Nonverbal behaviors can explain a lot about one's personality if you are able to discern their actions. Although I do not know how often people in general rely on nonverbal cues, but for me they can tell me what type of person they are, or what they want to let on. When I have a conversation with someone I always pay attention to three critical factors, 1. Eye contact: if they cannot look me in the eye while talking then they are not worth my time. 2. Voice consistency: if they hesitate while telling me something I will assume that the other person is lying. 3. Tone of voice: the most important key factor to me, if the person is trying to "talk at me" instead of "talking to me", I will not listen to a single word that comes out of their mouth.
As for the words spoken by the other person, if they are using words in a sentence consecutively while trying to explain something that each have no relation to the subject, I am going to assume that the other person does not know what they are talking about. Also if they use "mainstream words" I will begin to lose interest in listening to the other person, eventually tuning them out. Conversely if the other person uses too many big words in the same sentence throughout the conversation I am going to assume that the other person is trying to show off how smart they are, and that will prompt me to just turn my head away from them showing the utmost disinterest in the other person.
Are my own nonverbal cues influenced by my gender? I believe so, I am a male and I express myself as a male would. I usually express my own nonverbal cues too much if I am disinterested in what the other person is talking about, or if the sound of the other person's voice irritates me. As I said in my Nonverbal Cues- My Gestures and Signals blog I wave the back of my hand which translates to either "go away" or "not interested", which was influenced by my ego treating whichever issue or person I do not like as if they were a bug telling them to go buzz off somewhere else.
Overall I believe that the influence of nonverbal cues lies within not only a person's gender, but a person's personality, lifestyle, or media influence. I say so because not all of my gestures were invented by myself, although sometimes I would like to think that way. There are many types of influences that can integrate into a person's nonverbal behavior and each person has a unique set of nonverbal cues and are all executed at varying intervals and each could have a different meaning than what it generally translate to. But that is just what makes the subject of nonverbal behavior so complex, because if every person used the same gestures and each meant the same thing that would be really boring.
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