Intercultural Communication

Valerie Manusov

11A cultured look at nonverbal cues

Abstract: This chapter provides an overview of scholarship investigating culture and nonverbal cues/signs and gives a means for organizing different bodies of scholarship. These areas of inquiry include cultural, cross-cultural, and intercultural research. The chapter begins with a discussion of some of the primary nonverbal cues (such as the use of space, physical appearance, and time) that have been found to differ in use and meaning across cultures. To help provide a framework and relevancy to this large area of work, the chapter identifies communicative functions (i.e., what nonverbal cues can do for communicators) that have found to be enacted differently across cultural groups through ...