Gender Differences in Communication

Real and Perceived Gender Differences in Nonverbal Communication

The degree to which people communicate with nonverbal cues can have a great effect on the reception of their message. Such important factors as body language, gestures and facial expressions can have as big an impact on communication delivery as content does. Many researchers have found that, in fact, nonverbal communication carries with it more information to the audience than does strictly verbal communication. The extent to which nonverbal communication is affected by gender as well as the perceived effect that gender has is an important area of research in understanding communication.

The distinction between real and perceived communication differences is a significant component of this study. I will be examining the interpretation of nonverbal communication based upon surveys conducted with people who attend the same (verbal) lecture delivered by either a man, or a woman. As the verbal content will be the same for both lectures, there will be two factors influencing the impressions of the audience. The so-called "real" gender differences will be the result of different nonverbal communication styles. There will also be a "perceived" gender difference, where preconceived audience notions on gender will lead to impressions being put down to nonverbal communication (when, in fact, they may be something else). The point of this proposed study is to demonstrate not only that men and women have very different styles of nonverbal communication, but that preconceived notions and perceptions may influence their audience was well, beyond the verbal content of their words.

The theoretical implications of this study can be quite important to communication in the workplace. For example, if women know beforehand that they are likelier to be judged on nonverbal cues such as gestures and body language, they can be better prepared to counter any preconceptions. Similarly, if the research shows that an audience is more inclined to dismiss the content of a communication based upon the gender of the speaker this is important information to disseminate. Often, merely promoting awareness of a bias can help remedy it.

The idea that perception could play a significant part in interpreting the lectures is supported by Tannen's work (1994) on gender and communication. She says, "we would all like to believe that we judge others and are judged by competence, performance, and hard-and-fast results, not stereotypes." Unfortunately, stereotypes often play a role in how we interpret any given communication.

Recent research (Popp, Donovan et al., 2003) has supported previous findings into the real and perceived differences in nonverbal communication. "Considerable research has shown that people have stereotypical beliefs about the speech and communication style of women and men."

Hall and Friedman (1999) found evidence (beyond subject stereotypes) that men and women differ substantially in their nonverbal communication styles. This can have a big impact on how the communication is interpreted.

The dependent variable that I will be examining in this study is the effect of nonverbal communication. This will be measured by survey to examine the impressions of the audience regarding presenter confidence, knowledge of material, personality of speaker and similar factors. The primary independent variable that I can control is the gender of the speaker. Finally, I must consider the confounding variable of preconceived (likely unconscious) bias.

Based upon the above research, I hypothesize that, although the verbal communication will be the same, nonverbal communication will have an effect on how the lecturer is perceived. Specifically, I think that the woman speaker will be considered more uncertain, less authoritative and less knowledgeable.

Method

The communication means that I will be examining in this study is a college lecture. The subjects will be the students in two, second or third level psychology courses, such that the number of students in each class will be at least one hundred and fifty. Because this experiment will involve deception (see explanation below), the same group of students cannot be used as the subjects for both the male and female speaker. To maintain the internal validity of the experiment, the two classes will be selected based upon similar size and demographic makeup.

The device used to measure our dependent variable will be surveys completed by the students after they hear their respective lecture.

Procedure

To investigate the real and perceived gender differences in nonverbal communications, two college classes (as defined above - separate but equivalent samples) will be chosen and the students will be introduced to a guest speaker. The speaker will be described as a doctoral psychology candidate doing his/her thesis on the lecture topic and seeking experience lecturing in front of a large audience. The lecture content will be the same in both cases, the only difference (our independent variable) will be that one class will have a lecture delivered by a female "doctoral candidate" and the other will have a male lecturer. After the lecture, the students will evaluate the presentation and presenter by filling out a survey. Once the surveys have been collected, the subjects will be debriefed by informing them that the true purpose of the study was to look at effect of gender and nonverbal communication on an audience. Gender effects will be apparent by examining the differences between classes. These gender differences will consist of real differences in nonverbal communication as well as confounding subject perceptions.