Non verbal communication through facial expressions and their impact in job interviews

Communication consists of both verbal and non verbal communication. Non verbal behaviour can be separated into two categories: physical attractiveness and non verbal behaviours (Tsai, Huang & YU 2012). Facial expressions are considered a non verbal behaviour and there have been numerous studies undertaken as to their universality. Through these various research efforts seven universal facial expressions have been identified as per figure 1 (Matsumoto & Hwang 2011).

Figure 1: 7 universal facial expressions

Research has also identified that these facial expression can be shown in either macroexpressions:  expressions involving the whole face lasting between 0.5 to 4 seconds, or microexpressions: expressions which only last 1/30 of a second and are likely concealed emotions (Matsumoto & Hwang 2011). In the business world understanding these expressions can help people improve their interactions with others, especially microexpressions, as these can aid in the development of rapport, trust and aid in creditability assessments and truthfulness (Matsumoto & Hwang 2011).

Researchers have also conducted studies into the use of facial expressions in job interviews and have found that interviewees who use positive facial expressions during their interview are able to portray themselves as being more hireable, competent, motivated and successful than the applicants (Nguyen et al. 2014). The reason for this can be attributed to the immediacy hypothesis, which states that through the use of immediacy behaviour (such as smiling) an applicant is able to show a perceptual availability superior to other applicants leading to a positive effect on the interviewer (Nguyen et al. 2014).

An interviewer will use non verbal behaviours to connect personality characteristics, for example smiles, eye contact and head gestures can indicate directness, honesty, and friendliness (Tsai, Huang & Yu 2012). For example, smiling can indicate positiveness in an applicant (Eunson 2012).

Although the use of facial expressions has an impact on the interviewer's perception of the applicant, they must support quality verbal content as the interview is designed to investigate an applicant’s skills, knowledge and abilities (Tsai, Huang & Yu 2012). 

References 

Eunson, B 2012, Communicating in the 21st century, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Milton, QLD.

Matsumoto, D & Hwang, HS 2011, 'Reading facial expressions of emotion', Psychological Science Agenda, May 2011, viewed 15 January 2016, http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2011/05/facial-expressions.aspx

Nguyen, LS, Frauendorfer, D, Mast, MS, & Gatica-Perez, D 2014, ‘Hire me: Computational Inference of Hirability in Employment Interviews Based on Nonverbal Behavior’, Multimedia, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 1018-1031.

Tsai, W 2012, 'Investigating the unique predictability and boundary conditions of applicant physical attractiveness and non-verbal behaviours on interviewer evaluations in job interviews', Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, vol. 85, no. 1, pp. 60-79.