My partner was completely in control of this experimental conversation. Since he was the only one that could use language and make a clear point he led the conversation and changed the topics, which there were only two. My partner asked all the questions because it was to difficult for me to ask questions with just hand motions. My partner definitely had the power in this conversation. It felt like I couldn’t communicate anything, and even if he would slightly start to understand what I was saying it still wasn't what I really meant.
If my partner was from a culture that used spoken language and my culture didn’t, my partners culture would have a huge advantage with communicating complex ideas. The attitudes that I think the speaking culture would have on the non-speaking culture is that they would feel superior. I believe the speaking culture would think that the non-speaking culture is ill-advised and unable to efficiently function. I believe that a modern situation that resembles this concept could be the deaf culture and the speaking culture. This situation does not mirror the concept but does resemble the disconnect a lot of people have with the deaf culture. People that can speak have such a higher advantage in getting a job or so that’s what people assume. The deaf community are not inferior but have harder times communicating complex ideas to everyone. They use american sign language which a lot of speaking people have learned to use, but unfortunately a big chunk of the speaking culture does not. I believe this disconnect causes these individuals to feel different and misunderstood, maybe like how my partner and I felt in this experiment.
Part two of the language experiment was not as hard as the first one but still difficult. I am a very enthusiastic talker and I love to use my hands and facial expressions to get ideas across, so this experiment was rather difficult for me. When I was speaking in a monotone voice it changed my whole personality and changed the whole “vibe” of the conversation. My partner, who I know very well, felt that any response he had wasn’t important to me because I didn’t have any enthusiastic responses back. His experience to the experiment was that he could not hold a conversation well with a person that has monotone and that doesn’t express themselves with body language or facial expressions. I found part 2 easier than part 1 but still difficult because it was the opposite of what comes natural to me. The conversation was just not making sense after a while. My partner gave shorter answers that were unenthusiastic and uncomfortable due to the lack of my body language. He had no difficulty understanding what I was saying, but he felt that he couldn’t understand my demeanor. He expressed that it was hard to fully have a real conversation like that because he felt my demeanor was sad and annoyed.
This experiment has completely opened my eyes to how important “signs” our in our language. I use signs and body language everyday to describe things and help someone better understand what I’m saying. I can see how effective it is to use signs when trying to make a point to someone. When reading someone’s body language you can receive all sorts of information like if something’s wrong, someone’s mad at you, what something looks like, or how to do something. All these things are valuable information that could help communicate one's feelings, ideas, and demonstrations.
The adaptive benefit of having the ability to read body language is so important in helping one survive. This adaptive benefit could be used to identify if someone is friendly or an intruder, which could help someone stay alive and protect themselves. For example, if someone sees a person rushing toward them with their hands in a fist, the person with this ability can read the person's body language and inquire that they might be trying to hurt them and choose to run away and protect themselves. This adaptive ability could potentially help someone stay alive. Also, it can help someone obtain resources by making it easier for the person to understand where to get resources. For example, if the person needs to know where to get something and someone gives them directions with pointing, he will be able to understand the direction and follow it to the resources he was looking for. This ability can help someone reproduce successfully by reading if the person wants to engage in sexual intercourse. Also by reading the body language of the person and identifying what sexual touches could help the person engage in sexual activities, which will help them have sex and reproduce.
I’m sure there are people out there that have difficulty reading body language. What comes to mind is people on the autism spectrum who sometimes have difficulty reading “social cues” from people. I believe there are benefits to not being able to read body language because in a lot of instances you could read the body language wrong. For example, if a person looks and acts mad, but is indeed not mad, just looks that way, it would be beneficial not to read the body language but just ask the person specifically what’s going on. There are also many situations where the information you read from someone body language is not reliable. For example, if someone is crying, and you ready the body language of someone being sad, but instead their actually crying of happiness, it may be beneficial not to read the sign. In this instance body language did not give you “reliable” information. Over all this experiment really put into perspective how much our culture relies on these body cues and sign languages to express ourselves.
Hi Mackenzie!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and noticed a few similarities between our two experiments which I thought was really cool! I had a really rough time keeping a straight face simply because of the reactions from my coworkers. They were so confused! I too noticed that I had very little control over the conversation and the company I held had to try very hard to have a simple conversation that never actually went anywhere. It ended up being more of a chore than anything else. Your last paragraph about people with autism who have the potential to struggle with social cues, I thought was a great example of people that may not be able to read social cues quite like others can. Reading body language can be miss interpreted which like you mentioned can be a real issue if you place a full opinion based on that. Thank you for posting!
Hello Mackenzie,
ReplyDeleteI also felt the same way while doing the experiment since it was difficult to understand each other. Even though there was frustration you seemed to have a little funny with the experiment. I know I did. For part two I agree not being able to use body language to express emotion in while specking was hard. I know that for me it’s a habit using hand gestures and facial expression. I liked the example that you’ve included about the deaf culture job involvement which they possibly get passed or turned down for someone that could speak. This was a very interesting and enjoyable response.
Good opening description of your first experiment and good discussion on the issue of power and control in the conversation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your conclusion regarding the communication of complex ideas and the attitude of the speaking to the non-speaking culture. Good example as well with the deaf and speaking culture.
Part (B):
"The conversation was just not making sense after a while. My partner gave shorter answers that were unenthusiastic and uncomfortable due to the lack of my body language."
Why would an absence of body language make him uncomfortable? This is worth looking into. More on this below.
I don't disagree with your conclusions regarding the information we receive from body language, but you are only considering the situation where body language matches and supports the information you receive from spoken language. What does it tell you when the body language doesn't match the spoken language? Humans tend to use body language as a type of lie detector. If spoken words don't match with the body language, we are more inclined to believe the body language and doubt the words. Think about how being able to detect liars might help an individual's ability to survive and reproduce (which applies to the next section).
This goes back to your partner's' discomfort with this experiment. We expect that, in conversations, we will have body language available to us to help us confirm the validity of a person's words, so we can know that they are speaking the truth to us. Without body language, we have no way of evaluating the validity of those words and we face the possibility that this person is lying to us. Are you comfortable with a person blatantly lying to you?
Okay on the benefits of body language, but what type of benefits do you get by being able to detect liars?
Yes, those in the autism spectrum are classified as having great difficulty reading body language, which is why they have trouble in social situations.
You are on the right track with the last point, though I suggest that was a misinterpretation on your point and not because the body language was wrong... many people cry with joy. There's nothing false there, and I suggest it is never a good idea to not read body language if it is valid information.
But you are on the right track here trying to figure out when body language might be misleading, not because the information is wrong, but because you don't know how to interpret it. Do all cultures use the same system of body language? They all use different systems of spoken/written language, so why would we assume their body language isn't different? If you travel to another country, can you trust the information you get from their body language?