Nonverbal communication and psychology: Past and future

In this article, we explore the relationship between the study of nonverbal communication and psychology. The study of nonverbal communication originated in the 1950's primarily as a cross‐disciplinary effort on the part of psychiatrists, linguists, and anthropologists. This was followed in the 1960's and 1970's by an explosion of empirical research, books, and popular media attention. In the 1980's psychologists began to regularly incorporate nonverbal communication variables into new research. Attention to nonverbal cues waned, however, as the cognitive revolution gained momentum. In this decade, there is a resurgence of interest in nonverbal communication, particularly among those who study emotion, psychophysiology, and person perception. The future of nonverbal communication may lie where it started; as an interdisciplinary endeavor.