Gender and Communication Flashcards
What is judgement accuracy?
the ability (/how well someone can) to judge other peopleâs emotions and mood
Hall (1978) reviewed 75 studies of posed (participant asked to adopt an expression) and spontaneous (participants watch a video which evokes a certain emotion) expressions. Decoders were asked to identify the nature of the film. What did they find?
24 significant differences, with 23 in favour of women
Hall (1984) reviewed a further 50 studies. What was found?
11 significant differences with 10 in favour of women
What is the difference between decoders and encoders?
Decoders: watch the people and make judgement as to whether theyâre being honest or dishonest about what the encoders are watching
Encoders: usually watch videos and talk while watching the videos, saying that they see
What is Expression Accuracy?
How easily oneâs emotions can be judged
Hall (1979) reviewed 26 studies, studying expression accuracy was was found and what does this indicate?
9 significant gender differences were found, 8 in favour of women suggesting that women encode their emotions more clearly
Hall (1984) reviewed a further 17 studies, what did they find?
9 significant gender differences, 7 in favour of women suggesting that women typically erode more clearly so their non-verbal behaviour is easier to read
what is something we need to consider when talking about accuracy?
accuracy does not necessarily represent a social advantage, instead itâs more the importance of situational context
What are channel differences?
different forms of non-verbal communication i.e. gaze and smiles
LaFrance & Hecht (2000) conducted a meta-analysis of gender and smiling. What did they find?
- Highly significant differences between gender (mean effect size: d=.40)
- women smile more than men
- differences between gender were most pronounced in the 18-23 year-old-group
- for white europeans, gender differences are significantly greater, where females smile more than men
- some cultural variations found in these gender differences
Hall (1984) further reviewed 119 studies of gaze and gender, what did they find?
- every study with a significant gender difference showed females gaze at others more
- these results are consistent with female advantages on tests of judgement accuracy
What are the two main explanations for gender differences for NVB?
- Social Power (if youâve got less social power, itâs more important to be able to read NVB of other people -> need to know if someone is a threat / should engage what other peopleâs intentions are [power and skill in decoding non-verbal skill)
- Socialisation
* understanding what others seek to communicate and making sure your own messages are easily understandable
* i.e. women are socialised to be accommodating to other people
How did Layoff (1973) describe gender differences within speech?
- suggests âwomenâs languageâ is a language of powerlessness
- women are apart of the deficit model
What is the deficit model?
typically the way males speak is normative, but the female way deviates from that
How did Lakoff (1973) describe female speech?
- Forms of politeness
- Tactful, hesitant, lower in authority
- Hedges (mitigating devices which lessen the impact of an utterance, e.g., perhaps, sometimes, I think, kind of)
- Tag questions (e.g., doesnât it?, isnât it?)
- Higher in grammatical accuracy
- Intensifiers (e.g., extremely, so, very)
- Direct quotes
- Low in humour
How was male speech characterised?
- More direct, explicit (e.g., âGive me thatâ)
- More interruptions (for control of conversation)
- More foul language
- More simplified language (e.g., dumbing down for social bonding)
- Higher in humour
What is a criticism of Lakoffâs research?
claims are based on personal observations and attitudes
Name two empirical features that are used in Holmes (1985) research..
Hedges and Tag Questions
What are Hedges?
i.e. âyou knowâ
mitigating devices which lessen the impact of an utterance
What are Tag Questions?
i.e. doesnât it? isnât it?
* may turn a statement into a question
Holmes (1986) analysed the impact of the Hedge âyou knowâ. In this particular study, she had a corpus of interaction around 50,000 words (25k per gender). Where were these from?
- 20K came from formal interactions (TV/radio interviews)
- 30K came from informal interactions (mealtime chats in private homes)
Holmes (1986) analysed 64 people (32F and 32M) identifying over 200 instances of the hedge âyou knowâ. She found 2 different meanings of this hedge, what were they?
- Certainty and Conviction
- Doubt and Uncertainty
Outline the gender differences found by Holmes (1986) in correspondence to the hedge âYou knowâ.
Women made greater use of âyou knowâ to convey certainty, certainty, men used it significantly more to convey uncertainty
* the exact opposite of what Lakoff would expect
Holmes (1985) analysed the function of the term âI thinkâ finding there were two different meanings dependent on the context. What were these meanings?
- Deliberative form (booster)
- Tentative form (hedge)
Outline the gender differences found by Holmes (1986) in correspondence to the hedge âI thinkâ.
Women used âI thinkâ more frequently as a booster than as a hedge; the reverse was true for men (which is exactly the opposite of what Lakoff would expect)
* the opposite of what Lakoff expected
Holmes (1985) found 4 principal functions of tag questions, what are they?
- Convey uncertainty (according to Lakoff)
- Facilitate conversation
- Confrontational i.e. your word really has improved, hadnât it?
- Soften the force of a criticism i.e. that was a daft thing to do, wasnât it?
Holmes (1985) analysed gender differences in tag questions, what was found?
- Uncertainty tags â more by men
- Facilitative tags â more by women
This is the opposite to what Lakoff expected
Hedges & Tags were used to convey uncertainty more by?
men
What is a basic problem with Lakoffâs analysis?
the function of an utterance cannot be understood from an analysis of its linguistic form alone
When including âpowerful males languageâ, Zimmerman & West (1975) covertly recorded conversations of a university campus. There were 55 naturally occurring conversation between opposite-sex and same gender pairs. What did they find in opposite-sex conversations?
Interruptions were typically by men (male exhibit dominance in both macro and micro expression conversations -> in loose forms of interactions)
Murray & Covelli (1988) found inconsistent evidence. What did they find?
Women interrupted men twice as often
Anderson & Leaper (1998) conducted a meta-analysis of 43 studies of gender and interruptions. What did they find?
- men interrupted more than women (d=.15)
- men used more intrusive interruptions (d=.33)
- but findings were heavily qualified by situational and contextual factors
whatâs an intrusive interruption?
intention to usurp/overturn the individual when speaking
What is the two-cultures approach?
the alternative view of â2 culturesâ and how this affects communication
Maltz & Borker (1982) look at gender differences in language, suggesting âmen and women differ in their rules for interpreting languageâ. This is because different rules are learned principally in same sex groups (from age 5-15). Language can differ dependent on gender in three different situations, which are?
- Interpretation of listener responses (typically females, indicate that they are listening / an interest of whatâs been said. while males, they are saying they agree / are for your argument)
- The meaning of questions (men see questions as a request for information, while for women its part of the conversational process)
- verbal aggression (females dislike verbal agression / see it as direction while men see it as a form of conversation / fairly light-hearted)
^ this two culture view was popularised by Tannen (1991) and how the differences in gender can be responsible for much miscommunication
Empirical Evidence as an evaluation of the two-cultures approach. Mulac et al. (1998) got participants to rate transcribe conversations. What was found?
- Men rated listener responses and questions as sig. more controlling (i.e., leading the conversation)
*Women rated listener responses as sig. more other-focused (i.e., showing interest) - Men rated questions as sig. more sensitive
^men & women interpreted language in different ways - broadly supportive of two culture view
Further evaluation of the Two-Cultures Approach about Polarisation. The popular best seller Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by Gray (1995). Aries (1996) disputed thus, what did they say?
Anyone is capable of displaying both âmasculine and feminine styles of interaction
* Overlap between men and women
* Differences not mutually exclusive
* Style depends on other factors, e.g., status, role, goals, conversational partners, situational context (lots of variability between genders and this is purely dependent on different factors)
What is the main criticism in response to the work by John Gray.
Cameron (2007) responded with the book âThe Myth of Mars and Venusâ criticising the original book. She suggests that underestimates differences within genders (because thereâs huge variability between genders) and differences may reflect different social roles, rather than differences between men & women
E.g., tag questions
Cameron et al., (1988) looked at the use of tag questions when assessing people in various jobs and activities. What was found?
- Use of tag questions predicted better by social role than by gender:
- Facilitative tags used by professionals (e.g., TV presenters, medics, teachers) -> to encourage interaction / people to talk
- Information-checking tags used by audience members, pupils & callers (more of a consequence of social role than gender)
Back Ground Information to Female Suffrage
1893: New Zealand Women given right to vote
1918: Women in UK given right to vote (only householders aged 30+)
* 6 million only could vote
1920: USA (21+)
1928: UK (21+)
Political Representation for Women
1919: First woman MP in UK House of Commons
1979: First UK female Prime Minister
2023: ~34.3% (223/650) UK MPs are female
2023: 28 women are elected Heads of State/Government (14.5% of the 193 UN member states)
At current rate, gender parity in highest positions not untilâŚ
Brooks (2013) looked at what extent gender stereotypes applied to political candidates, collecting data via an online survey, which corresponding to demographic characteristics of USA in gender, ethnicity, college education & age (relative of a cross section in society). Respondents read a fabricated newspaper article about a functional political candidate, there were two versions where only gender varied (Karen or Kevin). Participants were asked to respond to a series of questions about the candidate. Three dependent variables: overall favourability, likely effectiveness in the senate and likely effectiveness as US president in about 10 years was measured. What did they find?
- Few significant gender effects
- Experience in office had no effect / interaction
- Emotion displays and knowledge gaffes/gaps: worse rating (rated more negatively, but no effects for gender)
- Results potentially support women candidate seeking political office
Courtemanche and Connor Green (2020) looked a potential consequences of gender stereotypes. What was found?
- Gender voters had a preference for Women
- in the case of political scandals -> there were greater consequences for female politicians for alleged wrongdoing (they expected more from them -> is this backlash for gender norm violation?)
Cameron & Shaw looked at interactions in the UK General Election (2015) dependent of Gender. During this time, there were 7 main party leaders (4 males, 3 females - Cameron, Clegg, Miliband, Sturgeon, Wood, Bennett, Farage), but in the second debate, the opposition leaders only (Miliband, Sturgeon, Wood, Bennett, Farage). What did they find?
Men spoke more than the women - but may reflect differences in party status (parties were bigger, this may impact why they spoke more)
- Interruptions from all speakers
- Most aggravated examples (interruptions that more overtly violated an opponentâs turn) from females
- Comparable findings (Och, 2020) â âmanterruptingâ in the Bundestag
*thus suggests there is no notable differences in linguistic behaviour related to gender
What are the interactions of regional parliament of Andalusia in Spain?
- Men and women must have equal representation by law
- Must be equally represented at all levels of the parliamentary political hierarchy
- For research, a rare opportunity to examine politiciansâ interactions where the numbers are equal
Fuentes-Rodriguez & Ălvarez-Benito (2016) looked at if females use different language strategies. What did they find?
- Men & women use similar strategies of persuasion and argument
- Differences may reflect differences in party roles
e.g., whether in government or in opposition, not differences in gender - Gender not significant in explaining language differences
reject Lakoffâs notion of âwomenâs languageâ.
what are the two main forms of explanation?
power and style
what are two interpretations that are not necessarily mutually exclusive?
To stress âculturalâ difference is not to deny that dominance also exists
what was the third approach developed by Cameron (2007)
- Gender differences exaggerated
- Differences may reflect social roles rather than intrinsic differences between men & women
What does recent research in politics suggest?
politicians talk like politicians irrespective of gender
For allegations of wrongdoing, which politicians viewed more harshly
women
