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Gender and situational differences in children's smiles, touch, and proxemics

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Abstract

It was hypothesized that gender differences in nonverbal behaviors which are often considered to be affiliative may represent systematic differences between males and females in self-presentation. Smiling, touching, and interpersonal distance were studied with 256 White adolescents and preadolescents, who were randomly assigned to same-sex grade-level pairs. Self-presentation was made more salient by asking each subject pair to pose for a picture depicting a social situation. Each pair illustrated one of two situations — a neutral situation and a “male-appropriate” situation that emphasized team spirit in an athletic competition. Girls smiled significantly more often than boys did and mutually touched each other more often, but there were no differences between the sexes in the overall amount of touching or proxemics. Instead, the social situation significantly determined the amount of touch and proxemics. Subjects' age and experimenter's sex were not significant variables.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, USA

    Phyllis W. Berman

  2. Florida State University, USA

    Vicki L. Smith

Authors
  1. Phyllis W. Berman
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  2. Vicki L. Smith
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Additional information

Thanks are expressed to Stephanie Shields for her helpful review of the manuscript and suggestions, and to Stuart Weinstock and Steve Premack for their help as experimenters and as judges of smiling, proximity, and touch.

The research reported in this article was completed while the first author was at Florida State University. She is now at National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 7C18 Landow Building, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland 20205.

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Berman, P.W., Smith, V.L. Gender and situational differences in children's smiles, touch, and proxemics. Sex Roles 10, 347–356 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287552

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287552

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