Communication is much more than the words that we speak or hear. Studies have quoted figures from 50% to 90% that communication—the message and emotion we get from others—is based on nonverbal or unspoken signals, starting from Mehrabian and Ferris in “Inference of Attitudes from Nonverbal Communications in Two Channels” in 1967. Add that to additional communication based on subtext, context, implication, and inference, and you’ll almost wonder what impact our actual words have.

Whatever the case, what we think we are communicating is often overshadowed or outright contradicted by what is meant to be interpreted between the lines. What we say is not really what we mean most of the time, and this is something we begin to learn as children. It’s not that the words we use don’t matter—they do. But the way in which we use them, and the contexts we use them in, are far more indicative of our feelings and emotions.

Continue reading “Overt and Covert Communication”