GENDER DIFFERENCES IN NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Transcription

1 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

2 First, let s discuss the difference between sex and gender Sex is biological and gender is learned Women and Men may have learned the behaviors that are typically found in the other sex These behaviors are not necessarily an indicator of the other person s sexual orientation

3 Purpose of this lecture Identify common behaviors so each person can choose to adapt if his/her primary nonverbal preference isn t working. Help people identify their biases when interacting with people. Many people are punished for communicating counter to gender norm. Provide people the opportunity to quickly build rapport or make it through a tough conversation.

4 BODY ORIENATION Let s start by looking at picture of women talking:

5 Now let s look at a couple of images of men talking

6 Notice a difference? Women generally engage in face-to-face orientation and men engage in side-to-side orientation.

7 How is the difference experienced in cross-sex conversations? Women generally are facing men and men generally are turned out:

8 Even in positive conversations this often occurs

9 Ways Someone may wish to adapt Men may wish to face a woman in more of a face-to-face orientation:

10 Women may wish to maintain the side- to-side orientation with men

11 EYE CONTACT Women establish eye contact more frequently and for longer periods of time than men. This difference can be especially noticeable when cultural differences are present in addition to gender. Men can be listening and fully engaged in the discussion with less eye contact.

12 What should we do with this knowledge? Remember that competent communicators have a wide variety of skills and choose the most appropriate behavior given the situation. Adapt to other party s eye contact and observe results. Women may wish to reduce their eye contact with men Men may choose to increase their eye contact if a woman appears to be repeating herself or complains of not feeling heard

13 APPROACHING OTHERS Men will often approach and speak to someone from behind or the side

14 Women will most often approach from the front I d have an image, but I haven t been able to find a good one. This is a great example of gender differences the images abundant for men approaching women. However, women s approach from the front may create as much discomfort cross gender as men s side or from behind approach.

15 DISTANCE Women engaged in same sex conversations have less distance between them than men engaged in same-sex conversation. Women s relatively close proximity to men may be misconstrued. Men s respectful distance may also be misconstrued.

16 POSTURE Men take up more space and engaged in a more relaxed posture Women use less space and are often much more constricted in their posture

17 Cross-gender conversations can be negatively impacted by gender differences in posture. Issues of power can be presented.

18 Gestures Research is unclear on who gesturing more, but the gestures are different.

19 Notice a difference? Here are few images of women gesturing

20 Women s gestures take up less space then men. If a woman gestures in a large fashion, then possible sanctions for going against gender norm could occur. It may, however, be worth the risk. Men who use small gestures may also be perceived as less powerful

21 TOUCH Who initiates cross-gender touching?

22 Yes, you are correct One study reported that men are twice as likely to initiate touch to women than women to men in business and social interaction. When women initiate touch it can often be viewed as some form of sexual invitation: think Blurred Lines lyrics The way you grab me Must wanna get nasty

23 PARALANGUAGE Paralanguage, our nonverbal vocal cues, can demonstrate some noticeable gender differences: Speed Who talks faster?

24 Speed The answer that men talk faster than women may surprise you. This gender difference can often be witnessed in group interaction. Slow rate may also negatively impact credibility

25 Volume Who generally talks louder?

26 Volume Again, the answer that men talk louder may surprise you. However, watch for this the next time you see groups of men and women being loud to see how people react differently.

27 Pitch Who has higher pitch?

28 Pitch OK, you have that right. Women have higher pitch, but women also have a tendency to raise pitch at the ends of sentences. This works perfectly in same sex conversations, but it may invite an unwanted interruption in mixed sex conversations Raised pitch may also be a credibility issue

29 Summary Numerous gender differences exist and can sometimes lead to frustration or confusion Men and women can easily demonstrate the nonverbal behaviors that are more commonly found in the other gender. Adapting your behavior to other party is the key to sharing meaning and building rapport.