Nonverbal Behavior Research Articles

Misread Signals: Perception, Emotion, and Nonverbal Conflicts on Bandung Streets

Roadways are not merely functional spaces for vehicular movement but also complex arenas of social communication. In the city of Bandung, road users' diverse social and cultural backgrounds increase the potential for misinterpretations of nonverbal communication, often escalating into verbal and even physical conflicts. This study aims to analyze the factors influencing shifts in road users' perceptions, the mechanisms behind nonverbal communication failures, and the role of emotional control in mitigating traffic conflicts. This research uses a qualitative approach, participatory observation, and document analysis methods. Observations were conducted at several strategic locations in Bandung, such as the Dago, Setiabudi, and Buah Batu areas, to capture the nonverbal behaviors of road users authentically. The findings reveal that situational pressures, biases from past experiences, and emotional states of road users trigger perception shifts. Communication failures occur through misinterpretations of nonverbal symbols, weak emotional control, and conflict escalation. Emotional control is key to restraining aggressive responses and minimizing misunderstandings. This study concludes by emphasizing the importance of integrating emotional education into traffic safety campaigns. By strengthening emotional awareness and symbol comprehension, it is hoped that a safer, more harmonious, and humanistic traffic culture will be cultivated in Bandung.

The Reliability of a Video Analysis Tool to Evaluate Outcomes for Animal Assisted Therapy Involving Dogs in Children and Young People with Autism

Aims To determine inter-rater and test-retest reliability of a video analysis tool (VAT-AAT) for evaluating changes in frequency and duration of verbal social behaviors, non-verbal social behaviors, play behaviors, and negative behaviors of children and young people aged 3–25 years with autism during animal-assisted therapy (AAT). Methods Following recruitment and training, 23 occupational therapy students from an Australian metropolitan university rated a simple or complex video-recorded AAT session on two occasions. Expert raters determined acceptable score ranges which were compared with collected data from the raters to determine intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results ICCs were 0.84 (simple session) and 0.89 (complex session) for inter-rater reliability and 0.84 (simple session) and 0.89 (complex session) for test-retest reliability. The percentage agreement was similar across level of session complexity and rater experience with children and autism but was lower for participants with less experience with animals (<10% difference in percentage agreement). Conclusions The VAT-AAT has good inter-rater and test-retest reliability when used in AAT with children and young people with autism. Session complexity or rater experience with children or autism did not impact on the level of agreement with expert raters. Validity of the tool now needs to be established.

Cognitive Load as a Key to Lie Detection: A Psycholinguistic Exploration of Pause and Hesitation in True and Fabricated Narratives.

This study investigates the role of pauses and hesitations as crucial non-verbal cues in deception detection, emphasizing the influence of cognitive load, as framed by the theoretical framework established by Memon et al. (2003). By examining cognitive indicators such as filled and silent pauses, repetitions, slips of the tongue, word omissions, speech rearrangements, sentence incompletions, and drawl, this research sheds light on the mental processes underlying language production in deceptive communication. Utilizing a comprehensive experimental design, we collected narratives from 30 native Persian speakers who recounted both truthful experiences and fabricated scenarios over a one-week period. This design aimed to minimize situational cognitive load and emotional anxiety by allowing participants ample preparation time and enabling them to record their narratives in a familiar home setting, thus isolating the cognitive demands inherent in the act of fabrication itself. Our dataset comprised 60 transcribed video recordings, which were meticulously coded for the specified disfluency types and analyzed using Praat software for phonetic detail where necessary (e.g., pause duration). Statistical analysis via paired sample t-tests in SPSS, with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, revealed a significant increase (p < .006) in the frequency of silent pauses (≥200ms in duration) during the narration of fabricated stories compared to truthful ones. This finding suggests that the cognitive effort required for deception persists and manifests measurably, even when lies are premeditated and delivered in a low-stakes environment. Despite the controlled setting designed to reduce anxiety and planning demands, our findings underscore the potential reliability of specific non-verbal cues, particularly silent pauses, as indicators reflecting the cognitive architecture of deception. The study emphasizes the importance of integrating analyses of both verbal content and non-verbal behaviours in developing more nuanced and effective lie detection methodologies.

Communication With Families of Children With Overweight Status or Obesity During Consultation for Tonsillectomy.

Children with overweight or obesity experience greater prevalence, severity, and perioperative risk of obstructive sleep-disordered breathing and persistent sleep apnea after tonsillectomy. Yet, little is known about how weight status influences communication between surgeons and families in presurgical consultations. To evaluate the association between patient weight status with (1) clinician-parent communication and (2) parent ratings of care experience during tonsillectomy consultations. This cross-sectional study examined encounters occurring between April 2016 and September 2023 at outpatient otolaryngology clinics among English-speaking parents of children aged 2 to 17 years undergoing initial evaluation for tonsillectomy and clinicians (surgeons and advanced practice medical professionals) evaluating patients for tonsillectomy. Data were analyzed from September 2023 to May 2024. Consultations were audio recorded and coded using the Roter Interaction Analysis System to identify verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors. After consultations, clinicians rated child weight status and parents rated care experiences using items modified from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems. Of 231 encounters in this study, 50 (22%) were with children with overweight. Most children were male (n = 130 [57%]). Children and adolescents were aged 2 to 17 years (hereafter referred to as children; mean [SD] age: no overweight, 5.0 [2.6] years; overweight or obesity, 8.1 [3.3] years). There were no differences between the groups with and without overweight in verbal dominance, patient centeredness, clinician facilitation or activation statements, clinician chit-chat statements, or clinician emotional statements. After adjusting for child's race, parents' education level, and annual household income, the child overweight status was associated with a decrease in cumulative clinician positive global affect levels by standardized β = -0.18 SDs (95% CI, -0.65 to 0.00 SDs). The small effect size observed may have limited the strength of this association. Furthermore, parents of children with overweight were less likely to report that their clinician definitively demonstrated respect relative to parents of children without overweight (odds ratio, 4.56 [95% CI, 1.06-19.99]). These findings suggest that child weight status was not associated with measured verbal communication behaviors but was associated with lower parent ratings and observer ratings of clinician respectfulness. The small effect size and potential bias from clinician race and ethnicity and sex may have limited this association. These results indicate the need to elucidate and mitigate multilevel determinants that negatively affect quality of care and communication for children with overweight.

TEACHER’S NONVERBAL IMMEDIACY BEHAVIORS AND STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION: A CORRELATIVE STUDY IN AN EFL CLASS IN CIKARANG

This study explores the correlation between teachers' nonverbal immediacy behaviors and EFL students’ motivation at SMAN 1 West Cikarang. Using a quantitative correlational method, data were collected through questionnaires measuring both variables. Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation Analysis revealed a positive relationship, with the correlation coefficient (ro = 0.54) exceeding the critical value (rt = 0.22) at a 0.05 significance level. Additionally, the t-test result (to = 5.785 &gt; tt = 1.67) confirmed that the correlation was statistically significant. These findings indicate that teachers’ nonverbal immediacy such as gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, vocal tone, and physical presence plays an important role in enhancing students’ motivation to learn. Nonverbal communication helps create a supportive and engaging classroom atmosphere, making students feel more connected and enthusiastic about learning. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers consciously incorporate positive nonverbal behaviors in their teaching strategies to boost student motivation, especially in EFL contexts where emotional engagement is crucial for language acquisition.

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The purpose of the article is to present the semantic and pragmatic features ofspeech acts expressing self-praise. Unlike praise, self-praise has a negativeconnotation. It can be expressed through different perlocutionary acts. The purposeof this act is to gain attention and admiration, trying to please the listener and gain hisapproval with his verbal and non-verbal behaviour, pleasing the addressee. Whileperforming this act, the speaker highlights his merits, successes, skills and qualitiesin order to present them in a positive light. Self-praise is a type of praise when thespeaker addresses a positive assessment to himself, that is, in this case, therecipient of the self-praise acts as the recipient of the praise at the same time. Hetries to strengthen his self-esteem, impress others, and establish authority. If self-praise is modest and consistent with the context, it can strengthen the person&amp;#39;sauthority, while excessive self-praise can be perceived as arrogance. The intentionof a self-praising person is to achieve his goal by trying to gain the approval of theinterlocutor, as a result of which his verbal and non-verbal behavior can beexpressed even in self-deprecation by using self-humiliating expressions. Theimplementation of this act is conditioned by the different status and rolecharacteristics of the communicators. The present paper is an attempt to outline thesemantic and pragmatic peculiarities of these speech acts.

Concept Analysis of Warmth in Nursing

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze and clarify the concept of warmth in nursing to establish a theoretical foundation and provide practical insights for improving patient-centered care. By defining the key attributes of warmth, this study seeks to contribute to the development of strategies for improving therapeutic nurse-patient relationships and holistic nursing care. Methods: Using Walker and Avant's concept analysis framework, a total of 15 articles from the Korean and international literature related to warmth were reviewed. Results: Warmth in nursing is defined as verbal and non-verbal behaviors that convey compassion, empathy, and dignity, fostering trust and emotional stability in patients. The key attributes of warmth identified in this study include humanity, communication, professionalism, and dignity. The antecedents of warmth were identified as the caregiver's recognition of emotional vulnerability and the need for empathy in situations where human dignity is at risk. The consequences of warmth include increased patient trust and satisfaction, improved emotional well-being, and the realization of holistic nursing care. To further clarify the concept, model, borderline, and contrary cases were analyzed. Conclusion: This study systematically explores the attributes and significance of warmth in nursing by integrating previous research and linking it to specific nursing practices. These findings highlight the need for developing standardized assessment tools and implementing educational programs to facilitate the integration of warmth into nursing care. By reinforcing the role of warmth in clinical practice, this study provides a foundation for improving the quality of patient-centered care and strengthening the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship.

Fandom dan interaksi parasosial dalam TikTok

TikTok is used by K-Pop fans in Indonesia to get the latest information about their idols. Fans even produce K-Pop content to show their favorite groups to other TikTok users. This study aims to describe the parasocial interactions carried out by K-Pop fans from four different fandoms while using TikTok as their main social media. This qualitative study applied purposive sampling and in-depth interview techniques. The findings stated that although the four informants came from different K-Pop fandoms, their processes in carrying out parasocial interactions on TikTok were quite similar, despite having different experiences. In the cognitive response classification, the highest level of parasocial interaction experienced by the four informants was the construction of persona and self relations. In the affective response, it was the empathy/counter empathy process, and in the behavioral response, through non-verbal behavior.

Medical student selection interviews: insights into non-verbal observable communications: a cross-sectional study

PurposeInterviews play a crucial role in the medical school selection process, although little is known about interviewers’ non-verbal observable communications (NoVOC) during the interviews. This study investigates how interviewers perceive NoVOC exhibited by interviewees in two medical schools, one in Taiwan and the other in Australia. The study also explores potential cross-cultural differences in these perceptions.MethodsA 26-item questionnaire was developed using a Delphi-like method to identify NoVOC. Interviewers from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan (n=47 and N=78, respectively) rated these NoVOC between 2018 and 2021. Factor analyses identified and validated underlying factors. Measurement invariance across countries and genders was examined.ResultsA total of 125 interviewers completed the questionnaire, including 78 from Taiwan and 47 from Australia. Using exploratory factor analysis, 14 items yielded reliable three factors “charming,” “disengaged,” and “anxious” (Cronbach’s α=0.853, 0.714, and 0.628, respectively). The measurement invariance analysis indicated that the factor models were invariant across genders but significantly different between the two countries. Further analysis revealed inconsistencies in interpreting the “anxious” factor between Taiwan and Australia.ConclusionThe three distinct factors revealed in this study provide valuable insights into the NoVOC that interviewers perceive and evaluate during the interview process. The findings highlight the importance of considering non-verbal communication in selecting medical students and emphasize the need for training and awareness among interviewers. Understanding the impact of non-verbal behaviors can improve selection processes to mitigate bias and enhance the fairness and reliability of medical student selection.

Analyzing coordinated group behavior through role-sharing: a pilot study in female 3-on-3 basketball with practical application

A group often shares a common goal and accomplishes a task that is difficult to complete alone by distributing roles. In such coordination, the non-verbal behavior among three or more members complicates the explanation of the mechanism due to complex and dynamic interactions. In cognitive science, a crucial role is indicated: to intervene moderately with others and adjust the whole balance without interrupting their main smooth interactions, using an experimental task. The findings suggest that resilient helping actions in the third role support coordination. These actions are similar to off-ball movements in team sports, which involve an on-ball player and have recently been the focus of sports science because their characteristics are not represented in common statistical data, such as a shooting success rate. Hence, a new perspective for discussing coordination has emerged, as existing theories, such as synchronization—where movements between players are spontaneously matched and organized—cannot explain the mentioned role. However, there is a lack of investigation and discussion regarding whether these findings are applicable to real-world activities. Therefore, this study applied the experimental findings to the field of sports. We developed a 3-on-3 basketball game in which the offensive role of intervention decision and adjustment is key for winning and introduced it to the practice of a female university team as a pilot study. Participants repeatedly engaged in the mini-game, and the playing was compared before and after receiving tips for this role. Consequently, in the bins of the relatively large distance between the participant required to the relevant role and each defensive player, the frequencies after receiving these tips were significantly higher. Furthermore, the winning rate on the offensive team improved temporarily; however, the effects were not maintained. These suggest that spacing skill, which maintains reasonable distances from the other players, creates favorable situations for coordination. This study may bridge the gap between controlled experiments and real-world applications and make an educational contribution; it may recommend practice design for the acquisition of spacing skills related to the crucial role.

Automated analysis of clinical interviews indicates altered head movements during social interactions in youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis

Alterations in social functioning are commonly observed in youth at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis. Previous research has focused on perception and interpretation of social stimuli. Assessments of social behavior have been limited and have typically been conducted using time-consuming, manual, and not always reliable methods. The current study aimed to characterize patterns of head movements, a critical feature of nonverbal social behavior, to determine alterations among CHR individuals, using novel automated tools. A total of 87 CHR and 90 healthy control youth completed video-recorded clinical interviews. Segments when participants were responding to questions were processed using an open-access machine learning-based head tracking program. This program extracted target variables such as total head movement, amplitude, and speed in each direction (x, y, and z). Relationships between head movement patterns and symptoms were then examined. Findings indicated that the CHR group exhibited the same amount of head movements as the control group, establishing that results did not reflect a more global deficit. Notably, the CHR group executed spontaneous head turns in side-to-side movements (such as the “no” gesture) at a significantly slower speed when compared to controls (U = 2860, p = 0019, d = –0.41). Slower side-to-side head movement was also associated with elevated clinician-rated scores of “disorganized communication” (r = –0.23), but not with other symptoms in the positive domain nor negative or depressive phenomenology. These findings provide new insights into alterations in social processes in individuals at CHR and highlight the promise of using automated tools to capture spontaneous head movements, thereby expanding the assessment of social behavior, communication, and applied social cognition.

Nonverbal support-seeking behavior during supportive conversations

Seeking support during times of stress is a universal human experience, and individuals typically rely on close others for help when distressed or in need. Yet, little is known about the nonverbal behaviors communicated during this process. Addressing this lacuna, the present study utilized a hybrid of inductive and deductive thematic analysis of video-recorded supportive conversations between 82 friend pairs to elucidate the nonverbal behaviors enacted by support seekers. Four profiles of nonverbal support-seeking emerged: (a) The Aloof Seeker, (b) The Dynamic Seeker, (c) The Light-Hearted Seeker, and (d) The Blended Seeker. Implications for theory and research related to nonverbal supportive communication are discussed.

Simultaneous text and gesture generation for social robots with small language models

IntroductionAs social robots gain advanced communication capabilities, users increasingly expect coherent verbal and non-verbal behaviours. Recent work has shown that Large Language Models (LLMs) can support autonomous generation of such multimodal behaviours. However, current LLM-based approaches to non-verbal behaviour often involve multi-step reasoning with large, closed-source models-resulting in significant computational overhead and limiting their feasibility in low-resource or privacy-constrained environments.MethodsTo address these limitations, we propose a novel method for simultaneous generation of text and gestures with minimal computational overhead compared to plain text generation. Our system does not produce low-level joint trajectories, but instead predicts high-level communicative intentions, which are mapped to platform-specific expressions. Central to our approach is the introduction of lightweight, robot-specific “gesture heads” derived from the LLM’s architecture, requiring no pose-based datasets and enabling generalisability across platforms.ResultsWe evaluate our method on two distinct robot platforms: Furhat (facial expressions) and Pepper (bodily gestures). Experimental results demonstrate that our method maintains behavioural quality while introducing negligible computational and memory overhead. Furthermore, the gesture heads operate in parallel with the language generation component, ensuring scalability and responsiveness even on small or locally deployed models.DiscussionOur approach supports the use of Small Language Models for multimodal generation, offering an effective alternative to existing high-resource methods. By abstracting gesture generation and eliminating reliance on platform-specific motion data, we enable broader applicability in real-world, low-resource, and privacy-sensitive HRI settings.

Examining the Impact of Control Condition Design in Mimicry–Liking Link Research: How Motor Behavior May Impact Liking

Mimicry is an automatic imitation of an interacting partner’s behaviors. The most frequently researched consequence of being mimicked is liking. Yet there is little research on whether specific design of control conditions (i.e., variable behavior of the confederate across conditions) may affect study results. In this study, we compared the classical mimicry group with four control conditions: (i–ii) a confederate sits still or makes random movements (common in mimicry research), (iii) confederates receive no instructions regarding their nonverbal behavior (rarely observed in mimicry studies), and a condition that we created, in which (iv) a confederate makes atypical motor movements. Participants (N = 538) were interviewed by confederates, while the confederates’ behavior varied across conditions during the interviews. They mimicked the participants’ nonverbal behaviors (mimicry condition), sat still (no-movement condition), made random nonverbal movements unrelated to the participants (responsiveness condition), made repetitive body and object movements (repetitive behavior condition), or participated in the interview without any further instructions (double-blind condition). The confederate’s behavior influenced liking: χ2(4) = 40.7, p &lt; 0.001, ε2 = 0.07. Participants liked the confederates more when the latter mimicked them than when they sat still (p &lt; 0.001) or made repetitive movements (p = 0.008), but not when the confederates made random movements, and when they only engaged in the conversation (p &gt; 0.5). There were also differences between the no-movements condition (i) and the responsiveness condition (p = 0.003), (ii) and the double-blind condition (p &lt; 0.001). Because the two classical control conditions are treated interchangeably in mimicry studies, more attention should be paid to the methodological aspects of mimicry research. Additionally, a mini-metaanalysis was conducted.

Ethologovideographic Correlates of Mental Disorders in Nonverbal Behavior (Message 2: Discriminant, Thermodynamic and Network Characteristics of Facial and Pantomimic Reactions)

Background: the study of nonverbal behavior based on the ethological paradigm using computer vision technologies is currently considered as one of the approaches to objectification of mental disorders. At the same time, their analysis using multidimensional data processing methods, primarily from the standpoint of thermodynamic and network analysis, is of particular interest. Purpose of the work: to summarize the results of discriminant, thermodynamic and network analysis of facial and pantomimic activity of patients with neurotic disorders and schizophrenia spectrum pathology. Patients, Comparison Group and Methods: 19 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (Sch), 23 with neurotic disorders (ND). 22 healthy subjects made up control group (CG). Analysis of non-verbal behavior was carried out using the biometric video analytics complex “MIX VR-19” based on action units (AU) of the FACS. Results: the logarithm of the thermodynamic probability of the system of facial reactions was maximal in individuals with ND (50.2), minimal in people with Sch (33.1), and it occupied an intermediate position in the CG (44.2). The system organization was also noticeably lower in Sch (0.08) than in ND (0.11) and in CG (0.14). Analysis of the graphs showed that the nodes page ranks in healthy subjects were characterized by the highest weight of AU61, AU1, AU63 and AU64. For ND, the nodes with maximum page ranks were AU14 and AU64. In Sch, the highest rank was observed for nodes AU62 and AU2. Conclusions: the greatest contribution to the differentiation between the groups of people with ND, Sch and CG was made by such AU as ironic smile, squinting and opening the mouth. The dynamics of entropy and organization of the facial-pantomimic reactions system in the CG reflected the tension of adaptation mechanisms at stages with a predominance of cognitive load; in Sch, there was an insufficiency of such tension during load, and in ND, tension was observed at stages with affective and personal themes. The graph of facial-pantomimic reactions in healthy individuals was determined by integrativeness with a large number of connections between nodes; In patients with HP, the graph was sequentially connected, while in individuals with SR it was represented by isolated clusters of AU.

UMEDNet: a multimodal approach for emotion detection in the Urdu language.

Emotion detection is a critical component of interaction between human and computer systems, more especially affective computing, and health screening. Integrating video, speech, and text information provides better coverage of the basic and derived affective states with improved estimation of verbal and non-verbal behavior. However, there is a lack of systematic preferences and models for the detection of emotions in low-resource languages such as Urdu. To this effect, we propose Urdu Multimodal Emotion Detection Network (UMEDNet), a new emotion detection model for Urdu that works with video, speech, and text inputs for a better understanding of emotion. To support our proposed UMEDNet, we created the Urdu Multimodal Emotion Detection (UMED) corpus, which is a seventeen-hour annotated corpus of five basic emotions. To the best of our knowledge, the current study provides the first corpus for detecting emotion in the context of multimodal emotion detection for the Urdu language and is extensible for extended research. UMEDNet leverages state-of-the-art techniques for feature extraction across modalities; for extracting facial features from video, both Multi-task Cascaded Convolutional Networks (MTCNN) and FaceNet were used with fine-tuned Wav2Vec2 for speech features and XLM-Roberta for text. These features are then projected into common latent spaces to enable the effective fusion of multimodal data and to enhance the accuracy of emotion prediction. The model demonstrates strong performance, achieving an overall accuracy of 85.27%, while precision, recall, and F1 scores, are all approximately equivalent. In the end, we analyzed the impact of UMEDNet and found that our model integrates data on different modalities and leads to better performance.

The Role of Context in Social Understanding of Autistic Characters: Pragmatic Analysis of the Film “Plesae Stand By”

This study examines how contextual factors influence the social skills of Wendy, an autistic protagonist in the film Please Stand By. Adopting a descriptive qualitative design and pragmatic analysis grounded in Wilson and Sperber’s Relevance Theory, the research investigates Wendy’s processing of social cues across everyday conversations and unfamiliar environments during travel. Data comprised dialogue transcripts and observations of nonverbal behaviors, analyzed to identify pragmatic barriers: dependence on concrete rules, difficulty inferring implicit meanings, literal interpretation of unexpected changes, and vulnerability to social manipulation. Findings indicate Wendy’s reliance on explicit, structured instructions to navigate social contexts; when cues were ambiguous or implied, she exhibited misunderstandings and heightened emotional responses. Conversely, detailed guidance enabled accurate adaptation in certain scenarios, highlighting the efficacy of targeted communicative interventions. This study enhances understanding of autism by elucidating context-driven communicative challenges and endorses inclusive strategies to foster social participation among individuals with ASD. Ultimately, the research raises awareness of autism’s social dimensions and offers practical insights for practitioners and society.

From Awareness to Practice: Indonesian Pre-Service English Teachers’ Perceptions and Implementation of Intercultural Communicative Competence

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is critical in English language education, especially in preparing future teachers to address cultural diversity in the classroom. Despite growing awareness of ICC, challenges remain in how pre-service teachers perceive and plan to implement ICC in their future teaching practices. This study investigated Indonesian pre-service English teachers’ perceptions of ICC objectives and their intended integration into English language instruction. Conducted at a university in Central Java, Indonesia, the study involved 19 undergraduate pre-service English teachers who completed a questionnaire, all of whom were invited to participate in follow-up interviews. The questionnaire responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while interview data were examined through thematic analysis. The findings indicate that participants generally acknowledged the importance of ICC, particularly the knowledge dimension—such as understanding non-verbal behaviors, taboos, and levels of formality—and, to a lesser extent, attitudes like suspending judgment. However, responses also revealed inconsistencies, as many participants favored teacher-centered approaches focused on presenting cultural facts, with limited attention to deeper cultural engagement or student-centered activities. Although some participants demonstrated more comprehensive and reflective approaches, the findings suggest that many pre-service teachers have a fragmented understanding of ICC and lack clear strategies for its classroom integration. These results highlight the need for teacher education programs to explicitly address ICC objectives, foster critical intercultural awareness, and promote reflective pedagogies that support effective ICC implementation in future English language classrooms.

An interdisciplinary investigation into the behaviors that build (and express) interpersonal trust

The expression of specific nonverbal behaviors has been proposed to play an important role in the development of interpersonal trust. In this review, we examined the andragogical descriptions presented by 8 different disciplines for which behaviors are used to build trust. Despite drawing from largely separate source material, cross-discipline analyses revealed consistency regarding the recommended behaviors that should be used to communicate trust, including eye contact, smiling, mimicry, and maintaining physical proximity. A comparison of these behaviors with those seen in the attraction literature and parenting context further suggests that the function of such behaviors is not confined to the professional context. A model in which affiliative behaviors are used in the expression of trust and interpersonal attraction is discussed.

Smiling doctor, satisfied patient-the impact of facial expressions on doctor-patient interactions.

Although the importance of facial expressions for good doctor-patient communication is widely acknowledged, empirical evidence supporting this notion is scarce. We used a fine-grained, anatomically-based measure to investigate which facial expressions are displayed in (simulated) doctor-patient consultations and whether these can predict communication quality. Fifty two medical students engaged in simulated doctor-patient consultations with standardized patients (SPs) and their facial expressions were analyzed using the Facial-Action-Coding-System (FACS). The quality of the communication was rated by SPs, medical students, and by communication experts. SPs also rated their level of comfort. The predominant facial expression being displayed by medical students was smiling. Medical students' smiling positively predicted the communication quality and level of comfort experienced by SPs. In contrast, smiling had little effect on medical students' self- and expert-assessments of communication quality. Smiling of medical students significantly predicted patient level of comfort and perceived quality of communication. This predictive power was found for genuine and for social smiles as well as for smiles displayed during speaking and during listening. Smiling seems to be a robust non-verbal behavior that has the potential to improve doctor-patient communication. This knowledge should be taken into consideration in medical training programs.