Sex differences in nonverbal communication: Advantage lost or supremacy regained?

Abstract

This paper examines sex differences in nonverbal communication and possible explanations for these differences. Explanations are discussed for both encoding and decoding, including the probable reasons for women being generally more accurate decoders than men and “losing their advantage” over men in situations where the encoder is known or where deception or channel discrepancy is involved. Explanations for sex differences in nonverbal communication generally focus on what it is about women which causes them to decode less accurately in these particular situations rather than why men generally decode poorly, except in these specific situations. This bias occurs despite the fact that both men and women have difficulty decoding discrepant and deceptive communications. It will be argued in this paper that the most parsimonious explanation of sex differences in nonverbal accuracy involves women's greater knowledge of and endorsement for social rules about (a) emotional supportiveness and politeness, (b) display and decoding rules concerning how emotional messages should be sent and attended to, and (c) the specific codes and usages of nonverbal communication.