The Senses of Communication
Have you ever met someone in real life that you only knew digitally and been surprised?
I had lunch with a colleague from out of town, a woman that I emailed and Zoomed with multiple times a week over an entire year. I knew her very well. Or I thought I did. But at lunch, I felt shy. I wasn’t sure of her. Is this the same person? I didn’t feel like I knew her at all. The voice and laugh were the same, but seeing her in different light had me seeing her… in a different light.
Whether good or bad, there’s something different about meeting someone IRL. It turns out that our senses work together to allow us to connect with others and collect information in ways we aren’t even conscious of.
Makes sense, right? Our visual and auditory perception is enhanced in a live situation. The resolution of reality is better than any screen. We can see subtleties of expression, hear voice inflections, and pick up on meaning, tension, expressions and so forth more readily. But what about all those other senses? It turns out that touch, taste, and smell are important to our communication as well.
What, we taste each other? Well, we have a variety of social conventions that don’t allow us to lick each other’s faces or sniff butts…. but think about our other greetings. We hug, lifting our arms and leaning into each other to get a good sniff of the axillary sweat we’re emitting. And we kiss cheeks and mouths, transferring chemicals to each other to basically taste each other. Even the professional handshake allows us some chemical signals. It turns out that people tend to touch their face around their mouth and nose frequently after shaking hands. Yeah, after you shook hands with your boss, you probably sniffed your fingers. Amazing, right?
Want more details on how our senses contribute to our relationships? I worked with the Science Museum of Virginia a couple years ago to share some thoughts on the biology of love.
Here’s the video on role that our senses play in love (it’s about 5 minutes).
Rather read? Here’s the blog on the five senses of love.
I hope you love learning about the senses!
Seriously, though, how do we translate our knowledge of the senses to better relationships at work and in our personal lives?
I worked on the physiology of the olfactory system for my dissertation work as a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago, and I’ve taught years of collegiate Sensation and Perception classes. I love thinking about how important each of our senses is to our wellbeing and to our lifestyles. Stay tuned for more sensory knowledge. And reach out for conversations on this topic and more!
