SPID 2.4 - Gender and Communication

What are the 3 types of non-verbal communication?

• judgement accuracy

• Expression accuracy

• Channel differences

How did Hall study judgement accuracy?

• review of 75 studies of posed and spontaneous expressions

• Posed = ppts asked to adopt expression

• Spontaneous = ppts watch vide which evokes a certain emotion and then decode by identifying nature of film

• Found 24 significant differences with 23 in favour of women

• Further studies found 11 significant differences withholding in favour of women

How did Hall study expression accuracy?

• review of 26 studies found 9 significant gender differences with 8 in favour of women

• Further studies found 9 significant gender differences with 7 in favour of women Further studies

• Women typically encode more clearly so they’re NVB is easier to read

• However accuracy doesnt represent a social advantage it’s more about situational context

How did lafrance and Hecht study the channel difference of smiling?

• meta-analysis of gender and smiling

• Highly sig difference that women smile more

• More pronounced for 18-23 age group

• Some cultural variation in gender differences

How did hall study the channel difference of gaze?

• review 119 studies of gaze and gender

• Every study with a sig gender differences withholding showed female gaze at others more

• Results consistent with female advantage on tests of judgment accuracy

What explanations are there for gender differences?

• social power

• Socialisation being understanding what others seek to communicate and making your own messages easy to understand

• Women are socialised to be more accommodating other people

How did Lakoff study gender, language and power?

• called women’s language, a language of powerlessness

• The deficit model where the male way of speaking is normative and female deviates from the norm

What did Lackoff identify about female speech?

• forms of politeness

• Tactful, hesitant and lower in authority

• Hedges

• Tag questions

• Higher in grammatical accuracy

• Intensifiers

• Direct quotes

• Low in humour

What did Lackoff identify about male speech?

• more direct and explicit

• More interruptions

• Foul language

• Simplified

• Higher in humour

How did Holmes’s study “y’know” hedges?

• corpus of 50k words with 20k rom formal interactions and 30k informal

• Found more than 200 instances of y’know

• Means either certainty and conviction or doubt and uncertainty

• Women used for certainty and men for uncertainty

• Opposite of lakoff

How did Holmes’s study “i think” hedges?

• meaning as deliberate (booster) or tentative (hedge)

• Women used as booster and men as hedger

• Opposite of lakoff

How did Holmes’s study tag questions?

4 principles being:

• Convey uncertainty (lakoff)

• Facilitate conversation

• Confrontational

• Soften force of a criticism

• Uncertainty by men and facilitating by women

• Opposite of lackoff

Womens language summary

• hedges and tags used to convey uncertainty more by men which is opposite of lakoff

• Hedges and tags have other functions aside from conveying uncertainty

• Basic problem of lakoff being the function of an utterance cant be understood from an analysis of its linguistic form alone

• However in defence of lakoff, there is a link between language use, gender and power and it stimulated much research on gender and language

How are interruptions studied?

• men typically interrupt in opposite sex conversations

• However murray and Corelli found that women interrupt men twice as often

• Anderson and leaper found men interrupted more and they were intrusive but findings were heavily qualified by situational and contextual factors

How did maltz and borker study communication between “cultures”?

• men and women differ in rules for interpreting language

• Different rules learnt in same-sex groups: interpretation of listener responses, meaning of questions and verbal aggression

• Two culture view popularised by tannen which is responsible for much miscommunication

What is an evaluation of two-cultures approach by Mulac?

• Ppts rated transcribed conversations where men rated listener responses and questions as significantly more controlling

• Women rated listener responses as significantly more other-focused

• Men rated questions as significantly more sensitive

• Men and women interpret language in different ways

What is the polarisation evaluation of two-cultures approach by aries?

• eg men are from mars, women are from Venus by gray

• However anyone is capable of displaying both masculine and feminine styles of interactions

• Overlap and differences aren’t mutually exclusive

• Style depends on other factors eg status and role

What is the myth of mars and venus evaluation of two-cultures approach by cameron?

• underestimates differences within genders

• Differences may reflect different social roles rather than differences between men and women

How did cameron study tag questions?

• assessing people in various jobs and activies

• Use of tag questions predicted better by social roles than gender

• Facilitative tags by professionals to encourage interactions

• Info checking tags used by audience member, pupils and callers

When were women given the right to vote?

• 1918 only householders aged 30+ which was 6 million

• 1920 for USA 21+

• 1928 for UK 21+

What is the female political representation like?

• 1919 first woman MP in House of Commons

• 1979 first female prime minister

• 2024 40.5% of MPs are female and 30 women elected hear of state/government

• At current rate, gender parity in highest positions not until 2154

How did brooks study gender stereotypes in political candidates with he runs, she runs?

• online survey corresponded to demographics of USA in gender, ethnicity, college education and age

• Ppts read newspaper article about fictional political candidate either Karen bailey or Kevin bailey

• Respond to questions about candidate

• Dependent variables = overall favourability, likely effectiveness in senate and likely effectiveness as president in 10 years

What were the results of brooks study of gender stereotypes in political candidates with he runs, she runs?

• fewer dig gender effects

• None in experience in office

• Worse ratings for emotional displays but no gender effects

• Results support women candidates seeking political office

How did courtemanche and Connor green study potential consequences of gender stereotypes?

• General voter preference for women

• Political scandals show greater consequence for female politicians

• Backlash for gender norm violations

How did cameron and shaw study gender diffference in the UK general election 2015?

• 7 main party leaders with 4 males and 3 females

• Opposition leaders with 3 females and 2 males

• Men spoke more than women but may reflect differences in party status

• Interruption from all speakers

• Most aggravated examples from females

• No notable difference in linguistic behaviour related to gender

How was Fuentes-Rodriguez and Alvarez benito study Andalusia politics?

• men and women use similar strategies of persuasion and arguement

• Differences may reflect differences in party roles

• Gender not significant in explaining language differences

Conclusions

• early research find sig gender differences in speech and non verbal communication being power and style

• Two interpretations aren’t mutually exclusive eg stressing cultural differences doesnt deny that dominance exists

• Third approach by Cameron that gender differences are exaggerated and may reflect social roles

• Research support from politicians talk like politicians regardless of gender

• Andalusia rejects lakoff’s women’s language