It is immediate, continuous, and natural. Nonverbal communication is often used to make initial judgments when direct verbal questioning would be inappropriate. It gives us information about our relationships with others, particularly in regard to status, liking, and responsiveness. Nonverbal messages are particularly appropriate for conveying emotion. Nonverbal communication often accompanies and supplements verbal messages by repeating, contradicting, substituting for, complementing, accenting, and regulating them.
Nonverbal communication consists of several codes working in concert.
A. Body movement and gesture, part of the kinesic code, are important sources of information. Emblems act like words, they have direct verbal translations. Illustrators are gestures that accompany speech and add meaning to it. Regulators maintain the back and forth flow of talk in an interaction by acting as social traffic signals. Affect displays convey emotional meaning.