Topic > Exploring the evolution and importance of communication

Some people on the autism spectrum have difficulty reading the subtleties of nonverbal language and may leave them to misinterpret what is said. Another faction that struggles with nonverbal language is Amimia. Those dealing with Amimia cannot understand the hand gestures, even if previously understood. Our eyes tell us a lot about what's going on in our minds. For example, closing our eyes for more than a blink is our way of preventing our brain from processing something threatening or undesirable. Another example is eye contact; when someone lies, they usually look away to avoid eye contact. This sometimes poses a problem in police interrogations where suspects who are aware of these nonverbal cues deliberately make longer eye contact to confuse the investigator. However, researchers have learned to watch for other nonverbal cues, such as intonation, that are indicative of deception and to observe when normal eye contact becomes abnormal. Eye contact can also show love, hate, trust, concern, or enthusiasm. Furthermore, another indicator of emotion is our posture; it can indicate whether we are tense, relaxed, interested, angry or disgusted. Our posture can emphasize what our face/eyes are trying to convey, for example crossing our arms to show tension and pulling back to show disgust. Through nonverbal language we are also able to pick up on signals of deception, honesty, or love that serve more as an adaptive benefit. Eye contact is important to show confidence, as is posture, and to see if someone loves or hates us. This allows us to provide for ourselves more efficiently, by spotting danger, and to obtain resources, if you are confident that you will excel more and people will believe in you, and reproduce successfully, proving that you are trustworthy. Body language is markedly different everywhere