Psychology

To ascertain whether children facilitate in interaction between strangers, a literature review as well as a study was conducted. Both the literature review and the study suggested that the children definitely help in breaking the ice. People trust strangers who are accompanied by a child more than a stranger who is alone or accompanied by an adult. Since it is difficult to turn away from the affectionate smile of a child, a stranger not only finds it easier to communicate with him but also to communicate with the adult whom the child is accompanying.

However a research is required to ascertain how much trust does the adult who is most likely to be a childs family member has on the stranger who is showing signs of affection towards the child or is passing on a friendly gesture to the adult with him. Since there has been growing instances of cases of child abuse, this angle needs further research.

Discussion
While interacting with a child we are more likely to use a variety of facial expressions and gestures. Since facial expressions and gestures constitute a significant portion of our communication, interaction with children becomes easier even in a short while. Adults need a longer amount of time to really start conversing with each other. They start conversing with words first. There is stiffness in communication between two strange adults for a longer period of time when compared to communication between two strange adults and a child accompanying either of them. Humans are the only animals to communicate through the medium of words. I recently spent several hours watching apes communicating with one another. Watching a female ape bonding with an abandoned baby ape via submission signals, stage-by-stage touch and some periods of complete back-off reminded me just how much we lost when we learnt to talk. (James, 2008) Since childrens knowledge of vocabulary is limited, they are very good observers of body language. They at once understand and reciprocate to the gestures of adults even when they dont know them. If a person sees that his or her child is able to build a good communication with a stranger, he too builds a rapport, which might be limited to just a few seconds. Even if the interaction between two strangers is more than a few seconds it is limited mostly to the facial expressions like a smile or two or nodding of head. These will most likely be divided between the child and the adult and not only to the adult. The sweeter the facial expression of the stranger towards the child is, the more are the chances of him getting acquainted with the adult.  The face is an endlessly fascinating canvass on which, we express our emotions. Hence if one is good to a stranger child, he comes across as a good human being to the stranger adult accompanying him. It has been rightly pointed out by Reiman that

First, you take an accurate read of the other persons thoughts and feelings by decoding her body language, then you respond with physical signals that both acknowledge her unspoken messages and accurately reflect your own. (Reiman, 2007) No matter how kind ones words are, if they dont match with the body language it is very easy to detect deception, unease and dissonance. An adults mind is preoccupied with so many things that he might some time falter in decoding, but not a child. If you are really friendly a childs inner sensor will say, that this stranger is safe. When the child shows friendliness towards the stranger, the person accompanying him automatically reacts more positively.