Mind and Heart of the Negotiator, Second Edition, The

Detecting Deception

Nonverbal sensitivity (in terms of accuracy) is a plus in negotiation, as it is in most social interaction. For instance, doctors who are good at reading body language have more satisfied patients (DiMatteo, Hays, and Prince 1986). Students who are nonverbally sensitive learn more than less sensitive students (Bernieri 1991). However, nonverbal sensitivity is difficult to achieve. As a skill, it is not correlated with intelligence, and it is very “channel-specific”: Skill at understanding facial expression and body movements is measurably different from skill at understanding tone of voice (DePaulo and Rosenthal 1979). The good news is that nonverbal sensitivity improves with age (Buck 1984; Zuckerman, Blanck, DePaulo, and ...