Why are actions louder than words?

Actions demonstrate.

Words rely on the interpretation of the listener and are more easily misunderstood.

You can say you’re going to do something but it doesn’t get done until you do it.

@mrentropy: Yeah…talking about food doesn’t fill your stomach.

@SABOTEUR That’s right. And saying, “Boy, I’m gonna go upstairs and give that neighbor a piece of my mind if he doesn’t stop playing drums on Rock Band at 4am!” won’t stop him unless you actually go and knock on his door.

Eh…yeah…that’s right.
(4 o’clock in the friggin’ morning? Damn!)

Talk is cheap.

Because they speak volumes about a person.

Your body is less likely to lie.

But there are two truths:
Actions speak louder than words.
The pen is mightier than the sword.

It’s conditional.

The subtle movements or even absence of movement can tell the true intent, desire and motives of the person with whom you are communicating with.

Compare a ninja assassin to an opera star. Which is louder?

If you look at it from a negative sense, words can be just as if not more painful or hurtful than actions. A word can feel like a slap.

Interesting, I never thought about it from that perspective before.

Generally speaking though I agree with @gasman & @mrentropy

Srsly I denno. Actions are louder than words, but the pen is mightier than the sword.

wtf

@Symbeline: lol…behave.

@SABOTEUR—Yeah, didn’t you ask that on AB? :D

I pilfer other people’s material; BUT AH RECOGNIZE. :)—

You can yell ”I’M GOING TO KISS BARACK OBAMA!” as loudly as you want, but if you actually do it it will have a much more powerful response from people.

Sorry I’m quite sleep deprived I’ll probably realize that I just used a shitty exaple tommorow.

Because action is actually doing what you said. It shows you mean what comes out of your mouth.
You can tell everybody that you are going to jump off a building as many times as you desire…nobody will believe you until you actually jump off please don’t

@Symbeline: Nah, I don’t think so.
You must have “pilfered” someone else’s material.
(Nice try, though…!)

@XOIIO that was a pretty funny example. I wish I could actually kiss him kidding
he is actually here in the islands where I am right now. Too bad he has tight security darn

OK LOL I just woke uo a bit, I was probably going to say kill but how the hell did I press “S” instead of “L”??? It works anyway.

They are very different. I was going to call you, help you, tell you about that, fix that, etc, etc. Blah, blah, blah.

@SABOTEUR Mine now. :D

Because the way you act, present yourself, while talking gives what you’re saying substance and feeling. (ie, why sarcasm works) How you say what your saying is so much more important than what you actually say—depending, you can change the meaning of your sentence just by changing body posture, facial expression, and intonation. It’s fascinating, really! isn’t it?
I don’t think plain verbal communication would work. Like, even here on fluther, where it’s “just words” we have the “add style to your text” thing right below the answer box giving us ways to try to show our emphasis.
Laughing “are you ok?” over your shoulder as you walk away has a totally different effect than if you were by the person’s side, concerned, asking the same thing.—Same words, but worlds different.

Actions do speak louder than words – it’s an expression that’s going through the internal feelings inside a person. Sometimes words don’t mean anything if one does not back up his / her actions.

There is a sign in the mens restroom at my precinct. its located over the urinals. it states. “if you mess it up, clean it up”. for a long time, no one knew exactly what that sign meant. i also forgot to mention that a camera had been installed. after the sign had been there for about two months, all the officers then knew its meaning. someone, unknown at the time, had taken a crape on the floor next to the commode. the commode worked fine, so i guess the user either missed the mark or took a dump on the floor on purpose. an investigation was conducted. we were advised that the culprit would be immediately terminated. after 30 days, we still had not received the results of the investigation. finally, at roll call one morning, the truth came out. an officer did commit this grizzly deed, it was the hispanic custodian woman. her actions were caught on video tape. why did she do this? no one really knows, other than it may be normal in Mexico to take a dump on the floor. the sign is there no more. in this case, actions did speak louder than words. john

I don’t think that’s a necessary truth – some words are quite powerful…sometimes so powerful they inspire action…but that action can be mediocre and not what the words intended to inspire…

My take on verbal vs non-verbal communication comes from the perspective that neither one nor the other is greater nor lesser, but rather two separate communication methods to be used at the same time to communicate wholly. I am a strong believer in actions and words aligning. People who say one thing, yet do another causes cognitive dissonance for me. Being able to understand someone’s complete communication; one must both listen AND observe. Doing one without the other merely limits the amount of information you are gathering from a communication. Thus, both are equally important communication methods and should be considered equally revealing whether taken together in alignment, or taken in conflict with one another. Both tell a complete story when they are both available to you,and you listen to and observe them.

Reading my previous comments I doubt I woke up, if I can’t spell “up”.

As an Aspie I can’t read body language, but a 230 gr FMJ at 700 ft/sec speaks loudly enough for me.

This reminds me of people who tell their spouse they love them, and then beat and abuse them.

The words are “I love you”
The action says “I want to hurt you”

In that case it makes it hard to believe the words. Yes sometimes actions do speak louder than words.

Great example, @dutchbrossis.

They aren’t always. Say you disagree with a government policy. So you blow up a capitol building. Nobody will hear what you have to say. It’s just a big roaring silence.

Do you mean the expression actions speak louder than words? Because talk is cheap, that is, it’s not what you say – it’s what you do. Politicians, e.g.

I think that actions do speak louder than words and how we say things with emphasis make the world of difference. For example, a teacher can tell a student “please take a chair” with a smile in a calm tone and the kid gets it. But at the same time a teacher can say “PLEASE TAKE A CHAIR” with a frown in an irritated tone and the kid is wounded! Too, if a person has an open demeanor with arms at his or her side with hands open and with a non-threatening stance, his/her words come out differently than those with arms cross and head jutting with a stern face. There really is a difference.

I feel possibly it has to do with the impact of actions in contrast to spoken word communicated from an individual. However I feel that this question will not have an definite answer due to people’s experiences. Me for example, I would say that words are more damaging than actions because they sink into someone’s mental fabric and resides there, it’s like a seed, it will grow overtime and adapt to situations presented through the human eye, such as for example if you were bullied as a child, when you become an adult, a) you could be come withdrawn, quiet, and passive or b) you could be aggressive, loud and impatient. Like mentioned it depends on one’s experiences in the life we are given.