NVC studies Flashcards
Kendon
To see how eye movements affect the accuracy of recall.
Pairs of participants were asked to get acquainted. Their conversations were secretly watched by observers.
As one person was about to speak, they looked away from the other person. They would give the other person a prolonged look when they were about to finish talking. If these signals did not happen, there was a pause in the conversation.
Eye movements signal turn taking in conversation.
What is Hess’ study?
To see the effect of pupil dilation on emotion
Participants were shown 2 pictures of the same girl. The pictures were almost identical apart from in one of the pictures the girls pupils were dialated. They were asked which picture thought was more attractive.
The participants said that the girl with the dialated pupils was more attractive.
Pupil dialation has an unconscious yet powerful affect on emotion.
Davitz and Davitz
To see the effect of paralinguistics on the assessment of emotion.
Participants were asked to listen to tape recordings and assess the speakers emotions from the paralinguistic queues; tone of voice, emphasis and intonation.
There was a very high level of accuracy in recognising these emotions: affection, amusement, disgust and fear.
Paralinguistics has great importance when judging emotion.
Argyle, Alkema and Gilmour
To see if tone of voice has any effect when interpreting verbal messages.
Listen to friendly or hostile messages spoken in either friendly or hostile tones.
Tone of voice has about 5x the effect as the message itself.
Tone of voice is extremely important in how people interpret verbal messages.
Argyle
To see how interrupting eye contact affects conversation.
Pairs of participants were observed having conversations. In half the conversations, one of the participants wore dark glasses so that the other could not receive eye contact.
When one of the participants wore dark glasses, there were more pauses and interruptions than when dark glasses were not worn.
Eye contact is important in ensuring the smooth flow of conversation
McGinley
To see the effect of postural echo when having a conversation
A confederate approached individuals in a social setting and had conversations with them, in half the conversations echoed the posture of the person he was talking to. In half, he did not echo their posture. The participants were later asked what they thought of the confederate.
When postural echo was used the people liked the confederate. When it wasn’t, they felt awkward.
Postural echo gives an unconscious message of friendliness.
McGinley, Lefevre and McGinley
To see the effect of open and closed posture when having a conversation.
A confederate had conversations with people. In half of the conversations he had an open posture, in half he had a closed posture. After, they were asked what they thought of the confederate.
Open posture = friendly and attractive
Closed posture = unfriendly and less attractive
The posture that someone adopts can make a difference to how much they are liked.
Lynn and Mynier
To see the effect of gestures used by waiters and Waitresses on the tipping behaviour of customers
While taking orders from people, waitresses and waiters were asked to either stand up or squat down, making more eye contact possible
Squatting down meant more tips
The gesture of squatting down near a seated customer to take an order will have a positive effect on tipping behaviour
Fisher, Rytting and Heslin
To see the effect of touch on people’s attitudes.
Female students in a library were handed books by the librarian, half of the students were briefly touched on the hand by the librarian, the other students were not touched.
When questioned later, the students who had been touched had a much more positive view of the librarian. However they didn’t know that they had been touched.
Touch can have an unconscious and positive effect on attitudes.
