High Context and Haptic Communication

high context

Contexting in communication has first been described by E.T. Hall. It assumes, that during a communication not only the utterances are "transferred", but that every communication also has a "deeper meaning" (or implicitly stored information) which can not necessarily be derived from the utterances alone.

High context communication implies that a lot of "unspoken" meaning is transferred during the communication - the information may be implicitly contained in the utterances.
For example: In some cultures it is regarded to be impolite to deny a wish to someone. Hence instead of saying "no", other phrases are being used to describe an inconvenience etc. implying that the answer is no.
In this case, the "no" is implied in the answer - but not spoken.

See also: low context

haptic

Haptics deals with touching behaviour in different societies. While haptics can be hostile (such as kicking), more often haptic behaviour is used to indicate the degree of intimacy: Heslin (1974), distinguished between the following degrees of intimacy: 1. functional/professional 2. social/polite 3. friendship/warmth 4. love/intimacy 5. sexual arousal

One example of a typically confusing heptic action is the hand shake. The handshake differs in degrees, length and strength between the various levels of intimacy (or gets completely replaced by more intimate heptic behaviour), and from culture to culture. A level 3 handshake for example in Spain could include the use of a double grip, which might confuse, for example, a German (who may interpret the handshake as a level 4 or even 5). Equally the level 2 handshake is stronger in Spain than in Northern Europe, and might hence be interpreted as 'over-friendly' by Northern Europeans, while the level 2 handshake of the Northern European might be interpreted as functional only by the Spaniard.

Even more confusing would be a confrontation of a 'non-contact' culture, such as a Northern European one, with a 'contact-culture', where frequent touching is a sign of friendship or politeness (level 2 or 3). For example an Indian heptic behaviour might be interpreted as a level 4 or 5 behaviour.