Cultural Differences in Body Language

Body Language and Nonverbal Communication Across Cultures

Cultures differ in the way we use our bodies to communicate.  Sometimes it is very obvious, and many times very subtle.

Gestures are a very obvious example of such a difference. Just ask Bill Gates, who managed to insult a nation with his body language. Whether working in a culturally diverse workplace or flying off to emerging markets around the globe, understanding what people mean through their body language can be a challenge.

The complexity of body language is unquestionable in the cross cultural context.

Key Areas of Cultural Difference in Body Language

When working across cultures, most differences in body language fall into a few key areas:

• Eye contact – signals confidence, respect, interest, or even disrespect, depending on the culture
• Personal space (proxemics) – how close people stand and what feels comfortable in conversation
• Physical contact – how often and in what ways touch is used in social and professional settings
• Gestures – hand movements and signals that can carry very different meanings across cultures
• Posture and body positioning – how people sit, stand, and orient themselves during interactions

Although these behaviours often feel natural, they are shaped by culture. Recognising these differences is key to interpreting body language more accurately and communicating effectively across cultures.

If you work across cultures, getting to know about different business cultures can help you differentiate between a stare and an agreement, or not.

Eye Contact Across Cultures: What It Means and How It Varies

Eye contact can mean very different things around the world.

We’ll explore the reasons why later; here are some examples from around the world in terms of how often, or not, eye contact is used.

• Used a lot in regions such as the Middle East, Mediterranean cultures, Europeans, and Latin Americans.
• Used often used in much of Northern Europe and North America.
• Used somewhat carefully in cultures in Africa, the Middle East, and India.
• Used carefully in most of the Far East, such as in China, S. Korea, and Japan.

Personal Space and Physical Contact Across Cultures

As with eye contact, different cultures have different ideas when it comes to proxemics (distance) and touch or contact.

Again, here are some high-level examples.

• ‘High Contact’ cultures tend to stand close when speaking and make physical contact more often. Latin America, Southern Europe and most Middle Eastern nations are examples.
• ‘Medium Contact’ cultures stand quite close when speaking and will touch on occasion. Such cultures include Northern Europe and North America.
• ‘Low Contact’ cultures stand at a greater distance and generally avoid physical contact. The Far East is an example.

These rules are usually quite complex.

They may differ depending on the age, gender, ethnicity, profession, and status of the people involved. They can even depend on things like how much noise there is in the room.

The above is only meant to serve as basic examples of how different cultures tend to approach things like eye contact, etc.

As well as cultural differences in nonverbal communication, there are also cultural differences in how we speak. Photo by Melissa Di Rocco on Unsplash

Interpreting Body Language Across Cultures: Context Matters

Things are never that simple. Understanding body language can get particularly complicated when you mix culture and gender.

Eye contact from someone of the opposite sex, which you might think is a sign of attraction, could in fact be a sign of respect and interest, or even a curse on you!

Similarly, if someone avoids shaking your hand when you meet, this could be, for example, to uphold certain traditions that forbid contact between a man and a woman.

We can never know all the rules another person operates by. However, knowing differences exist can help to stop you from misinterpreting signals and help you understand why people may act in a certain way.

Active listening is an essential element of competence in cross cultural communication. Photo by Kimia Zarifi on Unsplash

Practical Exercise: Understanding Your Own Body Language Communication

Why not try out an exercise we sometimes use in cross cultural training?

This is a fun little exercise you can do to learn some quick lessons!

1. OK, you’ll need to first find someone who wants to do a bit of D.I.Y cultural awareness training on body language with you.

Grab a colleague, a friend, or the stranger on the bus next to you!

2. Face each other and then stand toe-to-toe.

Have a conversation for 10 seconds. About whatever – the weather, dinner, or what’s on Netflix.

3. Once you’re done, reflect and ask yourself, “What happened? Did you make more or less eye contact? Did you break it up? Were you comfortable? or not?”

Eye contact and distance can often greatly affect each other. That’s why when people get into a crowded train and have to stand very close, they usually look up or away rather than at each other’s faces – they want to avoid eye contact.

When you were a child, did anyone ever say to you, “Look me in the eye and tell me the truth”? Many people who are brought up in the UK, Northern Europe, and North America are told that not making eye contact can be a sign of dishonesty.

Yet in cultures in Asia and Southeast Asia, avoiding eye contact can be a way to show respect to others.

How much do you think about these things when you speak to someone? These rules tend to be a part of us, and we don’t think about them often. The only time we generally think about them is when we meet someone who acts in a different way to us.

How do you react when someone does not make eye contact or physical contact, or stands at a different distance from you?  People often have an emotional, negative response.

This can all happen at a very unconscious level.

One of the keys to managing non-verbal behaviour is to be aware of your own body language and how it may be seen by others. By being aware of the situation and our own behaviour, we can avoid causing offence without meaning to.

4. Next, both of you look at the illustration below.

Answer each question by thinking about how you communicate when talking with work colleagues.

Try to be as honest with yourself as you can. Read the definitions under each scale and place yourself in the number that defines you.

Then show each other what you have scored; any differences? Why? Discuss the reasons you placed yourself where you did.

It’s just a bit of fun but gets you thinking and talking.

Main Photo by ? Luca Iaconelli ? on Unsplash