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Silence in Nonverbal Communication
Although communication includes non-verbal communication, they are usually underestimated and ignored, especially the application of silence. The meaning of silence is flexible according to different cultures, relationships, and situations. Emotion, social, coherent, and judge function of silence as a form of non-verbal communication in various contexts will be explained in the following through examples.

Emotional Function
Emotional function refers to the information transmitter expresses one person’s inner feelings and emotions through silent nonverbal communication. Many scholars have inferred that silence is principally used for the expression and transmission of negative emotions. For example, couples usually have chosen to “cold war” during quarrels or disagreements; that is, they respond with silence no matter what the other people say. Silence is an expression of anger, dissatisfaction, or sadness in that circumstance. According to Marjorie Fink, the wordless weapon to put pressure on the recipient of the message is called “silent treatment”. Other researchers illustrated that fear is another emotional factor related to silent behavior. These experimental results showed that employees might express their fear of higher authority or the disruption of the relationship between colleagues by keeping silent about their ideas. Employees are less likely to speak aloud when stressed, so employers need to perceive their slight change of emotions as much as possible when they became silent. Other researchers further put employee inaction into three dimensions: defensive, acquiescent, and prosocial silence. Defensive silence is caused by fear of the negative consequences of speaking. For example, when employees realize that there may be a better course of action, they choose to deliberately conceal work-related ideas, information, and opinions because of fear of harming their interests. The acquiescent silence refers to the silence caused by isolation or compliance. The possible reason is that employees feel that the supervisor does not value their opinions, or they feel that it is futile to do so. The silence that occurs when employees believe that information’s concealment helps others is prosocial silence. However, silence is not limited to expressing pain. For example, keeping silent may also be used to indicate quiet support. Another understandable or exoteric instance is people show how much they had been touched and moved through speechless when they got a surprise.

Social Function
Similarly, silence has the potential to involve emotional function on certain occasions and places. The difference is that silence in this context may be more inclined to be an ingrained social habit than a personal touch. Typical examples include silent mourning at the funeral to express one’s remembrance, sympathy, and sadness. The requirement for the public to remain silent to show their respect in particular institutions and locations, such as hospitals, courts, and libraries, is classified as “silence in rhetorical control,” which means silence in public ceremonies. Socio-cultural silences are also related to the distinctive way that the entire social and cultural order manipulates psychological language and interacts with silence. In this case, the social and cultural silence caused by external authority is closely related to violence and ignorance. Many people have experienced the noise of children at a silent funeral or their laughter in the library. They are unable to remain silent because children are ignorant of the underlying rules of society.

Coherent Function
Another easily overlooked function of silence is to promote smoother communication. Some scholars also claim that maintaining contact is the primary communicative role of silence, although this remains to be examined. There will inevitably be misunderstood information and meanings in interpersonal communication. The communicator should learn to use silence to find critical points in the conversation. Therefore, in poor communication, instead of using more aggressive and uncomfortable conversations to cover up the lack of synchronization between two parties, the interlocutor should take some quiet time to restrain themselves from restoring the balance. Moreover, friendly silence can also be used as a positive stimulus to bring the subjects closer. Olinick (1982) believes that this silent expression aims to appease or encourage a state of partial regressive silence. However, silence is likely to be misjudged in honest dialogue because everyone’s experience and cognition are various. For example, some people pause to give the other one time to consider the response, while the other person assumes that they have lost interest in the current topic. Another unique perspective is linguistics. People will pause shortly when connecting words or accented words to show more precise meaning, such as “ice cream” and “I scream”, so that is also where silence act as a coherent role.

Judge Function
In other specific circumstances, silence also has a judging function expressing consent and tacit approval; or denial and resistance. For example, the pastor asked if anyone has a legitimate reason to prove that the couple should not be married at the wedding ceremony; otherwise, the audience will always remain silent. In that context, individual and collective silence is considered to be giving a denied answer. Another comparable example is that one girl kisses the boy immediately and passionately after he confessed love. That represents the acquiescence of the romantic relationship even though she did not reply to any words. Furthermore, it is also known as "disaffiliative disfluencies" when silence is used to express disobedience or confrontation. The literature shows that the interruption of conversational flow can destroy social cohesion, and it can also be a way of social exclusion of people. Imagine a group of people discussing something happily when another outsider intervenes and expresses his or her opinion. If the response to him is indifferent silence, then he will feel rejected and personal importance denied. Such incidents are common in public or crowded places, and everyone’s silence is an effective way to express unmarked answers to general questions.