You have heard it a million times, right? 93% of all communication is non-verbal! Amazing, right?
Except it is total baloney.
Two little crummy studies, the results combined, with an N of like Nothing To Speak Of, unbelievably limited independent and dependent variables, and staggeringly little generalizability are the culprits here.
Even the researcher, Dr, Albert Mehrabian, has been embarrassed at how his results have been mis-used, mis-cited, mis-interpreted and foisted on the lay (and professional, unfortunately) public as an amazing fact!!
I had to go look that one up. Those results always sounded preposterous to me. I have been communicating for 65 years, and I have to tell you, except for perhaps in my pre-verbal years, I have been pretty steadily focused on the VERBAL part of the communications. Sure, I notice your posture, the tone of your voice, and blah blah blah, but NINETY-THREE PERCENT!?!?!?
Yeah, that is horsecrap. I am not going to go into all of the specifics of the studies, but if you are one of those people who go around citing this “fact” YOU should go look it up, and disabuse yourself of this wildly misleading folklore.
I don’t know if the Truth Sets You Free, but it beats the hell out of misinformation…
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