Personality, nonverbal behavior, and interaction quality in female dyads

Female dyads were videotaped while they took part in an initial social interaction. Participants subsequently evaluated their encounter along several qualitative dimensions. Independent observers also rated the interactions, and a variety of behaviors were coded from the videotapes. Dyad-level analyses revealed that agreeableness, openness, and extraversion predicted observers' evaluations of interaction quality. Individual-level analyses further indicated that agreeableness and extraversion predicted participants' perceptions of interaction quality. Links between personality and social behavior were revealed as well. Variations in visual attention and body position accounted for the relations found between dyads' levels of agreeableness and independent observers' evaluations of interaction quality. Visual attention further mediated the relation revealed between openness and observers' ratings of quality. This work reveals that self-reports of personality can reliably predict the course of social interaction and identifies some specific behaviors though which this may occur.