The effects of nonverbal involvement and communication apprehension on state anxiety, interpersonal attraction, and speech duration

Abstract

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.

Key concepts:

• Nonverbal involvement
• nonverbal communication
• communication apprehension
• state anxiety
• anxiety
• interpersonal attraction
• speech duration