STRANGER & PREDICTION LEVELS

OF COMMUNICATION
 Concept of Stranger & Prediction Levels Of
Communication
We communicate the way we do because we are raised in a
particular culture and learn its language, rules, and
norms.

Strangeness Familiarity
 “Stranger" refers to those people at the most unfamiliar
end of the continuum.
 A stranger has limited knowledge of their new
environment - of its norms and values. And in turn, the
locals have little knowledge of the stranger - of her
beliefs, interests and habits.
Concept of Stranger & Prediction Levels Of
Communication

 Communication with another involves predicting or

anticipating their responses.

 When communicating with someone familiar we are usually

confident in our anticipation, and may not even notice that we
are making such predictions.

 In contrast, when we communicate with strangers we are more

aware of the range of their possible responses, and of the
uncertainty of our predictions.
Communicative predictions are based on
data from three levels.

 Cultural level - This level involves information about the other's

culture, its dominant values and norms. This is often the only
level of information available when communicating with a
stranger. Even so, a better understanding of the stranger's
culture yields better predictions.

 Socio-cultural - This includes data about the other's group

membership, or the groups to which they seek to belong. This
type of information is the predominate data used in intra-
cultural communication.

 Psycho-cultural - This is information about the individual's

characteristics, and is the sort of data most relevant to
communication with friends.
 Social cognition
Social cognition is a dialectical process which involves both
grouping particulars into categories based on their
similarities, and of distinguishing individuals from their
categories based on their differences

 Communication with strangers often relies too heavily on

categorization (stereotyping). Such stereotypes may be inaccurate,
or may not apply to the present individual.
 To improve communication with strangers we must pay attention
to their unique, individual features.
 It takes more of our conscious awareness to differentiate particular
individuals from their stereotypical categories.
 Second, much of our daily communication follows familiar scripts,
and so we are not consciously aware of that communication
behavior. We cannot rely on such familiar scripts and norms when
communicating with a stranger.
 Uncertainty and Anxiety
In communication, we seek to reduce uncertainty.
 Communication with strangers involves relatively greater
degrees of uncertainty, due to the difficulty in predicting a
stranger's responses.

 We experience uncertainty with regard to the stranger's

attitudes, feelings and beliefs. We are also uncertain of how to
explain the stranger's behavior.

 The increased uncertainty in interactions with strangers is

accompanied by higher levels of anxiety, as we anticipate a
wider array of possible negative outcomes.
 Uncertainty and Anxiety
Negative Outcomes
 Damaging our self-esteem from feeling confused and out of control
 Fear the possibility of being incompetent, or being exploited.
 Being negatively perceived by the stranger.
 Interacting with a stranger will bring disapproval from members of
our own group.

Motivation to reduce this uncertainty is more acute when we

expect to have further interactions with the stranger, or when
they are a potential source of benefit.
 Uncertainty and Anxiety
We may reduce our uncertainty and increase the accuracy
of our predictions by gaining more information about
the stranger.
Three basic strategies for gathering such information.
 Passively observing the stranger.
 Actively seeking out information from other friends of the
stranger, or from books.
 Seeking information directly from the stranger by interacting
with them and asking questions. Also, offering information
about one's self often prompts reciprocal offerings of
information from another.
ORAL & NON- VERBAL
COMMUNICATION
 Oral & Non- Verbal Communication

 Paralanguage
 Chronemics
 Proxemics
 Oculesics
 Olfactics
 Haptics
 Kinesics
 Chromatics
 Silence
 Posture & Stance
 PARALANGUAGE

 Refers to the rate, pitch & volume qualities of the voice

that affect the meaning of the message
 Includes Vocal qualifiers:
 Intensity (Loud or Soft)
 Pitch (High or Low)
 Extent (Drawls & accent)
 Conveys Emotion- Negative emotions of impatience,
fear & anger are easier to convey
 Increase rate of speech & volume anger / impatience
 Decrease rate of speech Lack of interest
 Low volume Non- threatening, sympathetic
 PARALANGUAGE

 Arabs speak loudly to show strength, sincerity

 Philippines speak softly Good breeding & education
 Italians & Arabs speak faster than people from US
 Us Americans living in northern states speak faster than
those living in south.
 CHRONEMICS
 Attitude towards time
Monochronic People Polychronic People
Do one thing at a time Do many things at a time
Concentrate on a task Are highly distractable

Are committed to task Are committed to people

Take time commitments Consider time commitments

seriously, value promptness casually, promptness based on
relationships

Accustomed to sort-term Tend to build lifetime

relationships relationship
Rarely borrow or lend Often borrow & lend
 CHRONEMICS
Monochronic Culture: US, England, Switzerland &
Germany
Polychronic Culure: Latin America & Arabs
In US:
Being on time for work, appointments, meetings & social
engagements is very important
Punctuality Being Respectful
Tardiness Rudeness; lack of consideration far others
Time conscious cultures:
Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong , Australia
& New Zealand etc.
 PROXEMICS

 Communicating through the use of space

 Halls & Halls (1990) identified 4 zones from
which US people interact
 Public distance: over 12 feet most formal zone
 Social Zone: 4-16 feet business situation
 Personal Zone: 18 inches – 4 feet giving
instructions, working closely
 Intimate Zone: Less than 18 inches very close friend;
shaking hands
 PROXEMICS

 People of US require more space than Greeks, Latin

Americans, Arabs etc
 Standing too close pushy, overbearing, provides
negative non-verbal message
 US people while conversing generally prefer face to face
arrangements
 Chinese prefer side by side arrangements (avoiding eye
contact)
 In US office size, selection & arrangement of furniture
convey Power & Authority
 PROXEMICS

 In US & Germany top executives occupy offices at Top

floor
 In France top officials occupy position in the middle of
the office area
 Japanese do not consider private offices appropriate
 OCULESICS
 Refers to gaze and eye contact
 Direct eye contact  US, UK, Eastern Europe & Canada
 Eye contact is considered to be a sign of attentiveness and
respect. At the same time prolonged eye contact is not taken in
the right spirit
 People avoiding eye contact are considered insecure,
untrustworthy, unfriendly and disrespectful
 People in Japan, China, Indonesia and Latin America,
etc avoid direct eye contact
 In India, China & Indonesia lowering of eye contact is a sign of
respect
 OCULESICS
 Intense direct eye contact  Misinterpreted as
sign of hostility, aggressiveness or intrusiveness

 Minimal eye contact  Misinterpreted as lack of

interest, dishonesty, fear or shyness
 HAPTICS
 Refers to communicating through the use of the bodily
contact

Don’t touch Middle ground Touch

Japan Australia Latin America

United States France Italy

Canada China Greece

England India Spain

Scandinavia Ireland Russian Federation

Northern European Middle East Countries Portugal

Countries
 HAPTICS
 USA  Appropriate touch includes shaking hands
 Hugs or other expression of affection are considered
inappropriate in business situations
 KINESICS
 Refers to communicating to various types of body
movements including facial expressions, gestures,
posture and stance
 Facial expression
 Most expressive type of body language
 Chinese rarely show emotion whereas Japanese may smile to
cover a range of emotions
 Asians smile or laugh softly when they are embarrassed or to
conceal any discomfort
 Thailand  Smile a great deal Land of smiles
 Korea  ‘Man who smiles a lot is not a real man’
 GESTURES
Interpretation of gestures
 Interest is expressed by maintaining eye contact,
smiling and nodding the head
 Nervousness is shown by fidgeting, jingling of keys
etc
 Defensiveness is indicated by crossing your arms
over your chest, making fisted gestures
 Lack of interest  glancing repeatedly at watch,
staring at ceiling or floor etc
 GESTURES
 US  Moderate gesturing
 Italian, Greeks & Latin Americans  Vigorous gesturing
 Chinese & Japanese  Tend to keep their hands and
arms close to their bodies
 Same gesture can have different connotations in
different countries/cultures

Vertical horns gesture

 Positive connotation  Texas, Brazil & Venezuela
 Insulting connotation  Italy
 US sub culture  Signifies devil’s horn
 GESTURES
OK gesture
 Positive connotation  US
 Obscene connotation  Brazil
 Connotes Money  Japan
 Connotes Zero  Belgium
 Connotes ‘I’ll kill you’  Tunisia

 In most of the countries head nod is considered as YES,

whereas in Bulgaria the same gesture connotes NO
 POSTURES & STANCE
 Posture  The way one stands, sits or walks
 Confident people generally have relaxed posture yet stand
erect and walk with assurance
 Walking with stooped shoulders, hesitating gait projects lack
of confidence and assurance
 Walking rapidly and swinging the arms indicates goal oriented
behavior
 Interest is demonstrated by leaning forward
 Crossed leg sitting  considered to be appropriate in US but
at the same time it is considered to be inappropriate in Middle
East
 Showing the bottom of your feet is considered insulting in
Turkey, Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, etc
 CHROMATICS
 Refers to color associations
 Color of mourning
 Black  European countries & US  Color of mourning
 White  Japan & India
 Red  Africa
 Purple  Seen as color of royalty in China, whereas
considered as color of death in Latin America
 Blue  Considered as masculine in most of the
countries but in France & UK red and not blue is
considered to be color of masculinity
 SILENCE
 Interpretation of silence includes agreement or
disagreement, lack of interest or contempt
 Prolonged silence following a question  not knowing
the answer
 Silence following an inappropriate statement 
disapproval
Silence
 Considered inappropriate in US but appropriate in East
Asia and Finland
 Japanese use it as a bargaining tool when negotiating
with persons from US