Three studies examined the effects of three counselor nonverbal behaviors on client evaluations. In the first study, 104 female subjects, assuming the role of client, rated a 10-minute segment of a counseling session with a standard script providing either high or low levels of eye contact, direct body orientation, and forward lean. With both male and female counselors, subjects rated counselors with high levels of these nonverbal behaviors as more attractive and facilitative. In a second study, with the script altered to provide a very low as well as a moderate level of verbal empathy, similar results were obtained with 40 different raters; however, nonverbal behavior did not, as expected, become even more significant in differentiating the facilitativeness and attractiveness of counselors. In the third study, 18 students met counselors for 10-minute initial discussions of their personal problems; counselors provided high or low levels of the same nonverbal behaviors. In this quasicounseling setting, clients exposed to the distinct nonverbal conditions did not provide significantly different ratings on the measures of attractivenesss and facilitativeness.

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