Appearance And Nonverbal Communication

Interaction happens every day. One example of interaction is nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication refers to the communication and interpretation of information by any means other than language (Ambady & Rosenthal, 1998). Nonverbal communication can be classified into four types which are facial expression, eye contact, physical appearance, and gestures. The first type of nonverbal communication is facial expression. The face is one of the most expressive channels of communication, particularly for expressing emotion (Ambady & Rosenthal, 1998). Several researchers have studied the relationship between the facial expressions as the central field of emotion (Ekman, 1973, 1993; Russell, 1994). Little research has been done

Physical appearance is a form of nonverbal communication by looking at physical appearance such as skin color, hair style, clothing, and body type (Verderber, Verderber, & Sellnow, 2009). Unlike gesture, nonverbal communication of physical appearance happens without involved body movement. When looking at someone, an impression about background, education level, occupation and moral character is form toward the person. Impression is form within 20 seconds to 4 minutes (Basavanthappa, 2002). A study has shown that applicants who are having a clean appearance is more attractive and have higher rating rate among the interviewers (Watkins & Johnston, 2000). Smith, McIntosh and Bazzini (1999) proposed that an attractive person is considering as a better character person compare to unattractive person. The studied is supported by Chaikin (1978) which hypothesized that an attractive teacher tends to be more competent and motivate students compare to unattractive teacher. Dion (1972) suggested those teachers are developing more positive judgment toward an attractive student in contrast to unattractive students. For example, lecturer always considers a clean appearance students is a smart, honestly and competent

Gestures are the movement of our hand and body (Rasberry & Lindsay, 1994, p. 202). Gesture is body movements that strengthen the verbal message and by the thoughts or emotions of each individual. Body movements, such as the use of clear verbal message or convey thoughts or emotions through movement of performs. Most communicators engage in some degree of hand gesturing while speaking, in normal communicative interactions (Garcia, Cannito, & Dagenais, 2000). According to Rasberry and Lindsay (1994), gesture is a movement that involves the movement of the hands and body of an individual. Although, gesture can be done using a limb such as the head, shoulders, and legs but gesture in non-verbal communication is usually done by using hands and arms. Furthermore, Richmond and McCroskey (2009) stated of, type of gesture can be divided into four parts, namely descriptive gestures, emphatic gestures, suggestive gesture and prompting gestures. Firstly, the descriptive gestures explain or enhance verbal message. Descriptive gestures help the audience to understand comparisons and contrast, movements, function and number of objects in that someone expressed it (Richmond & McCroskey, 2009). These gestures, viewers can understand more clearly the gesture is performs by someone. Secondly, as stated by Richmond and McCroskey (2009), emphatic gestures underscore what is being said. Usually this