The Body Language Meaning Of Becoming Quiet or Whispering
Cue: Becoming Quiet or Whispering.
Synonym(s): Soft Voice, Quiet Voice, Whispering, Hushed Voice.
Description: A sudden or sustained decrease in the volume of the voice making the voice barely audible or audible only to selected individuals rather than to a wider audience.
In One Sentence: A soft voice is a voice that is timid and does not want to be noticed or wants to bring people closer together and isolate them with secrete shared information.
How To Use it: Use a soft voice in dating to draw your date in closer to create an intimate interaction. A soft voice can also be used to demonstrate a caring and gentle personality. You may also use a soft voice to bring the level of intensity down in an interaction. This is particularly effective when the conversation volume has intensified to the point where screaming is in order just to be heard. When interacting with a scream toddler, for example, a soft voice forces them to struggle to listen, and as they do so, will tend to mirror your voice volume in return. This has the effect of creating a more peaceful dialogue. Finally, a soft voice can also force other people to struggle to listen to you. When done on purpose, a soft voice is a power play and can be used to control a situation. In this case, power is achieved by the omission of volume.
Context: a) General b) Dating.
Verbal Translation: a) “I’m talking below the normal range of voice volume so people don’t pay attention to me or notice me.” a) “I’m speaking quietly because I’m embarrassed.” b) “I’m using a quiet voice to draw you in to my intimate space.”
Variant: Becoming Loud.
Cue In Action: a) When the spotlight turned to Linda, she became quiet and was barely audible – she didn’t want people to know she hadn’t done her research. b) The bar was really loud, but rather than try to speak over the music, he leaned in and whispered into her ear.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Becoming quiet is an attempt to go unnoticed due to shyness, timidity, embarrassment, or uncertainty. Becoming quiet can be due to a variety of reasons including trying to keep secrets and remain private, to create intimacy, to inhibit drawing attention to the self, to power play people into drawing them into personal space and forcing them to listen hard. Whispering can create intimacy also as it requires that a person move into the personal space zone of another. It can therefore be a tactic used in dating and attraction.
Other times a soft voice implies a quiet confidence from a person who lacks a desire to control a conversation. Other meanings of soft voice includes a withdrawal from a conversation due to confrontation, discomfort or nervousness, grief or sorrow, that a person is lying. It may also forcing a person to move closer (power play), to limit what is being heard, tiredness or illness.
Using a soft voice is sometimes used to manipulate others who strain to hear what is being said or mean that the speaker lacks confidence and assertiveness. This is considered a nonverbal power play as it uses tactics that are barely noticeable by others to influence their behaviours and perceptions.
Cue Cluster: Becoming quiet is usually accompanied with other meek body language such as eye aversion, chin tucked in, slumped shoulders and arm freezing.
Body Language Category: Shy nonverbal, Nervous Body Language, Submissive body language, Emotional body language, Power play.
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