Theorists have suggested that underlying particular instances of categorization of persons in terms of social class or social group membership there is a general scheme, which is perhaps universal (Brown, 1965), comprising ‘status’ on the one hand and the orthogonal dimension of ‘solidarity’ on the other (Giles and Ryan, 1982; Pittam and Gallois, 1986). Thus, one person may perceive another as being high or low in status or as being a close friend or a distant acquaintance, and usually with increasing status and closeness there will be a concommitant increase in positivity of evaluations (Giles and Powesland, 1975). Persons’ impressions of others along the dimensions of status and solidarity serve to reduce their uncertainty, especially in initial-interaction situations, while suggesting appropriate modes of verbal and non-verbal behaviour (Berger and Bradac, 1982; Berger and Calabrese, 1975). Some contexts are ‘status-stressing,’ some are ‘solidarity-stressing’ and some stress both dimensions (Ryan, 1979).