Body Language

January 2, 2026 Vivian Fang

肢體語言

While having home-made dumplings with sunny-side-up eggs and kimchi for breakfast this morning, I glanced over a book I bought in Aug. 2025—Smart, Not Loud by Jessica Chen.

I don't know about you, but I never read an entire book word-for-word, chapter-by-chapter; instead, I read whatever caught my attention. Body language in Chapter 9 of this book made a point that has been imprinted in my mind.

We all know that communication is a combination of content, tone of voice, and body language. But do you know how each of these elements weighs into our first impression of people? Surprisingly, body language carries 55% of the weight, 38% from how we said it, and only 7% from what we actually said.

Impressive, right?

What we actually said is less important than we think. After all, people form their first impression of you within 7 seconds. I don't think much needs to be said during that period--perhaps a sincere smile could go a long way.

Note: I dug in further, so I won't be misleading. According to Mehrabian & Wiener (1967), “Decoding of inconsistent communications” (J Pers Soc Psychol), the 55%, 38%, and 7% refer only to “Total Liking” when the message is about feelings or attitudes.

今早方方悠哉在家煮水餃、煎太陽蛋，還另加韓式泡菜及蔥蒜當早餐。吃早餐時隨手翻了本去年八月買的書《聰明表達，安靜也有影響力》（陳俐安著）。

我不清楚大家的閱讀習慣如何，但我向來沒有逐字閱讀或者從頭讀到尾的習慣，我反而是隨性地翻到讓我想看的地方就開始讀。陳俐安的這本書第九章談肢體語言，讓我留下深刻印象。

溝通向來涵蓋幾個層面：內容、說話的語氣、以及肢體語言。但你知道我們給他人的第一印象中，五五％來自肢體語言，三八％來自溝通的語氣，而真正說出口的內容，才擔任七％的任務而已嗎？

我們說出口的內容重要性往往遠低於我們想像的重要。這也很容易理解，畢竟一般人對他人的第一印象在七秒內完成。七秒內說什麼都真的不太重要了──倒不如好好給一個誠摯的笑容吧！

後編：方方後來再研究了一下，以免誤導大家。根據文獻 Mehrabian Wiener (1967), Decoding of inconsistent communications (J Pers Soc Psychol)，這個五五％、三八％、七％跟單純溝通資訊不完全一樣，也不好拿來當作通則，他是針對別人對你「喜歡、不喜歡」這種情緒、態度判斷上使用的權重。

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Photo 1: Sunny Side Up Eggs 太陽蛋