framework.

Credit: Albert Mehrabian (1939-)

Summary:

Mehrabian’s research notes that there are three core elements in effective face-to-face communication of emotions or attitudes. The 7/38/55 ‘rule’ relates to the relative contribution of each element: 7% for the literal meaning of the words spoken; 38% for tone of voice; and 55% for non-verbal behaviour. Effective communication of emotion using this rule occurs when the three elements support each other. For example, spoken words include, “I like you”, and non-verbal cues include a head nod, expanding smile, and ongoing eye contact.  When the elements are incongruent the receiver of the message may interpret two messages from the different cues. For example, spoken words include, “I like your idea”, and non-verbal cues include a slight head shake, loss of eye contact, and anxious facial expression. In this example, the receiver may begin to doubt the communicator’s spoken words (7%) and tune to the impact of the non-verbals (35%+55%).

Real world application:

paul keeps the 7/38/55 rule in mind when communicating with his direct reports in a work context. With the below mentioned limitations in mind, paul seeks to ensure his non-verbal communication is consistent with his spoken words. For example, when team members approach him in person in his office, he removes his hands from his computer, steps away from his desk, and faces the team member with eye contact and friendly facial expressions. paul gives the team member his full attention, and invites them to share with nods, with palms facing and open posture. paul has practiced this over many years, and seeks to remove all distractions and is fully focused on them in that moment. Additionally, paul  concentrates on using the tone of his voice appropriately. paul consciously lowers his voice and slows his speech to reflect content and meaning back to the team member. paul listens more than he speaks, and seeks to encourage team members to share fully and frankly, in order to reach common ground, co-design solutions, commit to action, or confirm the way forward. Feedback paul has received consistently includes comments by team members saying they feel safe, seen, heard, valued and their ideas supported.

Further detail/Limitations:

It is argued that Mehrabian’s findings are regularly misquoted and misinterpreted when his work is discussed. The first issue rests with Mehrabian’s work focusing on a communicator talking about their feelings or attitudes. That is, the results do not generalise beyond this mode of communication, and can’t be extrapolated to all forms of communication in all contexts. Second the issue relates to the limitations of his two studies, namely: participants were listening to a recording of words rather then engaged in real word communication; participants were female only (with no male participants studied); the study looked only at positive versus negative emotions; and not all forms of non-verbal communication were considered. As such the rule is extremely limited in its generalisability.