Abstract
Sex differences in expressiveness are well documented, but the reasons for and correlates of these important differences are not well studied. A comprehensive set of emotion-relevant personality measures was administered to 40 female and 39 male undergraduate participants, who were also videotaped in three situations: engaging in natural social interaction, describing a past emotional experience, and posing various emotions. Videotapes were judged by sets of naive observers as to emotion communicated and overall impression. Expressive females, who appeared friendly and dominant in social interaction, were found to have a hostile/aggressive personality (but this was not true of males). Expressive females also tended to look angry/disgusted when describing happy and sad experiences. The findings suggest that nonverbally skilled, charismatic women (but not men) may often possess a dominant/aggressive but self-controlled personality, in a new twist on the theory that sex differences in expressiveness result in part from the oppression of women in society.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allport, F. H. (1924).Social psychology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Allport, G. W. (1961).Patterns and growth in personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Allport, G. W., & Vernon, P. E. (1933).Studies in expressive movement. New York: Macmillan Co.
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression.Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 53–63.
Bendig, A. W. (1956). The development of a short form of the manifest anxiety scale.Journal of Consulting Psychology, 20, 384.
Buck, R. (1977). Nonverbal communication of affect in preschool children: Relationships with personality and skin conductance.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 225–236.
Buck, R. W., Miller, R. E., & Caul, W. F. (1974). Sex, personality and physiological variables in the communication of emotion via facial expression.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 587–596.
Buck, R. W., Savin, V. J., Miller, R. E., & Caul, W. F. (1972). Nonverbal communication of affect in humans.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 23, 362–371.
Buss, A. H., & Durkee, A. (1957). An inventory for assessing different kinds of hostility.Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21, 343–349.
Cook, W. W., & Medley, D. M. (1954). Proposed hostility and pharisaic-virtue scores for the MMPI.Journal of Applied Psychology, 38, 414–418.
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1985).The NEO personality inventory manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Cunningham, M. R. (1977). Personality and the structure of the nonverbal communication of emotion.Journal of Personality, 45, 564–584.
Darwin, C. (1872).The expression of the emotions in man and animals. London: Murray.
Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1975).Manual for the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. San Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Service.
Friedman, H. S. (1979). The concept of skill in nonverbal communication: Implications for understanding social interaction. In R. Rosenthal (Ed.),Skill in nonverbal communication (pp. 2–27). Cambridge, MA: Oelgeschlager, Gunn, & Hain.
Friedman, H. S. (1983). On shutting one's eyes to face validity.Psychological Bulletin, 94, 185–187.
Friedman, H. S., Prince, L. M., Riggio, R. E., & DiMatteo, M. R. (1980). Understanding and assessing nonverbal expressiveness: The affective communication test.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 333–351.
Friedman, H. S., & Riggio, R. E. (1981). Effect of individual differences in nonverbal expressiveness on transmission of emotion.Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 7, 33–45.
Friedman, H. S., Riggio, R. E., & Casella, D. F. (1988). Nonverbal skill, personal charisma, and initial attraction.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 14, 203–211.
Friedman, H. S., Riggio, R. E., & Segall, D. O. (1980). Personality and the enactment of emotion.Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 5, 35–48.
Friedman, H. S., & Tucker, J. S. (1993). Factor analysis of personality measures thought to predict physical health. Unpublished manuscript.
Gerson, A. C., & Perlman, D. (1979). Loneliness and expressive communication.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 258–261.
Hahn, M. E. (1966).California Life Goals Evaluation Schedule. Palo Alto, CA: Western Psychological Services.
Halberstadt, A. G., & Saitta, M. B. (1987). Gender, nonverbal behavior, and perceived dominance: A test of the theory.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 257–272.
Hall, J. A. (1984).Nonverbal sex differences: Communication accuracy and expressive style. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hall, J. A. (1987). On explaining gender differences: The case of nonverbal communication. In P. Shaver and C. Hendrick (Eds.),Review of personality and social psychology: Vol. 7. Sex and gender (pp. 177–200). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Hall, J. A., & Halberstadt, A. G. (1986). Smiling and gazing. In A. W. Siegman and S. Feldstein (Eds.),The psychology of gender: Advances through meta-analysis (pp. 136–158). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hall, J. A., & Veccia, E. M. (1990). More “touching” observations; New insights on men, women, and interpersonal touch.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1155–1162.
Harper, R. G., Wiens, A. N., & Matarazzo, J. D. (1979). The relationship between encoding-decoding of visual nonverbal emotional cues.Semiotica, 28, 171–192.
Henley, N. M. (1977).Body politics: Power, sex, and nonverbal communication. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Henley, N. M., & LaFrance, M. (1984). Gender as culture: Difference and dominance in nonverbal behavior. In A. Wolfgang (Ed.),Nonverbal behavior: Perspectives, applications, intercultural insights (pp. 351–371). Lewiston, NY: C. J. Hogrefe.
Ickes, W., & Barnes, R. D. (1977). The role of sex and self-monitoring in unstructured dyadic interactions.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 315–330.
Jenkins, C. D., Zyzanski, S. J., & Rosenman, R. H. (1974). Prediction of clinical coronary heart disease by a test for the coronary-prone behavior pattern.New England Journal of Medicine, 23, 1271–1275.
LaFrance, M. (1981). Gender gestures: Sex, sex-role, and nonverbal communication. In C. Mayo and N. M. Henley (Eds.),Gender and nonverbal behavior (pp. 129–150). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Lippa, R. (1983). Expressive behavior. In L. Wheeler & P. Shaver (Eds.),Review of personality and social psychology: Vol. 4. (pp. 181–205). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Maddi, S. R., Kobasa, S. C., & Hoover, M. (1979). An alienation test.Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 19, 73–76.
Notarius, C. I., & Levenson, R. W. (1979). Expressive tendencies and physiological response to stress.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1204–1210.
Prkachin, K. M., Craig, K. D., Papageorgis, D., & Reith, G. (1977). Nonverbal communication deficits and response to performance feed-back in depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 86, 224–234.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported in part by an intramural research grant from University of California, Riverside.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tucker, J.S., Friedman, H.S. Sex differences in nonverbal expressiveness: Emotional expression, personality, and impressions. J Nonverbal Behav 17, 103–117 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01001959
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01001959