On page 121 Jandt has an excerpt about how clothes and physical appears can communicate to a person and really I think this can be the biggest part of non verbal communication. When any person first meets another person the first message that is communicated is the way the person looks and people are able to extract a lot of information from that alone.
Appearance can determine a lot. If I met a guy who had a shirt of the Philadelphia Eagles or LA Lakers on, I could instantly have something to relate with him on. It communicates a commonality instantly to me. Or if I am attracted to the way a girl looks I may try to impress the girl or act like a fool around her all because of my attraction. Appearance is essentially the first impression a person will get from another.
Going into a job interview or on a date I would be sure to wear good clothes, but if I'm spending the weekend at a friends house I would be totally comfortable with walking around in basketball shorts and a tee shirt. I think appearence can account for a large, large percent of nonverbal communication.
The way I look generally doesn't matter to me, as long as i'm comfortable. I usually only dress up for interviews or some formal outting. Looks don't really communicate to much to me except a persons comfort zone. Clothes, to me, are mainly for other people to make up their own opinion of me I suppose, but people will have that regardless of what they see on me.
ReplyDelete