Chapter 5 Question 1

Nonverbal messages and gestures could be misinterpreted, let me give you one example. One day I was hanging out with my friend Alba and we went to go get something to eat at 3am. We started talking about what we did over the weekend and I told her I was hanging out with my friend Mario and his girlfriend. She asked if there were any other girls and I told her no, but immediately she told me that I was lying. This puzzled me because it truly was my Friend Mario and I and his girlfriend. I tried to argue, but I realize that it was going nowhere. I promised her that I was telling the truth. She said alright, and then I noticed she started to cross her arms and immediately thought she was angry and trying to mask the fact she was angry. I immediately thought that she was angry but then I noticed that it was 3 am in February and was extremely cold, and she wasn’t wearing a jacket. When I noticed this I offered her my jacket and she was happier at this gesture. I believe that how we could improve on interpreting nonverbal messages by analyzing the whole situation. We shouldn’t act right away, but look around and see if there could be other explanations.