The impact of communication apprehension and interaction structure on initial interactions

Abstract

This study examined the impact of communication apprehension (CA) and interaction structure on participants’ perceptions and behavior during initial interactions. Overall, high CA males perceived their female interaction partners to be less physically attractive, less trustworthy, and less satisfying to interact with than did low CA males. There were no statistically significant differences for females’ perceptions of the high and low CA males. High CA males talked less, displayed fewer disfluencies, and used less head nodding than did low CA males. Interaction structure accounted for differences in a variety of the variables explored here. However, with the exception of self‐disclosure, structure effects were not related to communication apprehension.

Notes

Joe Ayres is Professor of Communications at Washington State University. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Speech Communication Association, Boston, MA, 1987.