7%, 38%, 55% – the facts
Ever heard that statistic that only 7% of information in communication
is conveyed by the words, 38% by voice tone, and 55% by body language?
Well, it's not strictly true.
The
original experiments by a psychologist called Mehrabian have been taken
wildly out of context. These web pages set the record straight:
http://www.neurosemantics.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=375&Itemid=199
http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-1332.html
And from Mehrabian's own web page at http://www.kaaj.com/psych/smorder.html, he makes the point that his original experiments were about feelings and attitudes:
—————
"Total Liking = 7% Verbal Liking + 38% Vocal Liking + 55% Facial Liking
Please
note that this and other equations regarding relative importance of
verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing
with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e., like-dislike).
Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes,
these equations are not applicable.
————–
I
could have sworn that there was also an article on the Fast Company web
site debunking the use of these statistics out of context, but
apparently not. I must have been thinking of the "Yale goal-setting study" (quoted by Anthony Robbins among many others) which seems to have never actually happened.
This post originally appeared in my first primitive attempt at a
self-hosted blog way back in 2004. The original blog has vanished like
the lost continent of Atlantis, but I'll salvage anything I think is
worthwhile and repost it here.