Citation

DePaulo BM, Rosenthal R, Finkelstein S, Eisenstat RA. Environ. Psychol. Nonverbal. Behav. 1979; 3(3): 164-171.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF01142590

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Researchers who have attempted to map the basic structure of broad psychological domains (such as interpersonal behavior) have invariably pointed to the importance of the evaluative dimension. It was predicted that sensitivity to such a salient dimension would develop prior to sensitivity to other important but apparently weaker dimensions, such as dominance-submissiveness. The predicted developmental trend was supported in a study of nonverbal decoding. When judging pairs of emotional cues communicated by the face or body and by the tone of voice, younger subjects, compared to older ones, were more likely to notice discrepancies in the degree of expressed positivity than in the degree of expressed dominance.