The Ambiguity of Emotional Exchange Through Haptical Messages: The [Mis]Communication of Nonverbal Touch Following Bradley's Receipt of Bad News

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As social actors, we are constantly sending and receiving nonverbal messages. Yet how well are targets of nonverbal communication able to accurately decode them? Among the things that I have noticed about the Generation Z population is how often they use the phrase I Love You without the target questioning the underlying meaning behind this phrase. In other words (no pun intended), what did this come to mean? Was it a phrase communicating empathy? Was it merely a colloquial phrase? Was it something more intimate? In 1989, comedian and actor Rob Schneider spoke about the different meanings of the word “dude” based on the different intonations on behalf of the source. It could come to mean, for example, hello, listen, come here, you blew it/you screwed up, or, from a purely comedic perspective, is someone in the closet with a knife (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77v_Q0mhbZU)? Much nonverbal communication research, as you will learn in this book and chapter, is more about nonverbal decoding than it is about encoding.