Nonverbal Communication in the Contemporary Operating Environment

摘要

Nonverbal behavior (NVB) is a key part of communication, arguably accounting for considerably more of the communicative message than that contained in verbal exchanges. This is especially true when a language barrier exists, as it does for many Soldiers stationed overseas. Universal and culture- specific NVB knowledge, skills, and attitudes (propensity) enable Soldiers to better identify opportunities to influence individuals, groups, and situations, especially when seeking cooperation or needing to identify friendly vs. hostile intent. The goal of the training proposed herein is to prepare Soldiers to predict and interpret nonverbal behavior. To develop the training framework, a literature review, a preliminary emblem extraction effort, and Subject Matter Expert (SME) interviews and surveys were conducted. In light of this research, the following teachable NVB areas became the focus of research and a proposed curriculum: relevant attention and observation skills; facial expressions of emotion; gestures; validation and reliability; and skills related to baselining, scene scanning, change detection, aggression detection, deception detection, and cues decodable at a distance of over 20 feet. The proposed curriculum is designed to effectively improve NVB Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities in interpersonal contexts globally whether or not the Soldier has received culture training to increase country-specific cultural knowledge.