What does your handshake say about you? Chaplin et al (2000) had 2 males and 2 females rate the handshakes and first impressions of 112 participants (57% women). These predictions were compared to actual results on several personality inventories. A firmer handshake was related to openness (imagination, creativity) in women, but a less firm ( Read more... )

Gender roles in heterosexual dating have been extensively studied. For example, Karl Grammer (1990) suggests that males use body language to signal dominance, whereas women's body language indicates both submission and "bodily self-presentation." Grammer (2000) points out ten years later that women seem to be in control of opposite-sex ( Read more... )

Blogger Edward Willett wrote yesterday about gender differences in laughing behaviors. Although we've discussed the concept of a "sense of humor" before (see 12/4/06 and 12/11/06), Willett points out that the laugh/funny relationship is hardly a 1-to-1 correlation. Willett discusses Robert Provine's findings, probably referring to Provine's book ( Read more... )

Abbey and Melby (1986) found that males perceived more sexual intent than females in both ambiguous and nonambiguous nonverbal situations. Levesque et al (2006) also found that men attributed more sexual interest after brief interaction than women, but that women tended to generalize attraction to positive personality characteristics more than men ( Read more... )

The Oxford English Dictionary describes a smile as "a slight and more or less involuntary movement of the countenance expressive of pleasure, amusement, affection, etc., or of amused contempt, disdain, incredulity, or similar emotion." An expression that can represent affection or contempt seems too confusing to have any utility, but many argue ( Read more... )