Actions Speak Louder than Words: Clusters of Nonverbal Sarcasm Indicators May Render Verbal Indicators Unnecessary

When verbal and nonverbal communications (NVC) lack congruency, nonverbal cues are often relied upon to perceive meaning. This study measured participant reliance on verbal and NVC to understand speaker intention, and if participants’ accuracy of perception varied with cue use. Commonly used gestural cues for sarcasm perception were determined using videos from the Relational Inference in Social Communication (RISC) database in two video conditions: With Audio (WA) and Without Audio (WoA). Data showed perception of speaker intention was more accurate in the WA condition for literal, humor, and white lie videos. Perception of speaker intention showed no significant change in perception accuracy across conditions with sarcasm videos. The eyes and mouth were referred to most when viewing all videos in the WoA condition, but not significantly more reliable. However, the results showed that relying on cue clusters may improve sarcasm perception and that verbal cues may not be needed at all.