Gender and nonverbal decoding skill as determinants of interpersonal expectancy effects.

Investigated the occurrence of the self-fulfilling prophecy in same- and mixed-sex dyads. 10 male and female undergraduates served as interviewers and interacted with 90 male and female interviewees. It was hypothesized that male interviewers (a) would be more influenced by erroneous preinteraction information about interviewees than females, (b) would show more biased behavior toward their interviewees, and (c) would be more influential at producing behavior in the interviewees that confirmed their expectations. It was also anticipated that female interviewees would be more responsive to the interpersonal expectations of their interviewers and show stronger behavioral confirmation. Results show that males were more biased by their expectations and produced stronger behavioral confirmation in their interviewees than females, and that female interviewees more readily showed behavioral confirmation than males. Males who were good audio decoders accurately diagnosed more bias in the behavior of their interviewers than males who were poor decoders (Profile on Nonverbal Sensitivity). (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)