• Albert Mehrabian, a Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA established the following statistics based on his research into the different cues used for liking or disliking another person.

• 7% linguistic

• 38% tonal

• 55% physiological

It is important to remember these statistics are in the context of Mehrabian‟s experiment in the frame of liking or disking. They are not absolute or even a rule of thumb, just a useful metaphor for communication.

• Another researcher Ray Birdwhistell established similar findings about the non verbal element of communication. Birdwhistell‟s research focussed on movements of the body. He argued there are no universals in these non-verbal displays but they are a paralanguage in body movements unique to each individual.