Nonverbal and visual persuasion cues ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??

Have you used, or at least noticed, how people around you use non-verbal and visual persuasion cues all the time?

Of course, you have.?

Remember when you made that pitiful gesture to your mom or dad to get a favor? Or when you see a lot of photographs and charts used in an article??

What you possibly have not done (not true for everyone though) is pay attention to how these cues work, when they work and when they don’t.?

Here are a few cues for you to enjoy the power they have in our day-to-day communication.

Nonverbal and visual signals form an integral part of persuasive communication.?

The direct effects model of immediacy posits that nonverbal cues simultaneously signal warmth, and decrease psychological or physical distances between communicators.?

There is overwhelming evidence in research of the persuasive effects of eye contact, touch and kinesics - movements such as smiling, body posture and animation - and vocal cues such as fast delivery and tone of voice.?

While these cues work together and cumulatively add to the persuasive effect, many cues work only for perceptibly legitimate requests, and have a negative effect on illegitimate requests. Remember winking at someone or making faces at someone who did not like it?

The magic lies in the fact that nonverbal cues are effective in persuasive communication even when they come from mediated channels such as television, radio or the internet! Persuaders also use nonverbal cues to assume and communicate status, acquire perceived credibility, and distract.?

If you are a decent communicator, you perhaps already use nonverbal cues and visuals to convey implicit, and sometimes explicit, messages without verbal references. This process seems to work best when aptly juxtaposed images create a dissonance in the viewer’s mind, and involve them to process the implied messages more deeply than otherwise.?

Interestingly, the concept of embedded images also resonates with the idea of product placement in Hollywood films. Attesting the power of nonverbal cues in persuasive communication, a longitudinal study has noted that product placement has become entrenched in Hollywood films, and is in fact getting center stage with time.?Persuaders also include artifacts such as dresses, other physical and environmental factors, and attractive looks to increase the effect of nonverbal and visual cues.?

A great example of the power of such cues can be found in corporate annual reports that use visual elements such as attractive graphs to represent financial data to shareholders. The indication that the common reader peripherally processes the simplified, albeit sometimes misinterpreted information to make serious investment decisions relates it both to used visual cues (that seem to successfully influence the reader), and to the base rate fallacy (the tendency for people to erroneously judge the likelihood of a situation by not taking into account all relevant data).?

The use of colorful graphs, and shapes, to persuade the reader is related to two aspects. If you use the device ethically, you can attract the reader and highlight what is desirable. You can also increase the salience of the corporate agenda. ?

So what’s the big deal? Nothing much really. As a communicator, you can use this device a bit more consciously the next time. As a reader, you can try counting the images with this new information in your repertoire ?? ??