I was born and raised in the United States. In my culture a smile is a sign of friendliness, so I assumed (incorrectly) that a smile would be received the same way everywhere, or a universal sign. But the Italians don’t smile at strangers, and don’t like strangers smiling at them. Rather than communicating friendliness, my gesture came off as creepy. My smiles were met with distrust, even scowls. The stereotype I had in my head of “warm friendly Italians” quickly dissolved and left me really confused. The affect of a seemingly insignificant non-verbal behavior (smiling) had created a cross-cultural communication failure.
Dr. Caputo explains in Interpersonal Communication in the Global Village. According to anthropologist Edward T. Hall, Italy is considered a high-context, culture, with members being more sensitive to non-verbal behavior and in reading their environment. They also expect others to be sensitive to nonverbal messages. Bound by a unifying force of tradition, behavior doesn’t vary radically.
The United States is a low-context culture, without the same kind of bond of tradition. Without the predictable behavior of a high-context culture, “information is not readily available in the environment,” (p.306) making certain types of more direct communication necessary in low-context cultures. Smiling is a non-verbal form of communication used in the United States to quickly signal friendliness in our low-context, multicultural society.
Dr. Caputo explained this cultural mismatch to his bewildered students in class.
I know all of us are trying to stop ourselves from the automatic act of smiling at strangers as they pass. It challenged something I take for granted as “the right way” to greet any other human on the planet.
No comments:
Post a Comment