society.
At the Institute's Human Dynamics Lab, arguing and other socially-gray behavior is encouraged, so that lead investigator Sandy Pentland PhD can determine the values of face-to-face communications.
The researchers are also looking into determining the function of nonverbal signs, and into understanding information flow in a much integrated manner.
According to the team, the trick is to do so without the aid of language. Even if we now associate the idea of communication with language, this was not the case for hundreds of thousands of years, as our species and its precursors were developing.
At that time, our ancestors relayed messages to each other the same way other social species do, through an intricate network of signs and attitudes meant to denote various common occurrences and events.
Pentland, who holds an appointment as the MIT Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, say that people in today's society are now ignoring these signals at their own expense.
He explains that a large variety of signals can be used to make seemingly dumb arguments appear valid in the eyes of listeners. Knowing these technique can for example make people a lot less likely to be manipulated in statements and announcements.
There is also a positive side to all of this, the experts say, where recognizing and harnessing these instinctive behaviors can make group discussions and decisions a lot easier and more productive.
“So I started looking at, for instance, charisma. How can people say things that are very convincing when in fact the facts aren't in the words? People just believe them because of the way they say it,” the team leader says.
One of the main ideas that stemmed from Pentland's research is that face-to-face conversations actually boost productivity, and do not discourage work.
Many companies prohibit employees from taking breaks in groups, fearing that this would cause a drop in productivity. But investigations show that, when returning from breaks, employees actually work more productively.
“If you think about what needs to happen for a healthy organization, people need to know the rules of the road. They need to know how things are done,” he says.
“Which means they have to hear the stories; they have to interact with people. Because you tend not to do that over e-mail, or blogs, or things like that,” he goes on to say.
“Treating different types of people differently may yield greater productivity. But it's dangerous to make a hard-and-fast written rule, because that encourages stereotyping,” he concludes.