Persuasive effects of nonverbal elements in interpersonal communication

Nonverbal elements play a fundamental role in interpersonal communication, giving expressiveness to social interactions. The overall objective of this study is to offer theoretical insights into the ways nonverbal elements influence a conversation from the very first moments of an interaction. Although they often play an informative and constructive role in communication, there are situations in which such elements can play a persuasive role, for example when aiming to dominate a conversation or when trying to drive people to act in a certain way. This paper highlights both types of roles. In doing so, various communication situations are examined, as debated in the literature. Nonverbal elements analysed here include gestures, facial expressions and eye contact/gaze. Considering the studies that have been published on this subject, I assumed that nonverbal elements can lead interlocutors to become vulnerable when they are engaged in a dialogue, to adopt certain behaviours depending on the sender's intentions, to change their own opinions on a given topic or to fail to express their views. This paper offers new ways of empirical investigation of such persuasive effects of nonverbal elements, proposing innovative approaches in the field of nonverbal communication.