Have you heard of Mehrabian's 7-38-55 communication model?
Why this concept matters for writers and creatives
A short time ago, in a casual conversation, a friend mentioned the 7-38-55 communication model. I’d never heard of it, so went off to find out more, and I discovered that in the 1970s, an academic called Albert Mehrabian (Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California) concluded through research that during a conversation only 7% of our communication happens through what is said, 38% is conveyed through tone of voice, and 55% is via body language.
I keep coming back to this concept, as it has fascinating implications not only for the ways we communicate in everyday life, but across the spectrum of creative work and writing. Comedians rely on tone and physical comedy to make their jokes land. Politicians use tone and body language to either strengthen or undercut their words, sending signals to supporters, And the idea poses an interesting challenge for communicators such as writers or podcasters, where tone and/or body language cannot always be seen, and therefore our language is elevated to a much greater significance in our efforts to convey meaning.
For fiction writers this idea also brings alive our work on speech tags and description around speech, which can often feel like a more mundane part of writing. For example, if I’m not careful my characters do a lot of nodding their heads and leaning forward and sighing! This rule explains why it’s worth investing some time in cultivating our descriptions around speech (although it’s equally important to avoid verbosity for the sake of it - sometimes a nod or a sigh or a simple ‘she said’ really does suffice!)
In his Masterclass, expert negotiator Chris Voss discusses how he uses this concept, reminding us that there can be high stakes in our ability to analyse body language and tone alongside the words that are spoken. This also underlines why miscommunication is so prevalent and insidious - because while words can be quoted back verbatim, tone and body language are much harder to define and pin down. Therefore, potentially, in both our cultural dialogue and our personal conversations, the weakest aspect of communication (what is said) is continually elevated in importance over and above the subtler and yet more powerful methods that we use to convey what we mean.
What do you think - does the 7-38-55 rule ring true for you? I haven’t dug any further into the research or read Mehrabian’s 1971 book Silent Messages, so I’m only scratching the surface of this idea. However, these insights offer us the opportunity to reflect, and to play with how we might make our work more compelling, whether we are writing or presenting. There is so much fascinating complexity around language and the way we use it - and successful communication relies on us always working hard to achieve a consistent and captivating clarity of expression.
A note from me: you’ll receive an additional paid subscriber post next week to make up for the one I missed while on my hols - and watch out for a bumper two-part Author Notes coming at the end of this week. Have a great day!