Judgments of Assertive Behavior as a Function of Speech Loudness,Latency,Content,Gestures,Inflection,and Sex

Abstract

Ninety-six undergraduate males and females judged 112 videotaped scenes of male-male, male-female, female-male, and female-female dyads involved in a line or restaurant scene in which the responses to confrontations varied systematically in voice loudness, latency to reply, speech content, gestures, and voice inflection. It was found that each of these variables substantially altered judgments along a subassertive-assertive-aggressive continuum. While the sex of the rater was never important, the sex of the stimulus dyad was always important. Females responding were rated higher than males, perhaps demonstrating that raters saw greater social incongruence for females to be reacting assertively than for males. Line scenes were always rated slightly higher than restaurant scenes, perhaps because standing is a more dominant posture than sitting.