Author’s Native Language:
♦ FACTS
- It is one of the first rules that one learns;
- It is an argument used to overvalue non-verbal content;
- Experts never get tire of repeating it.
When I first became interested in the topic, this was one of the first rules I learned.
I saw this statement in many books and heard it from many “experts.” These people claimed that “scientific studies” proved such a percentage. But do you know the origin of the 7-38-55 rule?
You have probably read and heard that the communication process is 93% non-verbal.
Let’s address the most well-known and widely spread myth about body language and non-verbal communication.
Is 93% of communication non-verbal?
Click to know why I was concerned
I was always uncomfortable with this story of 93% non-verbal communication for two reasons:
1. It seemed to me that if the meaning of words represented only 7% of what was intended to communicate, simply observing non-verbal behavior would provide a very close idea of the communication.
If this relationship of 93% non-verbal to 7% verbal was proven, verbalization could even, (in a more extreme scenario), be put in the background, which is not observed in real life…
2. I also observed that communication changed a lot according to the context in which it occurred (including non-verbal communication). In welcoming environments, for example, words were very important and carefully understood.
On the other hand, in hostile environments, words were chosen carefully, and the number of gestures people made also decreased as they became cautious about what they said or increased if they entered a “persuasive mode.”
This concern led me to search for the origin of the much-talked-about 7-38-55 rule of the so-called 93% non-verbal communication, which I will dedicate this article to.
♦ IMPORTANT!
What does this rule say?
Supposedly,
- 7% of communication is attributed to the verbal component (its meaning),
- 38% to the vocal component (specifically, the tone of voice), and
- 55% to the facial component (facial expression).
Thus, summing 38+55 results in the magical body language proposition that non-verbal communication accounts for 93% of all communication.
In this article, we will show the origin of this myth and reflect on the fragility of this conclusion.
How was the 7-38-55 (93% non-verbal) rule developed?
The 7-38-55 rule is based on two studies conducted by Albert Mehrabian (pictured above) in 1967:
♦ TIP – These are the Mehrabian studies:
- Decoding of Inconsistent Communications and
- Inference of Attitudes from Nonverbal Communication in Two Channels
Let’s look at the second study (more robust), which aimed to compare the relative importance of word meaning, tone of voice, and facial expression, whose results contain Mehrabian’s conclusion about the prevalence of facial expression for message interpretation.
What was Mehrabian’s methodology in this study on the 93% non-verbal communication?
Next, I present a summary of the methodology of how the conclusion that word meaning accounts for only 7% of communication was reached:
♦ FACT
The voices of three women were recorded saying the word “maybe” with an intonation that aimed to signify:
- That the person might like it;
- That the person shows neither appreciation nor aversion (neutrality);
- That the person might not like it.
The words were recorded twice by the three women, making a total of 18 utterances of the word “maybe” with the above-described intonations.
These recordings were presented to 17 listeners (all women) who were to judge, upon hearing each word, whether the communication was positive, neutral, or negative, on a scale presented in the study.
Photographs of three models were also taken with facial expressions that could signify:
- That they liked something;
- That they are neutral about something;
- That they did not like something.
Photos and recordings were combined
Voices and photographs were paired in a certain way (which does not concern us at the moment) described in the original study, so that the evaluators could see a photo with a positive facial expression and hear a negative or neutral “maybe,” etc.
♦ FACT
After doing the math, the 7-38-55 rule for verbal, vocal, and facial components, respectively, was reached (conclusion explicitly written on page 252 of the Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1967, vol. 31, n3).
I imagine that, at the time, Mehrabian had no idea of the confusion this study would create. So, even after his various attempts to explain the limitations, the myth was already created.
Understand the limitations and possibilities of this study on non-verbal communication
When this study was published without its significant limitations being explicit, it paved the way for one of the most well-known myths about communication.
This myth was established without any plausible explanation of its origin and repeated to thousands of people who do not, and possibly never will, have access to the original studies to verify the truth or exaggeration of these claims.
♦ Take a test!
If you want to know if someone is truly an expert in non-verbal communication, ask them how the 7-38-55 rule originated and who was responsible for it!
By the way, see my tips for becoming a true body language expert.
It only takes a bit of common sense to see that, at the very least, this rule is highly exaggerated. Additionally, there are several limitations to the applicability of these studies in real life. These limitations are largely ignored, especially if the rule is applied to a context different from the one in which it was constructed.
Let’s look at some other reasons to question this type of “magical body language” in non-verbal communication:
- The study used voice recordings of women from a single opportunity. Is this a natural context?
- The studies refer to the positive versus negative perception of the message. What about other possibilities? Other degrees of attitude? And doubt (which is not neutrality), for example?
- The voices were only female. Would the same occur if the voices were male? And if the evaluators were male? Would the result be different? The study does not address this!
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Other types of non-verbal communication, for example, body posture, relative position to other objects like tables, obstacles, etc., how would they influence communication? This was not addressed in the study!
Other types of non-verbal communication, for example, body posture, relative position to other objects like tables, obstacles, etc., how would they influence communication? This was not addressed in the study!There are other aspects that can be raised, but the ones I indicate above are more than enough to question the all-powerful 7-38-55 rule.
In another article, I will bring information from other studies from which we can draw different conclusions. For this reason, we must evaluate the limitations and possibilities of any scientific study, as it is only safe to use knowledge within these limits. We must be cautious about hasty (or ill-intentioned) generalization.
The most incredible thing is this. A feat in itself…..
In my opinion, this number of subjects is not enough for such generalization. This is not enough! In fact, it is absurd!
♦ TIP
That non-verbal communication is important, there is no doubt! However, do not be fooled by the “siren song”…..
♦ TEST
The next time someone tells you this, ask if they know where it came from. If they don’t know, be careful with the type of knowledge they are teaching you! Check out our courses on body language.
Like it or not, there is unanimity in the scientific community about the myth of the 7-38-55 rule. See this other article on the subject: Let’s Dump the 55-38-7 Rule
See our article on the Eye Detect on Reality Love: truth or consequence, announced by Netflix.
Our other articles on NLP can be found here: Neurolinguistic Programming
This post is also available in pt_BR.