Perceptions of Interpersonal Behavior are Influenced by Gender, Facial Expression Intensity, and Head Pose

Across multiple channels, nonverbal behavior communicates information about affective states and interpersonal intentions. Researchers interested in understanding how these nonverbal messages are transmitted and interpreted have examined the relationship between behavior and ratings of interpersonal motives using dimensions such as agency and communion. However, previous work has focused on images of posed behavior and it is unclear how well these results will generalize to more dynamic representations of real-world behavior. The current study proposes to extend the current literature by examining how gender, facial expression intensity, and head pose influence interpersonal ratings in videos of spontaneous nonverbal behavior.