Gaby
What associations come to mind when you think of Italians? First and foremost, it’s probably the iconic images of the incomparable Sophia Loren, with her expressive gestures that are an inseparable part of the national character.
Researchers from Lund University in Sweden reported that the average Italian uses one gesture for every five words. In a minute, they typically employ around 40 gestures—twice as many as a Swede, according to the Daily Mail.
What Scientists Discovered
The university team analyzed the gestures of residents of Italy and Sweden during conversations. They asked 12 Italians and 12 Swedes to recount a story from a 90-second animated video to a friend who hadn’t seen it.
The researchers found that for every 100 words, Italians used 22 hand gestures, while Swedes used only 11.
Previous studies have shown that Italians speak about 188 words per minute and use 41 gestures.
While speakers from other cultures illustrate stories with gestures, Italians use them as a sort of commentary on what they are saying.
Dr. Maria Graziano, a co-author of the study, found the results predictable: “Italians gesture more than Swedes, which was expected.”
However, she said the most interesting part of the study was how it revealed that people from different cultures use gestures differently because of differing rhetorical styles and storytelling methods.
“When telling stories, we combine several types of information: we introduce characters and events, describe actions, and explain them. We check whether our listener understands what we are saying. And if we’re recounting a story based on a cartoon, we also consider how the listener watched the cartoon,” Dr. Graziano explained.
Thus, the study confirmed that Italians tend to use pragmatic gestures—those that comment on the story—while Swedes generally employ more representative gestures that primarily depict events and actions.
