Sex differences in the expression of emotion in a structured social encounter

The stereotypic portrayal of women as more emotional than men was evaluated in the present study. Equal numbers of female and male subjects were administered an interview consisting of questions designed to elicit two different levels of affect. Measures of subjects' facial expressions, speech, and visual behavior were analyzed for indications of emotionality, the affective state elicited in the interview, and emotional expression, a trait which is independent of question content. As hypothesized, it was found that women were more expressive of emotion in their higher level of facial activity. However, measures of speech and visual behavior, which reflected the expected difference in the affective states elicited by the different types of interview questions, did not differentiate between men and women. Finally, ratings of the quality of the subjects' facial expressions provided some evidence of sex differences in reactions to the questions. It was concluded that a reconsideration of the question of sex differences in emotionality is needed. Previous generalizations based on indirect experimental data and on potentially unreliable subjective reports must be challenged by more direct and dependable investigations.The author is grateful to Galen Baril for his assistance in the collection of the data and to Max Zachau for coding the data. This research was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from the University of Maine at Orono.