The Importance Of Culture On The Interpretation Of Body Language

Culture impacts the interpretation of body language, which includes “eye contact”, “personal space”, and “bow” (Hurn 2014). The British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1871) defines culture as a set of social standards containing “social values” “custom”, and “religious beliefs” (1). In order to avoid embarrassments in conversation with people who hold different social values, believe in unlike religions or are influenced by diverse custom, it is vital to evaluate how culture affects explanations of body language and how cultural differences will cause misunderstandings among speakers.

Culture is seen as the social standard which judges people’s behaviors. Adrian Furnham and Evgeniya Petrova (2010) in the book Body Language in Business: Decoding the Signals denote that “culture is

Japanese tend to feel stressful and nervous “with a lot of eye contact during the conversation” (Hattori 1987, 111). In addition, “Japanese children are taught by their parents that looking into other people's eyes is immodest.” (Hattori 1987, 112) It is because Japan is a “hierarchical and collective society”, in which individuals “at relatively lower social status” should show respect and obedience to people “at higher social status” by avoiding the direct eye contact (Hattori 1987, 111). In terms of its national character, Barnlund (1975) claims that Japanese have a small “public self”, who likes to show themselves to others; yet, they have a big “private self”, who prefers to be silent and hold on own ideas. LePape (1980) concludes this point as well “by analyzing Yasujiro Ozu's movies,” in which people talk to each other “side by side”, but “rarely hold mutual gaze” (Hattori 1987, 111). Japan was a traditional monarchy country, in which hierarchy shaped Japanese social values; hence, Japanese avoid the direct eye contact in order to display modesty and