Hand Gestures: They Say A Lot

Many people do not know that around half of human communication is done non-verbally. Body-language and gesturing have a substantial impact on the way information is communicated and perceived, whether intentional or not. Hand gestures are commonly used within conversation to better articulate what is being said and can even represent how the person is feeling. In sports, hand gestures can be seen in celebratory fist pumps or even self-deprecating slaps on the forehead. Either way, the audience is able to understand how the athlete is feeling without any word being spoken. 

Dr. Neumann, an author of the article "Neuropsychological functions of nonverbal hand movements and gestures during sports," studied the nonverbal hand movements of 15 right-handed elite male tennis players while competing in matches. This study examined whether or not these movements served different neurological functions associated with winning and losing. Through videotaping these athletes and performing extensive analysis on the film, it was found that right-handed tennis players make right-handed gestures significantly more frequently than left-handed gestures. "Rise" gestures, like fist pumps, were lateralized to the right hand in winning athletes while "on body" gestures, like slaps to the forehead, were lateralized to the left hand in losing athletes. This study also provided results that contradict the belief of winning athletes being more expressive in nonverbal behavior. It showed that, when analyzing all hand movements after both winning and losing points, hand gestures had virtually the same frequency. For further studies, it would be interesting to see if these results align with that of left-handed tennis players. What if they analyzed athletes of a different sport? Would hand gestures change in sports that do not involve holding a racket or something similar? 

This article and the neurophysiological topic of hand gestures relates to what Dr. Sarah Delmar presented to the Neuroscience Seminar class in late October. Dr. Delmar spoke to the class about how hand gestures promote learning in children, which struck the interest of many students. She explained that not only do hand gestures succeed in filling in "gaps" within communication, but promote a better understanding of what is being discussed for both the speaker and listener. Between Dr. Delmar's presentation and Dr. Neumann's article, it is clear that the communication found within body language, especially that of hand gestures, is invaluable to proficient communication. More people should implement hand gestures in conversation as it provides a more well-rounded understanding for everyone involved.

Work Cited

Neumann, N., Drewes, V., Konstantinidis, I., Reinecke, K. H. C., Lausberg, H., & Helmich, I. (2022). Neuropsychological functions of nonverbal hand movements and gestures during sports. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 34(3), 362–374. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2021.1998075