COMPARISON OF NONVERBAL COMPENSATORY BEHAVIORS WITHIN DIRECT FACE-TO-FACE AND TELEVISION-MEDIATED INTERVIEWS

A study was performed to compare direct face‐to‐face and television‐mediated interviews with regard to a hypothesized compensatory relationship between intimacy level of conversation topic and individuals' looking and smiling behaviors. Thirty‐two male subjects were randomly assigned to one of two communication settings and asked a series of questions that varied according to topic intimacy. Subjects' looking, smiling, talking, and listening times were scored from videotapes made of the interviews. In support of predictions derived from Argyle and Dean's (1965) affiliative‐conflict theory, it was observed that a shift in topic intimacy from low to high resulted in a decrease in the percent of time subjects spent looking at the interviewer. Further, the results of the present study replicated those reported by other investigators, indicating that a shift in topic intimacy (1) primarily affects subjects' looking while talking and not looking while listening and (2) does not affect subjects' smiling behavior. With the exception that more looking while listening occurred in the television‐mediated interviews than in the direct face‐to‐face interviews, no differences were found in subjects' behaviors between the two communication conditions. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed from the perspective of affiliative‐conflict theory and its application to social interactions conducted via two‐way television. Copyright © 1979, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved