When it comes to understanding how another person thinks and feels, you might want to close your eyes and listen to him.
A study by an American psychologist suggests that people are better able to keep up with other people's feelings when they simply focus on their voices, compared to watching them while listening to them.
Michael Kraus, a social psychologist at Yale University, says that while gathering information from a person's voice with facial expressions and other signals may seem as a way to improve a good understanding of his thoughts and feelings, gathering senses distracts attention actually.
Facial expressions can mask a person's real feelings, which make it harder to do the same with the sound. Therefore language plays a key role in how people understand and describe their feelings. The result is that what people say and how they speak provides the clearest insights to the feelings of others.
Kraus believes that listening is important, and that reflection on what people say and how they say it can lead to better understanding of others either at work or in personal relationships.
The results of the tests - made on 1770 people in various ways and in binary groups - revealed that they were more able to properly assess their partner's feelings when the rooms in which they were tested were lighted off.
The results of similar tests for about 600 people online showed that they were more able to assess other's feelings through audio recordings only.
"People are often more able to control their facial expressions when they are in an emotional state," said Professor Sophie Scott "In some cases, voices and visuals can tell a different story"
However, Ray Wilkinson, professor of human communication at the University of Sheffield, noted that the results were based on experimental cases that may not reflect "real life" interactions.
He added "Although the content of a person's speech is important, other researches found that gestures can help reach the expected communication"
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