Appearance

Appearance is an important factor involved with nonverbal communication .

In today’s society, the purpose of clothing has changed from fulfilling a need to

expressing oneself. Teens use fashion to determine cliques such as prep, jock, punk,

or gangster. Clothing communication is continued later in life by identifying

someone in a suit as a businessperson, someone wearing a black robe as a judge,

doctors wearing lab coats and stethoscopes or various other positions wearing

required uniforms of dress. Adornments are another form of appearance. Wearing

expensive jewelry communicates one message while wearing ceremonial ornaments

communicates a completely different message. Appearance also takes into account

personal grooming such as cleanliness, doing one’s hair, nail trimming or wearing

make-up.

Overall appearance is the nonverbal that people are most aware of and manipulate

the most. Appearance communicates how we feel and how we want to be viewed.