Body language and communication experts, along with psychologists, have all stressed the importance of body language and gestures in communicating emotions.
Everyone has a default mind-set that allows them to recognise when a person is happy, and when they are sad (emoticons, among other things, are testament to this). They could be smiling, leaning forward with their head resting on their knuckles to communicate either boredom or interest.
Gestures and facial expressions are read all the time, but what I came to think of was how much attention we pay to them.
People who use sign language , have to rely both on recognising sign gestures as well as the facial expressions of the person signing. The sign itself has meaning, but say when someone is signing the phrase “Well done”, signing this while smiling and having raised eyebrows helps convey the meaning.
With lip-reading, it’s the same. We rely – as much as we can – on what we can hear. Then we read the person’s body language, along with the shape of their lips, to get the phrase that matches.
But since us deaf people in particular have to pay attention to these things, does it make us more empathetic? Do we get used to reading body language and facial expressions more than hearing people do?
I’m no expert, but I suppose the answer comes with the fact that our communication is different. For those who are hearing, those talking mostly focus on what is being said, and eye contact.
There is no particular focus on what the person is trying to say as they are able to hear it. But for those who are deaf, speech is probably not the main factor that we focus on because of our hearing loss.
We all know particular patterns in body language and gestures that communicate different emotions. You could could say that deaf people possess the ability to fully pay attention to these gestures.
For example, you may be talking to a friend who has recently lost a pet. Whilst a hearing person would be listening to the story and structuring their responses on that, we would probably notice that they have tears in their eyes, that their lips are trembling and their hands are shaking.
But I am curious to hear what you think. Do you consider yourself to be more empathetic?
Liam O’Dell is a 17-year old who uses hearing aids in both ears. As well as playing the drums, Liam likes to read and write. You can find out more about Liam over at his blog: www.thelifeofathinker.wordpress.com, or follow him on Twitter: @lifeofathinker
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Posted in: Liam O'Dell
Hartmut
May 23, 2014
Empathy can be on different things. While we recognize facial expressions and body movements better than most hearing people would do. This does not make us more empathetic, because we see them. Hearing people can acquire this ability through training or through constant associations with us.
But we may not notice something that is invisible, but obtainable only through inference from the context and all the trimmings surrounding a particular situation. Such inferences depend on the experiences one got from having been in those communication themselves. Keen vision and ability to observe (subtle) behaviors won’t help. For example, a delay in answering a question to an interrogator often indicates an attempt to lie, because you need time to think up a lie, while the true answer usually could be given quickly.
Empathy is something that you purely figured out from things unseen (or unheard), based on probably on the knowledge of the person’s habits, tendencies, foibles, biases, extent of his learning and world knowledge, experiences, speech patterns, etc.
liamodell1
May 23, 2014
Interesting thoughts… I agree that some personal knowledge is required in order to feel empathy. After all, it is about knowing how a person feels…
But do you think that rather than a hearing person’s main focus in a conversation is speech, a deaf person focusses more on the person’s body language and emotions more? I agree with the idea of there being some personal knowledge of the person in order to feel empathy, but on a more external scale (relying more on what we see, rather than know), do you think we can gain empathy through that method, or that it helps the process?
Thanks for commenting.
Liam
bluebudgietrills
May 23, 2014
Interesting question. You could argue that the cues are just different between deaf and hearing ppl. For example, hearing ppl might not notice the tears but would hear the quiver in the person’s voice and perhaps a drop in volume as person struggles to get the words out. I know I’ve missed cues/misinterpretted situs because I’ve been concentrating on one person’s face so much that I haven’t picked up what’s happening with ppl around me and the effect the person is having on them. But I’ve also seen breakdowns coming well before hearing ppl around for the same reason. I guess it’s down to each individual scenario and who you’re with.
liamodell1
May 28, 2014
I didn’t think of that! Good example too! I think you’re right about there being a factor of cues as well. You’ve got both non-verbal communication and verbal communication, so maybe that is it?
Thanks for commenting!
Liam
traveller
May 28, 2014
I don’t think there’s any evidence to suggest that hearing people wouldn’t notice the tears in somebody’s eyes when they’re talking! They will also be able to hear distress in someone’s voice if they are speaking.
Actually, the evidence is that, while deaf people who have good access to early language and appropriate parenting are just as likely to be good at empathy as hearing, early language deprivation is unfortunately linked to deficits in empathy. Just one of the reasons why visual language is so important for d/Deaf babies and children.