Body Language & Banter 81

Body Language & Banter 81 the fundamental thawing of relations between East and West, was to lead to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the end of the Cold War. Face-to-Face Communication What really happened between these two leaders when they met and talked? Was it a mechanical process of offer and counter-offer, as easily executed by fax, or is human interaction more complex than this? Reagan, as a young man, had been a liberal, sympathetic to socialist ideals until a painful strike in California caused him to lose faith in the politics of the left. Gorbachev, a lifelong Communist, was desperate to reform the Soviet economy and make it more competitive. He, also, had come to see the hypocrisies that could emerge in far left-wing ideology. I don’t believe this common experience could have been communicated by fax or email. Indeed, I am sure these specific points were never made, but the nonverbal communication must have conveyed something of their common background and purpose. When we phone someone or exchange emails, the interaction is factual, there is no body language, and we rarely laugh. When we travel to meet someone, we spend a great deal of time with them. The average length of a phone call is two and a half minutes, but meetings, especially when one party has travelled to see the other, can be hours long. When humans meet they greet each other, shake hands, sit in the same room, talk at length, and laugh. Body language is important; people mirror each other’s postures, adopt open and receptive stances, and make eye contact. You can see this in the picture of Reagan and Gorbachev above. Body language allows us to convey qualitatively different things, such as trust and happiness. It is very expressive; you can see the more guarded postures of Yasser Arafat and Shimon Pérez below, just after they negotiated a landmark peace deal. Can you tell if the leaders smiles are false? Communication Communication is one of mankind’s greatest expenditures. The US telephone system is arguably the largest machine on the planet, while the world’s mobile phone networks have a capital value of $2.5 trillion, greater by an order of magnitude than all the steel plants in the world put HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015771