Visuals and Sound in Politics: The Persuasive Effects of Nonverbal Political Communication

Abstract

Research shows that nonverbal communication (broadly defined as a politicians’ body language, their facial features, the silent reactions of the audience, the use of visuals and music in political communication, etc.) is used more extensively than verbal communication to convey political messages in the mass media. Moreover, a host of studies in the past years have shown that the nonverbal aspects of communication affect voters’ attention to politics, learning and political attitudes. The goal of this panel is to bring together researchers working on nonverbal communication to discuss the latest results as well as the methods which have been employed for this study. We welcome all papers studying the impact of nonverbal communication on persuasion and democratic behavior. Among the possible topics, we encourage the submission of papers about the importance of specific aspects of nonverbal communication for persuasion; as well as papers on the importance of the context in which the communication takes place; on the importance of a politician's characteristics (such as gender, age or ethnic background); and/ or on the interaction between the nonverbal dimension and the verbal dimension of the communication. We encourage experimental and survey-based studies, using physiological and/or attitudinal measures.

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