Non-Verbal Communication and Darwin
Facial Expressions and Non-Verbal Communication
Non-verbal communication (NVC) is any message sent without spoken or written words. Verbal communication carries precise, detailed meaning through language, but NVC runs alongside it constantly — often revealing emotion, attitude and relationships that words do not state directly.
One of the clearest forms of NVC is the facial expression. A smile, a frown or a widened eye can communicate happiness, disapproval or shock faster than any sentence. Because facial expressions appear across very different cultures in similar forms, psychologists have asked whether they are built into us biologically or learned through upbringing — a question this lesson explores through Darwin’s theory and Yuki et al.’s (2007) research.
Eye Contact: Three Functions
Eye contact is one of the most researched forms of NVC because it does several jobs at once during a single conversation.
First, eye contact regulates conversation. Speakers glance away while thinking and look back when handing over the turn to the listener; without this signalling, conversations become clumsy and people talk over each other.
Second, eye contact can signal attraction. Sustained mutual gaze, along with automatic pupil dilation, is read by others as a sign of romantic or social interest.
Third, eye contact expresses emotion. Wide eyes suggest surprise or fear; narrowed eyes suggest suspicion or concentration. Because the eyes are hard to consciously control, they often reveal true feeling even when a person tries to hide it.
Eye contact has three main functions: regulating the flow of conversation, signalling attraction, and expressing emotion.
Body Language: Posture and Gesture
Posture is another key channel of NVC. Open posture — relaxed, uncrossed limbs facing towards the other person — signals approachability. Closed posture — crossed arms, turning away — signals discomfort or defensiveness.
A gesture, such as a wave, a thumbs-up or a pointed finger, adds meaning to speech or replaces it entirely. Closely linked to posture is postural echo, where one person unconsciously copies the posture of the person they are talking to. This mirroring happens automatically and signals empathy and liking — we tend to mirror people we feel warmly towards, and we tend to warm to people who mirror us.
Touch is a further part of body language. It can convey reassurance and bonding, but how appropriate touch is depends heavily on the relationship, setting and culture involved.
Proxemics is the study of personal space — the invisible zone around a person that they regard as their own. Entering someone’s personal space without invitation usually causes discomfort, while keeping too much distance can seem cold or unfriendly.
Comfortable distances vary with culture, gender and status. People from some Mediterranean and Latin American cultures are typically comfortable interacting at closer distances, while people from northern European or East Asian cultures often prefer more distance. Research also suggests that pairs of women tend to interact more closely than pairs of men, and that higher-status individuals often claim more space and feel freer to enter others’ zones.
Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory of Non-Verbal Communication
In 1872, Charles Darwin argued that many basic non-verbal behaviours, especially facial expressions of emotion, are innate rather than learned. He proposed that they evolved because they helped early humans and animals communicate danger, intention and emotional state quickly, giving an advantage for survival and reproduction. Because they are inherited rather than copied from others, Darwin predicted that basic expressions should appear across very different human cultures and even in other species.
Evidence from neonates (newborn babies) supports this idea. Babies display basic expressions such as disgust and distress within days of birth, well before they could have learned them by watching and copying other people. This early appearance points to a biological, inherited basis rather than social learning.
Further evidence comes from people who are sensory deprived — born both blind and deaf. Despite never having seen another person’s face to imitate, these individuals still produce many of the same basic emotional expressions as sighted, hearing people. This is difficult to explain through learning and supports Darwin’s claim that some expressions are built in rather than copied.
Not all evidence supports a purely innate view. Yuki et al. (2007) investigated whether culture affects which part of the face people rely on to judge emotion. Japanese and American participants were shown emoticons — simple digital faces — and asked to rate how happy or sad each one looked.
Yuki et al. found that Japanese participants paid more attention to the eyes when judging emotion, while American participants paid more attention to the mouth. This matched a real difference in emoticon style: Japanese emoticons commonly vary eye shape to show feeling (for example, curved ‘happy’ eyes), while American emoticons commonly vary mouth shape (a smile or a frown). Yuki et al. concluded that reading facial emotion is shaped, at least in part, by cultural learning rather than being entirely fixed at birth — if it were entirely innate, culture should not change which facial feature people rely on.
Yuki et al. (2007) found Japanese participants focused on the eyes and American participants focused on the mouth when judging emoticons’ emotions. This cross-cultural difference suggests some NVC is learned, not purely innate.
Innate or Learned? Weighing the Evidence
Taken together, the evidence suggests NVC involves both nature and nurture. Darwin’s theory, backed by neonate and sensory-deprived evidence, supports an innate biological foundation for basic emotional expressions that appears regardless of culture. Yuki et al.’s findings show that culture still shapes how people interpret and prioritise facial features when reading emotion. A balanced answer recognises that some elements of NVC are built in from birth, while the way we read and use those signals is fine-tuned by the culture we grow up in.