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Nonverbal Skills in Relationships: Too Little or Too Much May Be a Bad Thing

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Nonverbal Communication in Close Relationships

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Abstract

There is a general assumption that when it comes to possession of nonverbal skills, having more skill is better. This chapter argues that some nonverbal/emotional skills may actually be curvilinear (inverted U-shaped distribution), with a moderate, or “optimal” level of skill possession. For example, too little emotional control, or too much of it, may be dysfunctional. The same curvilinear relationship may hold for skill in expressing (encoding) and decoding emotions. In actuality, there needs to be some balance among the various nonverbal cues in order to be truly emotionally competent. Research results are discussed as well as implications for training nonverbal and emotional skills.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kravis Leadership Institute, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, USA

    Ronald E. Riggio

  2. Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Alan Crawley

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  1. Ronald E. Riggio
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  2. Alan Crawley
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Correspondence to Ronald E. Riggio .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, College of Human Ecology Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Robert J. Sternberg

  2. Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology University of Niš, Niš, Serbia

    Aleksandra Kostić

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Riggio, R.E., Crawley, A. (2022). Nonverbal Skills in Relationships: Too Little or Too Much May Be a Bad Thing. In: Sternberg, R.J., Kostić, A. (eds) Nonverbal Communication in Close Relationships. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94492-6_13

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