Source: Image of Flowers, Public Domain, http://mrg.bz/W6dlM6
Hi, I'm Julie Tietz, and welcome to Conflict Resolution, putting the pieces together. Today, we're going to talk about high and low context communication as it relates to culture and the variance in their uses of directness in verbal communication. In low context communication, it's where we are delivering our messages verbally, and it's spoken through words rather than a context of a situation, and so that means it requires minimal interpretation.
So when we are communicating with a low context, we are very direct in our message, and we say what we mean, and we don't require the receiver to find any hinting or underlying meanings to what we're saying. And we can also call or describe low context communication as direct communication. In high context communication, it requires that we interpret the message that's being given to us by a certain context, and we are often using nonverbal signals, so maybe our tone of voice or our facial expressions, to really hint at what we're trying to convey in our message. Also, it's known as indirect communication, and we can also further describe it as hinting. So we are hinting at what we are meaning to say rather than directly verbally stating our message.
So I want you to be aware that every culture uses some sort of nonverbal communication, so those facial expressions or gestures or tone of voice, but in high context cultures, they embed these non-verbal communication cues a lot more than a low context culture. So in a low context culture, we're not using as many of these non-verbals as a high context culture would. Sometimes, in cross-cultural communication, we can send messages that have unintended meanings, and this happens when we're not familiar with the other culture's communication style. So for example, let's say I go on a date with somebody, and the next day, they send me some yellow roses, and I come from a low context communication style, and so I'm thinking and interpreting this as, oh, they really like me and they want to pursue a relationship with me, but the person who sent them is from a high context communication style, sends the roses that are yellow for me to get that, yes, they like me, but they're not really intending on having a romantic relationship with me, so that's why they said yellow flowers. And I'm supposed to interpret that in a certain way through context, but since I'm low context communicator, I am interpreting their message in a way that is not intended.
Let's look at our key points here on high and low context communication styles before we go. Low context communication is a more direct communication style. So we are being very direct in our messages, and it doesn't require a lot of interpretation. Whereas in high context communication, it's more of an indirect communication style, so it really requires us to interpret messages by the context of the situation and really get into the hinting at meaning rather than the individual stating it directly. And when we are in communication with somebody that is a communication style other than our own, we may have sent unintended meanings or interpret meanings of a message in a way that is not intended, so, for example, our flowers and dating in the relationship.
Here are your key terms before we go. Feel free to pause and look at them a little bit closer. Thank you so much for taking the time to view this. I hope that you've learned something, and I can't wait to catch you again next time.