Scientists say we share a nonverbal communication system

Scientists have found proof that humans share a universal nonverbal communication system. They asked children of various nationalities to convey specific actions with gestures. Despite knowing different languages, the kids can often understand each other with hand movements. Yet, their native tongue affected how they gestured to one another.

For many years, we have sought ways to achieve world peace and global unity. However, it has been difficult due to our various differences. This study may have found evidence that we have more things in common than we think. With further research, we might prove that we share an obscure method of communication that unites us as one people.

This article will explain how scientists discovered this way of sharing information with other people. Then, I will discuss other recent language discoveries.

How did researchers discover this nonverbal communication?

Şeyda Özçalışkan, a psychological scientist at Georgia State University, and her team wanted to understand how language affects the way people think. She says we can see that when people speak and convey ideas only with gestures.

GSU defines gestures as wordless signals, including body language, posture, eye contact, and facial expressions. More importantly, Özçalışkan believes these body movements could help us understand how kids form and express ideas.

She and her colleagues conducted a study where 100 children described actions with words and hand movements. Then, they described the same action without speaking, using only their hands. The latter is also known as silent gesture. 

Half the children were native English speakers, and the other 50 spoke Turkish. The researchers say English and Turkish are great for comparison because they differ in how speakers describe events.

“If you’re speaking Turkish, if you want to describe someone running into a house, you have to chunk it up. You say, ‘he’s running, and then he enters the house,'” explains Özçalışkan.

“But if it’s in English, they’ll just say ‘he ran into the house,’ all in one compact sentence. As such, it is easier to express both running (manner of motion) and entering (path of motion) together in a single expression in English than in Turkish.”

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They found that when children spoke and gestured simultaneously, their gestures followed the rules of their language. However, their gestures were remarkably similar when they didn’t have to speak.

“It is easier to express both running and entering in a single gesture compared to speech, particularly for Turkish speakers who have to express running and entering in two separate sentences in their speech,” Özçalışkan explained. 

Their findings suggest humans may have a universal gesture system that lets us communicate with each other regardless of language.

Other language breakthroughs

We’ve also succeeded in nonverbal communication with whales. Scientists from UC Davis, the Alaska Whale Foundation, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) sailed a boat off, sent out a “contact call,” and attracted a humpback whale.

Contact calls enable whales to call over fellow whales and let each other know where they are. The researchers recorded them from a small pod of whales before their encounter.

“They are one of the most common signals within the humpback whale social sound repertoire,” study co-author Fred Sharpe said. Later, they attracted a humpback whale named Twain. 

Scientists emitted the same contact call 36 times at varying intervals for the next 20 minutes. Fortunately, Twain responded to the call each time and matched the shifting intervals. 

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If the scientists played a call and waited 10 seconds, the marine mammal also waited 10 seconds before replying. “It certainly felt like we had been heard,” Sharpe said. 

“And we hope that she felt the same way, too.” Also, lead author Brenda McCowan stated, “We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback ‘language.’”

The researchers used samples from a pod that included Twain, the whale. Consequently, they might have been communicating with Twain using its signal. “We might’ve been playing back her own hello to her,” Sharpe said. 

Conclusion

Scientists discovered that humans may share a universal nonverbal communication method. Psychological scientist Şeyda Özçalışkan learned kids who know different languages can communicate with gestures.

GSU said her next step for this research is to study blind Turkish and English-speaking kids to confirm the same patterns. As a result, researchers can pinpoint how early we developed this universal language.

Learn more about this nonverbal communication study on the Georgia State University website. Check out more digital tips and trends at Inquirer Tech.