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Abstract

Opportunities for intercultural communication are increasing on U.S. university campuses. Little is known about the impact of students' appearance in initial stages of intercultural classroom encounters. University students (n = 250) from the U.S. recorded perceptions of a projected partner for a classroom project. Potential partners were female and male students from India, dressed in Indian or western attire. Attributional confidence, the ability to predict how another person will behave and think during an interaction, was examined with a variety of intercultural communication variables included as covariates in the ANOVAs. U.S. students' attributional confidence toward the Indian partners varied little based on the partners' appearance. In two exceptions students evaluated partners differently when the students' experiences with a foreign teaching assistant and their interest in study and work abroad were covariates. Future research is recommended in which evaluations for specific social interactions are compared to more general evaluations of interpersonal attraction.

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Intercultural Communication: Appearance as a Factor in Attributional Confidence

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