Skill in Nonverbal
Communication
by Robert Rosenthal (Ed.)
First published 1979
Edited by the distinguished Professor of Psychology Robert
Rosenthal Skill in Nonverbal Communication is a well-researched and interesting
read. Much of Robert Rosenthal’s work has focused on nonverbal communication,
particularly its influence on expectations: for example, in doctor-patient,
student-teacher or manager-employee situations. His interests include
self-fulfilling prophecies, which he explored in a well-known study of the
Pygmalion Effect: the effect of teachers' expectations on students. Using
different approaches to nonverbal measurement, Rosenthal found that a teacher’s
expectations about a child’s behaviour has a firm influence on how they
actually behave; he studied doctors’ sensitivity to nonverbal behaviours;
discovered delay tactics in deception; and his demonstrations of thin slicing
made for some classic studies. In his study of rapport at different stages of
an interpersonal relationship, he examined coordination, matching and
synchrony, something he found with mother-infant interactions.