The Effects of Status Differentiation on Nonverbal Behavior

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate relationships between status and nonverbal behavior. Subjects were randomly assigned to a high status position (teacher) or a low status position (student). Status was crossed with gender to produce four treatment conditions: males teaching males, males teaching females, females teaching males, and females teaching females. Statuses were then reversed on a second trial: former students became teachers and former teachers became students with the same partners. Nonverbal behavior from both interactions was recorded and coded from videotape. Findings indicate that status structures nonverbal behavior. In general, high specific status subjects (teachers) claimed more direct space with their bodies, talked more, and attempted more interruptions than their low status counterparts. And, by means of touching and pointing (both to their partner and to the partner's possessions), they symbolically intruded upon their partners noticeably more than their partners intruded upon them. Similarly, gender affected nonverbal behavior: males took more horizontal space, pointed to possessions more often, touched more frequently, and laughed less than females. The set of behaviors organized by specific status differed somewhat from the set of behaviors that showed diffuse status effects.