An interdisciplinary investigation into the behaviors that build (and express) interpersonal trust

ObjectiveAlthough patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) present positive responses to family therapy, the key features of therapeutic changes still require identification. This study explores the role of conflictual communication and affiliative nonverbal behaviour in therapeutic change in brief strategic family therapy (BSFT) for AN patients.MethodsTen female AN patients and their parents were included in the sample and took part in a 6-month follow-up of BSFT. The durations of conflictual communication and of affiliative nonverbal behaviour estimated by eye contact were compared between the first and the last sessions of family-based treatment using nonparametric statistical tests.ResultsAn increase of the Body Mass Index associated with an increase in the conflictual communication expressed during BSFT sessions were observed. Moreover, affiliative nonverbal behaviour expressed by the father and the patient decrease, after a BSFT follow-up, in conflictual situations only. By contrast, no significant difference was observed in affiliative nonverbal behaviour expressed by the mother.ConclusionThe present study demonstrates that the impact of the BSFT differs between members of a family: the AN patient and the father have established a new form of emotional functioning with a decrease in emotional involvement. The study of the combination between verbal and nonverbal communication can represent an important step in the understanding of the mechanisms of therapeutic change.

Atypical antipsychotic treatment (e.g. risperidone) has been found to improve social functioning more than standard antipsychotic treatment. However, it is unclear which specific social behaviors are implicated in this improvement. The current study employed an interactive puzzle game to examine how social behaviors contribute to the improvement of social functioning by comparing patients receiving risperidone with those receiving trifluoperazine. Scores on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, executive functioning, and social functioning were obtained from 24 patients with schizophrenia receiving either risperidone (n = 12) or trifluoperazine (n = 12), before their social behavior was measured in the interactive Tangrams Game. Immediately after the Tangrams Game, participants filled in two questionnaires measuring their interpersonal trust and rejection toward their game partner. Patients receiving risperidone showed more social engagement, cooperative behavior and interpersonal trust toward their game partners than those receiving trifluoperazine. Additional multivariate analysis of variance revealed that lower affiliative behavior was a function of positive symptoms; interpersonal trust had an impact on social engagement but executive functioning did not explain lower interpersonal trust or social disengagement. Improvement of social competence by risperidone might be related to the enhancement of both social behaviors and interpersonal trust as well as better symptom resolution.

The research presented at this conference, including a series of excellent posters from junior investigators, documents the pervasive importance of affiliation and other social behaviors. Affiliative behaviors interact with, but are distinct from reproductive and aggressive behaviors. Patterns of social behaviors tend to be more species-typical than the behaviors associated with reproduction or aggression. However, neural circuits necessary for approach or avoidance also are necessary for the expression of various types of affiliative behavior such as maternal behavior or pair-bond formation. Furthermore, candidate neurochemical systems have been identified that contribute to various types of affiliative behavior. For example, studies revealing new behavioral functions for steroid hormones of the adrenal axis, such as corticosterone, and neuropeptides, including the endorphins, oxytocin and vasopressin, extend our general knowledge of neurobiology; they may also lead to studies that expand our understanding of social behavior and the connections to systems that regulate emotions. The work represented in this volume also has important implications for the study of serious neuropsychiatric disorders. For example, episodes of certain of these disorders can be induced by social stressors; in other disorders, a marked decrease in affiliative behaviors is a prominent feature of the patients' difficulties. Furthermore, abnormalities in animal systems implicated in the neurobiology of affiliation (oxytocin, vasopressin, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system) have also been documented for major depression in humans. Animal models, such as those described at this conference, offer evolutionary perspectives, from which it is possible to extract general principles. At the same time, our understanding of the mechanistic and neurobiological substrates of both constructive and destructive social behaviors is increasing. At the conference, the evolutionary and mechanistic perspectives converged on the theme that studies of affiliative behaviors cannot be fully interpreted in isolation from other social behaviors; neither can they effectively be isolated from the biological and social contexts that shape their expression. Advances in this research area seem dependent on integrating experimental research across levels of analysis. Although this task is challenging, we are confident that an awareness of integrative principles can lead to new and important research opportunities.

Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), wherein people can virtually interact with each other via avatars, are becoming increasingly prominent. However, CVEs differ in type of avatar representation and level of behavioral realism afforded to users. The present investigation compared the effect of behavioral realism on users' nonverbal behavior, self-presence, social presence, and interpersonal attraction during a dyadic interaction. Fifty-one dyads (aged 18 to 26) embodied either a full-bodied avatar with mapped hands and inferred arm movements, an avatar consisting of only a floating head and mapped hands, or a static full-bodied avatar. Planned contrasts compared the effect of behavioral realism against no behavioral realism, and compared the effect of low versus high behavioral realism. Results show that participants who embodied the avatar with only a floating head and hands experienced greater social presence, self-presence, and interpersonal attraction than participants who embodied a full-bodied avatar with mapped hands. In contrast, there were no significant differences on these measures between participants in the two mapped-hands conditions and those who embodied a static avatar. Participants in the static-avatar condition rotated their own physical head and hands significantly less than participants in the other two conditions during the dyadic interaction. Additionally, side-to-side head movements were negatively correlated with interpersonal attraction regardless of condition. We discuss implications of the finding that behavioral realism influences nonverbal behavior and communication outcomes.

Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, regardless of her body position, a woman who smiled the majority of the time (70%) was seen as more interpersonally attractive than a woman who seldom smiled (20%). When the woman seldom smiled, she was rated as more interpersonally attractive when she displayed open body positions than when she displayed closed body positions. In Experiment 2, the closed body position/smiling and nonsmiling effect was replicated. Subjects’ eye gazes were monitored while they viewed the slides of the woman. Regardless of the smiling condition, subjects looked at the woman’s face about 55% of their total looking time.

This experiment raised the question: will communication apprehension (CA) mediate the effect of nonverbal involvement cues (NVI) on state anxiety, interpersonal attraction and speech duration in information gathering interviews? Subjects, high and low in CA, responded to the questions of three trained interviewers from whom they received either high or low levels of NVI behaviors (i.e. head nods, eye contact, body orientation, etc.). CA did not function as a mediating variable. Rather, main effects were obtained for CA on state anxiety and speech duration and for NVI on interpersonal attraction and speech duration.

This paper reviews literature concerning an applicant's self-presentation (ingratiation, self-promotion, exemplification) and nonverbal behaviors, e. g., eye contact, smiling behavior, and head nodding, and discusses the significance of these behaviors in job interviews. The extent to which a person engages in these nonverbal behaviors is influenced by gender, status, and personality. In the context of a job interview, these behaviors affect person perception, interpersonal attraction, and perceived job aptitude. These attributes of nonverbal behavior were associated with specific functions: there are an intimacyexpressing function of eye contact and smiling behavior, a reaction-feedback function of eye contact, an impression management function of smiling behavior, and a reinforcing function of head nodding. I propose that these nonverbal behaviors affected the interview as follows: these could be used for ingratiation, which provided a positive feeling to interviewers, self-promotion, which emphasized the competence of the applicants, or exemplification, which indicated the integrity of the applicants. Consequently, these results suggested that eye contact, smiling behavior, and head nodding by an applicant could affect the hiring decision.

One, two, three, sit next to me: Personality and physical distance

Context-dependent third-party intervention in agonistic encounters of male Przewalski horses

Context-dependent effects of testosterone treatment to males on pair maintenance behaviour in zebra finches

The study investigated the effects of ethnicity and nonverbal style on interpersonal attraction in university students. Sixty‐four Palagi (white New Zealand) women participated in the research and were randomly assigned to interview either a Palagi or Samoan student in a study on friendship. Female confederates, who posed as interviewees, responded with a pre‐rehearsed script and exhibited either a Palagi or Samoan nonverbal style. After conclusion of the interview, subjects completed a questionnaire about the project, including their perceptions of the interviewee confederate. A2 × 2 analysis of variance revealed a main effect of nonverbal style on ratings of interpersonal attractiveness: subjects preferred confederates who displayed culturally congruent (Palagi) nonverbal behaviors. There were no significant effects, however, for ethnicity or for the ethnicity by style interaction.

This article presents a theoretical framework specifying the conditions under which physical proximity and interaction will lead to positive or negative relationships between (a) ethnically diverse individuals, (b) handicapped and nonhandicapped individuals, and (c) ethnically similar and nonhandicapped individuals. A review of literature supporting the theoretical framework is presented, including a meta-analysis of 98 studies conducted between 1944 and 1982 that yielded 251 findings. Three meta-analysis procedures were used: voting-method, effect-size method, and z-score method. The results of the meta-analysis indicate that (a) cooperation without intergroup competition promotes greater interpersonal attraction among both heterogeneous and homogeneous individuals than do interpersonal competition, individualistic efforts, and cooperation with intergroup competition; (b) cooperation with intergroup competition promotes greater interpersonal attraction among participants than does interpersonal competition or individualistic efforts; and (c) there tends to be no significant difference between interpersonal competition and individualistic efforts in promoting interpersonal attraction among participants. Through ANOVAs, correlational analyses, and a multiple regression analysis a number of potentially mediating or moderating variables for these results are identified.

This article presents a theoretical framework specifying the conditions under which physical proximity and interaction will lead to positive or negative relationships between (a) ethnically diverse individuals, (b) handicapped and nonhandicapped individuals, and (c) ethnically similar and nonhandicapped individuals. A review of literature supporting the theoretical framework is presented, including a meta-analysis of 98 studies conducted between 1944 and 1982 that yielded 251 findings. Three meta-analysis procedures were used: voting-method, effect-size method, and z-score method. The results of the meta-analysis indicate that (a) cooperation without intergroup competition promotes greater interpersonal attraction among both heterogeneous and homogeneous individuals than do interpersonal competition, individualistic efforts, and cooperation with intergroup competition; (b) cooperation with intergroup competition promotes greater interpersonal attraction among participants than does interpersonal competition or individualistic efforts; and (c) there tends to be no significant difference between interpersonal competition and individualistic efforts in promoting interpersonal attraction among participants. Through ANOVAs, correlational analyses, and a multiple regression analysis a number of potentially mediating or moderating variables for these results are identified.

: The effects of amount of eye contact and verbal content on interpersonal attraction were studied in two experiments using televised dyadic interactions, the first a 3 x 3 factorial with three levels of eye contact and 3 degrees of positiveness of personal evaluation by a confederate. In the record, a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial, the effects of personal versus impersonal positive evaluation, high or low eye contact and sex of dyad on attraction were investigated. (Author)

We present a meta-analysis that investigated the relation between self-reported interpersonal attraction and enacted behavior. Our synthesis focused on (a) identifying the behaviors related to attraction; (b) evaluating the efficacy of models of the relation between attraction and behavior; (c) testing the impact of several moderators, including evaluative threat salience, cognitive appraisal salience, and the sex composition of the social interaction; and (d) investigating the degree of agreement between the meta-analytic findings and an ethnographic analysis. Using a multilevel modeling approach, an analysis of 309 effect sizes (N = 5,422) revealed a significant association (z = .20) between self-reported attraction and enacted behavior. Key findings include: (a) that the specific behaviors associated with attraction (e.g., eye contact, smiling, laughter, mimicry) are those behaviors research has linked to the development of trust/rapport; (b) direct behaviors (e.g., physical proximity, talking to), compared with indirect behaviors (e.g., eye contact, smiling, mimicry), were more strongly related to self-reported attraction; and (c) evaluative threat salience (e.g., fear of rejection) reduced the magnitude of the relation between direct behavior and affective attraction. Moreover, an ethnographic analysis revealed consistency between the behaviors identified by the meta-analysis and those behaviors identified by ethnographers as predictive of attraction. We discuss the implications of our findings for models of the relation between attraction and behavior, for the behavioral expressions of emotions, and for how attraction is measured and conceptualized. (PsycINFO Database Record