Patricia is in the car with her niece cara and notices that cara is quiet and not participating in the conversation. Patricia asks cara what's wrong, and cara says, while rolling her eyes, "nothing, everything is perfectly fine." despite what cara says, patricia is sure that something is wrong and decides to speak with cara privately when they get to their destination. What principle of nonverbal communication is at play?

I believe the answer is: Nonverbal communication is usually believed over verbal communication.

Non-verbal communication usually contain the true emotion that is experienced by the people. For example let's imagine a child is running and fall to ground.

- first scenario, the child say "It's not hurt" while greening ear to ear

- Second scenario, the child say "it's not hurt" but he is saying it while holding back his tears.

Even though two scenarios contain the same verbal message, the non-verbal message is extremely different. In scenario 2, you woulld most likely believe that the child felt hurt from the fall because of the tears (nonverbal) regardless of the verbal message.

nonverbal is believed over verbal