All the communication studies

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Verbal Comms:

Argyle, Alkema and Gilmour: Does tone of voice have an impact? Participants (P's) listened to friendly and hostile messages spoken in friendly or hostile tones. When they were asked to interpret this the tone of voice was x5 more effective than the message so tone is extremely important

Davitz and Davitz: Do paralinguistics affect the assessment of emotion? P's were asked to listen to tapes and assess the emotion of speakers. They showed a high level of accuracy in recognizing affection, disgust, fear and amusement so paralinguistics are important.

Eye contact:

Argyle: Does interrupting eye contact affect a conversation? Pairs of P's were observed having conversations where half wore dark glasses. When the glasses were worn there were more interruptions and pauses which showed that eye contact was important for flow.

Kendon: Do eye movements affect flow? Pairs of P's were asked to get acquainted and they were watched via a mirror. As one was about to speak one looked away and at the end gave a prolonged look. Without the look whose turn it was became confused and there was a pause.

Hess: Does pupil dilation affect emotion? P's were shown nearly identical pictures of the same person but in one the pupils were dilated. P's preferred the picture where this was the case because pupil dilation has an unconscious and powerful effect.

Facial expression:

Sackeim: Is there a relationship between the hemispheres of the brain and facial expressions? Pictures of people showing diff emotions were cut down the middle and new pictures were created with one half and its mirror image. The majority of P's preferred the one showing the left side of the face and its mirror. They said it looked 'warmer'. The conclusion was that the left side shows more emotion than the right.

Body Language:

McGinley: What effect does postural echo (PE) have in a conversation? A confederate (C) approached individuals in a social setting and had conversations. The experimenter asked the people afterwards what they thought of the C. With PE the C was liked and people felt at ease because they had gained an unconscious message of friendliness.

McGinley, Lefevre and McGinley: What effect does open and closed posture have on a conversation? A C approached individuals as in the first experiment but this time they used open and closed posture. During closed people were seen to be unfriendly and less attractive.

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Gestures

Lynn and Mynier: What effect do gestures have on the tips a waiter(ess) gets? The waiters were instructed to stand over the customer or crouch beside them making eye contact when taking the order. In the latter position the tips went up.

Touch

Fisher, Rytting and Heslin: Does touch affect attitudes? Female students in a library were touched on the hand by a C when the book was handed to them. Half were not touched. Later the students who had been touched reported feeling positive to the librarian even though they did not recall the touch.

Personal Space

Argyle and Dean: Do sex differences affect personal space? A C had conversations with P's, sometimes the same gender and sometimes not. The C sat diff distances from the P and maintained eye contact. Eye contact was broken by the P at greater distances apart when the gender was opposite suggesting personal space was being invaded and we need more of this with the opp gender.

Willis: Does age affect personal space? 800 individuals were observed in different social settings. People tended to stand closer to those of their own age.

Williams: Does personality affect personal space? College students were given personality tests to see if they were extrovert or introvert. They were sent to get their grades from the office. The researchers watched where they sat while they waited. Introverts sat further away from the tutor.

Summer: Does culture affect personal space? White English and Arabs were observed talking. White English had a comfort zone of 1.5 metres but for Arabs it was much less.

Zahn: Does status affect personal space? People of diff status were observed approaching each other. Those of lower status approaching higher status did not get as close.