According to Goffman, “giving-off” information is defined as unintended or non-purposeful communication. Whenever someone is “giving off” a message, the actor who is transmitting this information exchange is not aware of the fact that they are communicating that message. Put simply, the unintended message is communicated accidentally.
Let me say that again. When an actor is “giving-off” information, it is involuntary communication. The actor is not aware of the fact that they are communicating such information. An example of this may be how someone pronounces or uses a particular word. If they use the word incorrectly, this communicates, or “gives off” that they don’t know how to properly use such a word. Another example would be if a person didn’t know how to match their clothes. Such a person would be announcing to the public that they were clueless about how to coordinate their wardrobe.
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STORY:
During college, I served as the president of the dorm I was living in. This role required me to go to different rooms to get signatures and / or certain items our executive committee needed for our weekly meetings. On one occasion, I had to go to the room of two very attractive female committee members. I went to their room, conducted my legitimate business and then headed straight to my girlfriend’s room to eat dinner with her.
When I arrived at my girlfriend’s room, I knocked on her door. I waited for her to answer the door. As soon as my girlfriend answered the door, for some odd reason, she immediately started to ask me about what I had “been up to.” Because of the tone she had used to ask me those questions, it seemed to me that she was suspicious of something. Plus, I knew that she often felt that I hid certain kinds of information from her. And sometimes I did hide some types of information from her; precisely because I wanted to avoid getting the third-degree about the mundane campus activities I engaged in as dorm president.
That day, my girlfriend was convinced that I was up to something nefarious, and kept grilling me for more information about my recent whereabouts. Finally, I got tired of this line of questioning and asked her why she suspected me of doing something improper. Her reply to my question took me by complete surprise.
Let me say upfront that I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. I really hadn’t. Therefore, I wasn’t worried she would somehow discover that I had engaged in any inappropriate behavior. But when I asked why she was grilling me with so many probing questions, she drew my attention to the fact that I had been making a sort of sucking noise with my tongue and teeth.
I wasn’t even aware of such a nervous habit of mine. Hence, by making that noise with my teeth, I was “giving-off” that I must have been, as she said it, “up to something.” In fact, that is how she couched it. She said, “Whenever you are up to something, you always make that clicking noise with your teeth.” I had never even noticed that I made such a noise. But I did learn something that day. I learned that when I was actually “up to something,” I should make an effort to avoid making that sucking noise with my teeth. I quickly got that nervous habit under control.
