Interpreting nonverbal messages

Yes, I’ve been wrong about the meaning of someones nonverbal messages. Whether it’s socializing or just hanging out with friends, I’ve misinterpreted non-verbal messages on many occasions. I have a tendency to talk a lot and I’ve tried to be more conscious of being verbose. One of the things I do is repeat my point in different ways. During a presentation in fall semester of 2009, I felt the class was bored and had lost engagement in my presentation. At this point, I had explained all my main points and I was slipping into my routine of repeating myself. Reading the class’s body language, I realized that I was being too talkative and smoothly ended my presentation. After the presentation my teacher gave me a few comments, one of them being, ‘why did it seem like you suddenly ended your presentation?’ I explained my bad habit to the teacher at which point he replied and said, ‘it’s a persuasive argument, you’re supposed to go over your main points so your audience remembers.” I believe people can increase the accuracy with which they interpret non-verbal messages by looking for “regulators.” Regulators are a tool that can be used as “traffic signals” during interaction. By being aware of regulators we can further increase our accuracy in interpreting nonverbal messages.