Nonverbal Communication

            For the assignment this week, I watched Supernatural, one of my daughter’s favorites. She loved that I allowed her to pick a show and she knows Supernatural is not my “cup of tea”. The silent episode began with a family of three: dad, daughter, and son; this became obvious when the daughter passed by the dad and gave him a kiss on the cheek while he was reading the newspaper. Then she passed the younger guy, who I assumed to be the brother; they looked at one another sarcastically and made verbal remarks. The daughter goes for a swim, and then disappears in the water; it is obvious something is not right, by the look on her face even though her surroundings seem calm.

The next scene shows two men in a café, circling the missing girl’s picture in the newspaper and in a serious discussion with each other; the eye contact was there and they were both fully engaged in dialogue. I labeled them as detectives or investigators. They were interrupted by a flirty waitress, who made her intentions obvious by the super huge smile and the way she leaned over to talk to the guys; one guy seemed appalled, the other responded with an equally huge smile and lustful gaze as she walked away.

 In other scenes, nonverbal communication was demonstrated when one investigator discretely nudges the other to look at something in the house, during an interrogation. There was also a little boy with a sixth sense, who with a frightful look on his face and frantically pulling on the arm of one of the investigators, lead me to believe he was very fearful about something.

            Watching the episode with sound went a lot faster than without sound. The previous assumptions were pretty much on point; except 1) the guys were not investigators, but spirit hunters; 2) the guy who seemed to be appalled at the waitress was actually anxious to get on with the case and 3) the little boy was not fearful but trying to tell the spirit hunter something.

In silence it looked like the movie was out of order, people who I thought were nice and helpful were manipulative and selfish. It is so easy to take things out of context but for the most part reading their body language was more precise than trying to read their lips. In reference to contradicting verbal messages-people tend to say whatever is necessary to gain pleasure or avoid pain; however, what a person believes is many times, shown through their actions. So, when people are not honest, it is easier to tell by their behavior than their words.