Encoding and decoding of nonverbal behavior through facial expressions

Ten males and ten females served as both senders and receivers of nonverbal expressions in an experiment designed to examine various kinds of sending-receiving relationships. While the overall sending-receiving relationship for five types of expressions combined was positive and nearly statistically significant (.10 > p > .05), the category-specific sending-receiving relationships were near zero in magnitude or slightly negative. Sending-receiving relationships that were category specific and involved same-sex communication attempts only were found to be more negative with some being statistically significant. Females were found to be significantly better receivers but not significantly better senders than males. The results were discussed in terms of recent theoretical notions concerning sending and receiving processes.