| Summary: | This study examined synchronous nonverbal behaviors between interactants in a dyadic conversational exchange as a plausible explanation for differences in ratings of interpersonal attraction and communication satisfaction by outside observers. Sex of interactant and sex of observer were also considered as additional explanatory variables for rating differences on the aforementioned scales. === Two video tapes were produced utilizing a male and a female confederate engaging in a short conversation. Synchrony was manipulated by altering the turn-taking cues employed during the conversation. High synchrony was depicted as appropriate turn-taking cues in 25 of 30 speaker-listener exchanges while low synchrony was operationalized through appropriate cues in only 6 of 30 exchanges. === Subjects were led to believe that the video taped conversation was part of an interviewer rating procedure for a university survey center and the two confederate actors were but two of a large number of newly hired interviewers. Subjects were also led to believe they would personally meet and talk with the members of the video taped interaction immediately following the rating session. === Eighty-nine undergraduate males and 213 undergraduate females were randomly assigned to rate one of the two participants (male/female) in either the high or low synchrony condition. Two dependent measures were used to test the hypotheses that persons observing a high synchrony conversation would perceive interactants as more interpersonally attractive and the communication event as more satisfying than those who observed a low synchrony interaction. === Results indicated that subjects who viewed the high synchrony conversation perceived the interactants as more interpersonally attractive than persons who viewed the low synchrony tape. Subjects also gave higher ratings of communication satisfaction when exposed to the high synchrony exchange. === The two main effect hypotheses regarding level of synchrony were statistically supported. However, attempts to uncover associations between sex of interactant and sex of observer in explanatory terms of interpersonal attraction and communication satisfaction differences were nonsignificant. No consistent trends for main effect sex variables or interaction effects were demonstrated. === Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: A, page: 1972. === Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.
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