Sex differences in nonverbal communication

An experiment was conducted to determine the relationship between sex-role attitudes, affiliation, and dominance and nonverbal communication styles in men and women in same- and opposite-sex dyads. Women were found to elicit more warmth and men more anxiety from their partners. Evidence was found for a possible monitoring mechanism through which women adjust their nonverbal communications to fit the male in the interaction. Liberalism in sex-role attitudes was found to correlate with nonverbal warmth in men. The nonverbal presentations of men and women in the microprocesses of dyadic interaction were found to relate significantly to the macrostructure of societal sex roles.This research was supported by NSF Grant GS36814. The author wishes to express her special thanks to Harmon Hosch, Vivian Shayne, David Fineman, and Lee Braff for their help in the experiment and data analysis. An abbreviated version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, August 1975.     

Role of appearance and nonverbal behaviors in the perception of sexual orientation among lesbians and gay men

According to the zero-acquaintance paradigm gay men and lesbians possess the ability to identify other homosexuals accurately after only very brief interpersonal contact. Given the vulnerability gay men and lesbians face in terms of antigay violence and prejudice, perceptual accuracy provides self-protection. In an exploratory study, 123 respondents were classified as low, moderate, and high perceivers on the basis of their responses to a recognition index designed by the authors. Next, respondents rated on a series of 5-point Likert scales the helpfulness of several characteristics for identifying gay men and lesbians. Analysis supported the importance of eye contact for lesbians and gay men in identifying one another. For both lesbian and gay male participants, several other variables emerged as significantly helpful in identifying gay men: clothing style and fit, jewelry, facial expressions, posture, body type, walk or gait, and both the types and frequencies of gestures.     

Sex roles and nonverbal communication skills

As a step toward understanding sex differences in nonverbal decoding and encoding abilities, the hypothesis that sex-role variables are related to these communication abilities was tested. An analysis was undertaken of 11 studies on the relationship of encoding and decoding abilities to sex roles, including several masculinity and femininity scales, a measure of attitudes toward women, and a questionnaire on sex roles in the home. Although the relationships of the masculinity and femininity measures to decoding were generally weak, more masculine people tended to be better decoders. Patterns also emerged showing that the magnitude of the correlations varied with age group, sex, sex-role scale, and channel of communication. In addition, among women, those who were more liberated according to several indices were better decoders, at least of a woman stimulus person. Differences between the sexes in encoding and decoding abilities were unaffected by partialling out the masculinity and femininity measures. A hypothesis concerning the adaptive uses of nonverbal sensitivity is advanced, as well as a hypothesis concerning overall sex differences in nonverbal communication skills.Part of this research was conducted while the authors held National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships, and was supported by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Award to the first author and by a grant from the Biomedical Research Support Program, National Institutes of Health, to The Johns Hopkins University. This paper could not have been prepared without the generosity of several colleagues and students who made their unpublished results available. These people are (alphabetically): Bella M. DePaulo, Karen I. Fischer, Judith Harackiewicz, Leonard A. Kusnitz, Carol J. Mills, James G. Simmons, Ann L. Weber, and Miron Zuckerman. In addition, Bert F. Green, Jr., Bella M. DePaulo, and Marylee C. Taylor provided many appreciated suggestions and criticisms on an earlier draft.     

Deafness and perception of nonverbal expression of emotion

Compensatory sensitivity is said to follow loss of a primary communicative channel. In previous studies in which how accurately deaf and hearing people perceive emotional expression was compared, caricatures or nonverbal behavior of hearing people were stimuli. These studies did not specifically address the possibility that deaf people show nonverbal behavior which might be related to their sign language. To assess this possibility two methodological innovations were made. Stimuli were displayed of nonverbal messages with various emotional contents presented by deaf people in sign language. Also, no verbal labels identified emotional content of the messages. Sixty hearing and 45 deaf male college students watched films of emotional expressions in sign language. The participants tried to identify the emotional content of each film by matching content to one of six photographs of facial expressions. Responses were analyzed for accuracy in perceiving the emotional content. Hearing participants were more accurate in perceiving the display of Happiness. Display of Disgust was perceived better by the deaf participants. No support was found for compensatory sensitivity among the deaf participants.     

Extraversion and the ability to decode nonverbal communication

This study examined the relationship between extraversion, as measured by the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), and skill at decoding nonverbal forms of communication. Prior research has had mixed success in establishing this relationship. Because extraverts have more experience in social settings than introverts, and because extraverts have a greater desire for sensory stimulation than introverts, it was hypothesized that extraverts would decode nonverbal cues in social interaction more accurately than introverts. The data supported this hypothesis. Extraverts were significantly more accurate in interpreting the meaning of nonverbal communication than introverts; in addition, extraverts were more confident that they were accurate decoders than introverts. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive processing style: the ‘extravert advantage’ in decoding nonverbal communication may be due to extraverts' superior attentive/perceptual skills; their superior interpretive/attributional skills; or both. In addition, the results are discussed in terms of methodological issues in the nonverbal decoding literature and their impact on research on extraversion. The nonverbal decoding task used in the present study differed from that of prior research by presenting scenes of natural, spontaneous, dyadic interactions for which an objective criterion for accuracy existed.     

The growing field of nonverbal behaviour: A review of twelve books on nonverbal behaviour and nonverbal communication

This book review covers two monographs and ten edited books, mostly psychological in orientation and centered on current research questions about nonverbal behaviour or nonverbal communication. The edited books comprised 213 contributors. In each case, the reader is informed about the origin of the book, its main emphasis, the kind of topics covered, the nature of the material presented (whether theoretical discussions, reviews of research, research reports…), its general interest, and the type of readers who would mostly benefit of it. The material has been organized into five classes: Books of readings, introductory books, books on methods, specific dimensions, and specific topics.     

Beliefs about female and male nonverbal communication

Participants (N= 441) rated from 1 to 10 how frequently or well they believed hypothetical women and men performed each of twenty nonverbal behaviors or skills. Women were believed to use more expressive and involved nonverbal behaviors than men, and to be more skilled at sending and receiving nonverbal messages. Men were believed to be louder and more interruptive, and to display more nervous, dysfluent behaviors. Ratings given to females by females were higher than were ratings in the other gender combinations for over half the variables, which may accurately describe female—female interaction. Perceived gender differences correlated positively with differences reported in observational studies, indicating that beliefs about nonverbal gender differences were generally accurate. The authors wish to thank Tom Leahy for his assistance in data collection.     

Verbal communication, nonverbal communication, and private speech in lower and middle socioeconomic status preschool children.

Three types of communication--verbal, nonverbal, and private speech--were investigated in 4- and 5-year-old children. Multiple analyses of variance (MANOVAs) without IQ controlled and multiple analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) with IQ as a covariate were computed and followed by ANOVAs and ANCOVAs to determine the effects of sex, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) on each of these types of communication. The ANOVAs and the ANCOVAs yielded the same conclusions. Results indicated that age and SES, but not sex, influence the use of the three communication types. From age 4 to age 5, private speech decreased for middle SES children and remained the same for lower SES children. Although lower SES children had more nonverbal communication at both age levels than middle SES children, nonverbal communication decreased for middle SES children and increased for lower SES children between the ages of 4 and 5 years. Both lower and middle SES groups increased in verbal communication between the two ages. The middle SES 4-year-olds used more verbal communication than their lower SES counterparts, and the difference was maintained at age 5. Although IQ is related to verbal communication, statistically controlling for the effects of IQ did not change the conclusions.     

A social relations analysis of nonverbal communication accuracy in married couples

This paper presents a reanalysis of a study (Sabatelli, Buck, & Drever, 1982) that related nonverbal communication accuracy in married couples to marital complaints, using the social relations model developed by Kenny and his colleagues The social relations model allows for the analysis of the communication process in a new and more complete way where, for the first time, the relative contributions of sender, receiver, and unique relationship effects to overall nonverbal communication accuracy can be assessed In addition, each of these factors can be related to marital complaints and the patterns of communication within dyads can be examined for the presence of complementarity/similarity and reciprocity/compensation The overwhelming percentage of variance in communication accuracy was accounted for by sender and unique relationship effects while little variance in communication accuracy was accounted for bv receiver effects In addition, no evidence of complementarity/similarity and only weak support for reciprocity/compensation in the communication abilities of wife and husband was found With regard to marital complaints, the most striking result was the negative correlation between wives' sending ability and husbands' complaints, a finding consistent with the previous report In addition, and consistent with the former analysis, the wives' unique abilities to decode their husbands' expressions were found to correlate negatively with the wives' marital complaints     

Courtship communication and perception

Although ethologists have detailed courtship rituals for many species, courting behavior of humans has not received extensive study from an ethological standpoint. Yet there are clearly facial expressions and gestures that are commonly labeled "flirting behaviors." These nonverbal signals have been documented recently by several investigators in field studies, but the receptivity of nonverbal courtship signals is still in question. The current research project attempted to assess the perceptual skill of naive male and female observers who were presented videotaped samples of females' nonverbal courtship and rejection behaviors and asked to rate their intensity. The results showed that overall, men rated invitational behaviors more positively than women. In contrast, signals of rejection were seen by men as sending a less potent message than that perceived by women. Evolutionary theory may offer a framework for understanding these results.     

Physical therapists' nonverbal communication predicts geriatric patients' health outcomes

Two studies explored the link between health care providers' patterns of nonverbal communication and therapeutic efficacy. In Study 1, physical therapists were videotaped during a session with a client. Brief samples of therapists' nonverbal behavior were rated by naive judges. Judges' ratings were then correlated with clients' physical, cognitive, and psychological functioning at admission, at discharge, and at 3 months following discharge. Therapists' distancing behavior was strongly correlated with short- and long-term decreases in their clients' physical and cognitive functioning. Distancing was expressed through a pattern of not smiling and looking away from the client. In contrast, facial expressiveness, as revealed through smiling, nodding, and frowning, was associated with short- and long-term improvements in functioning. In Study 2, elderly subjects perceived distancing behaviors of therapists more negatively than positive behaviors.     

Silence and communication: nonverbal dialogue and therapeutic action

The subject of this article is silence as communication, with the starting point in the silences of three patients in treatment—in one of them his silences lasted up to a year. Silence is also seen as a specific dimension linked to speech, as the treatment of a third patient shows. The nonverbal interaction between patient and analyst is illustrated. This interaction led to a developmental process in each of the patients, characterized by fusion and separation processes, which included a development of three-dimensionality. The curative process taking place in each of the three, not through verbalisation but through the relation, is understood in the light of Modell's (1990) concept of “dependent/containing transference”. The treatment results demonstrate that the “dependent transference” is curative in itself when the therapeutic setting is maintained. The analyst's inner work during the dependent transference is described: a form of nonverbal participation and joint creativity in the intersubjective field.     

Treatment of chronic global aphasia with a nonverbal communication system

Four chronic global aphasics were treated with Blissymbols (C. K. Bliss, 1965, Semantography-Blissymbolics, Sydney: Semantography Pub.). As soon as possible the therapeutic communication was based solely on the use of the symbols. Three patients seemed to benefit from therapy. In one case therapy had to be discontinued because of massive perseveration. In one patient expression of needs relied solely on the use of the symbols. In another, expressive speech could be restored to such an extent that communication by the use of symbols was discontinued.     

The relation of hostile nonverbal communication styles to popularity in preadolescent children

Some assumptions of interpersonal theory were tested among a population of preadolescent children. Children were videotaped while interacting with a same-sex peer, and their verbal and nonverbal communications were judged by other peers who were not participants in the study. Children rated as socially unattractive by their peers had communication styles characterized by nonverbal visual hostility. These results support the assumption that negative nonverbal communications are associated with relationship difficulties.     

Comprehension of nonverbal communication: A reexamination of the social competencies of learning-disabled children

This study was designed to determine whether learning-disabled (LD) children differed from nondisabled (NLD) children in their ability to comprehend nonverbal communication when potential attentional differences between the groups were controlled. In addition, the relationship between nonverbal comprehension and social competence was assessed. Thirty LD and 30 NLD boys between 9 and 12 years of age were administered a short form of the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity (PONS) to assess nonverbal comprehension; social competence measures included teachers' ratings of aggressive and withdrawn behaviors using the Behavior Problem Checklist, and blind judges' ratings of performance on a role-play of friendshipmaking skills. Under attention-incentive conditions, no performance differences between LD and NLD children were found on the PONS; however, LD children were judged to be more withdrawn and less socially skilled. While PONS scores were not related to other social competence measures, hey were associated with academic achievement and IQ. Results emphasize the importance of considering the presence of attentional problems in LD children that may interfere with an accurate assessment of their skills.