Attaining Status at the Expense of Likeability: Pilfering Power Through Conversational Interruption

Abstract

Do status expectations affect how we interpret interruption in conversation?Two experiments examined how interrupters and their targets are perceived in same-and mixed-gender dyads. In Experiment 1, participants listened to a brief audiotaped conversation in which one person interrupted the other five times. In Experiment 2, four confederates (two men and two women) systematically interrupted naïve participants while discussing an article. In general, interrupters gained in status and targets of interruption lost status. In addition, participants who were interrupted rated themselves as less influential than those who were not interrupted. As expected, interrupters, especially female interrupters, were liked less than those who did not interrupt. Theoretical implications are discussed.The relationships between various nonverbal behaviors (NVBs) and dimensions of power (status, dominance) have been of great interest to psychologists, sociologists, and communication researchers alike. Hall et al. (2005), in their recent meta-analysis examining these relationships, found that participants assigned higher power ratings to others who smiled less, gazed more, nodded more, touched others more, touched themselves less, gestured more, talked louder and faster, and interrupted more than those who did not. Although beliefs about the relationship between power and nonverbal behavior (NVB) were stronger than actual differences (Hall et al.), social psychologists emphasize the importance of our perceptions in influencing others' behavior. If some believe that This paper is based upon my doctoral dissertation, which was conducted at Virginia Commonwealth University. I would like to thank Mark Stasson, Amie Ashcraft, Susan Hughes and Jon Farley for critiquing versions of this manuscript.

Coaches and Clients in Action: A Sequential Analysis of Interpersonal Coach and Client Behavior

“…Finally, a coach who interrupts the client to ask a question (without showing any cues of friendliness) would show a dominant-neutral interpersonal behavior (cf. Aries et al 1983;Farley 2008; see Table 1). …”

More than a face: a unified theoretical perspective on nonverbal social cue processing in social anxiety

“…Other nonverbal parameters of speech such as volubility (time spent talking; Mast, 2002; Brescoll, 2012), successful interruptions (Farley, 2008), vocal expressivity (e.g., Dunbar and Abra, 2010), initiation of speech acts, and laughter (Gifford and Hine, 1994) have been linked with high interpersonal power. Likewise, volubility was the best predictor of observer-rated social performance in an interaction task (Stevens et al, 2010).…”

Teamwork in Engineering Undergraduate Classes: What Problems Do Students experience?

“…This confrontational language seems likely to backfire for women who have been found to suffer disproportionately negative consequences for expressing anger (Brescoll & Uhlmann 2008) or engaging in other aggressive behaviors associated with masculine communication styles (Farley, 2008;Bowles, Babcock & Lei, 2007). Students need more effective methods for responding to conflict such as those described in Wolfe and Powell's (2014) study of professional women engineers…”

“…No one's honest…We used to be kind of good friends.…and now I'm just, ugh, I can't deal with him (White female, public high research university, average) Such outbursts often had negative consequences: students reported losing friendships and falling in status after an angry confrontation. Moreover, anger is a dangerous strategy for women, who are perceived more negatively than men when displaying anger and other more aggressive communication strategies (Brescoll & Uhlmann, 2008;Farley, 2008;LaFrance, 1992). One female student discovered this double-standard the hard way when she mimicked one of her teammate's aggressive interruptions: There's actually this guy in our class, he loves to talk and he just won't let anyone get a word in.…”