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Posture mirroring and interactional involvement: Sex and sex typing effects

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Abstract

This study investigated the effects of sex (male-male vs. female-female) and sex typing (sex typed-sex typed, sex typed-androgynous, and androgynous-androgynous) on dyadic posture mirroring between strangers in a “waiting room” context. Results revealed a significant interaction between sex composition and sex-typing composition such that among sex-typed pairs, females displayed more posture mirroring than males but among androgynous pairs, the effect was reversed with male dyads showing more posture sharing than female dyads. Results also showed a surprising negative relation between mirroring and rapport as well as a negative correlation between mirroring and verbalization. The suggestion made is that individual action in the form of talk and communal engagement in the form of mirroring may represent different modes of being involved in an interaction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Boston College, 02167, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

    Marianne La France Ph.D. (member)

  2. the Department of Psychology, University of Missouri at St. Louis, USA

    William Ickes Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Marianne La France Ph.D.
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  2. William Ickes Ph.D.
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Additional information

The authors would like to thank Brinton Lykes for her help in coding and analyzing the data as well as Alicia laniere who assisted in the posture mirroring transcription.

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La France, M., Ickes, W. Posture mirroring and interactional involvement: Sex and sex typing effects. J Nonverbal Behav 5, 139–154 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00986131

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00986131

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