We conducted a multichannel investigation of how gender-based familiarity moderates verbal and nonverbal behaviors between men and women. Undergraduates in 24 mixed-sex dyads discussed masculine, feminine, and non-gender-linked topics. The primary dependent variables were verbal and nonverbal behaviors related to social power. The verbal behaviors examined were speech initiations and total amount of speech; the nonverbal behaviors studied were visual behavior (while speaking and while listening), gesturing, chin thrusts, and smiling. As expected, systematic differences in the behaviors of men and women emerged on the gender-linked tasks. On the masculine task men displayed more verbal and nonverbal power-related behavior than did women. On the feminine task women exhibited more power than men on most of the verbal and nonverbal measures. Also as predicted, on the non-gender-linked task men displayed greater power both verbally and nonverbally than did women. There were two exceptions to this overall pattern. Across all conditions, women smiled more often than did men, and men had a higher frequency of chin thrusts than did women. In this study we investigated the communication of power between women and men. Social power concerns the ability to influence others or to control the outcomes of others (Ellyson & Dovidio, 1985). Power is positively related to, but not synonymous with, status and dominance. According to Berger, Wagner, and Zelditch (1985), recognition of status produces invidious social evaluations (in terms of differences in honor, respect, esteem, etc.) and both specific expectations (capacities to perform specified tasks, such as math problems, mechanical tasks, etc.) and general expectations (capacities which are not defined with respect to tasks, such as "intelligence"). (pp. 12-13) Thus, status typically implies power. Dominance, like power, relates to the ability to influence or control others, but it also involves "groupness" (Ellyson & Dovidio, 1985). Specifically, dominance concerns power relationships within a relatively enduring social organization. Thus, although ethological studies of interaction within primate living units may involve domi

Two studies, with undergraduate subjects, investigated how sex and situation-specific power factors relate to visual behavior in mixed-sex interactions. The power variable in Study 1 was expert power, based on differential knowledge. Mixed-sex dyads were formed such that members had complementary areas of expertise. In Study 2, reward power was manipulated. Consistent with expectation states theory, both men and women high in expertise or reward power displayed high visual dominance, defined as the ratio of looking while speaking to looking while listening. Specifically, men and women high in expertise or reward power exhibited equivalent levels of looking while speaking and looking while listening. High visual dominance ratios have been associated with high social power in previous research. Both men and women low in expertise or reward power looked more while listening than while speaking, producing a relatively low visual dominance ratio. In conditions in which men and women did not possess differential expertise or reward power, visual behavior was related to sex. Men displayed visual behavior similar to their patterns in the high expertise and high reward power conditions, whereas women exhibited visual behavior similar to their patterns in the low expertise and low reward power conditions. The results demonstrate how social expectations are reflected in nonverbal power displays.

Relationships between dominance and nonverbal deception skill were investigated in preschool children (Study 1) and in under-graduate men and women (Study 2). Subjects were assessed for dominance during peer group interactions. Later, they encoded and decoded deceptive messages. Raters assessed the credibility of each subject's encoded message using nonverbal cues alone. Ability to encode credible, deceptive messages predicted dominance in preschool children and men but not women. Decoding deception accurately from nonverbal cues was unrelated to dominance. Videotapes of subjects' performances were examined for nonverbal behaviors predictive of deception success. Very young children successfully masked their deception by smiling. Successful adult deceivers made eye contact with the listener and inhibited smiling while delivering deceptive messages. Overall, results were generally consistent with a social skills approach to dominance in which manipulative ability is believed to be integral to achieving and maintaining social power.

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