Pattern of Visual Dominance Behavior in Humans

Visual behavior plays a particularly important role in regulating social interaction and establishing and maintaining dominance relationships in primates and other species. In nonhuman animal societies, subordinate individuals generally direct a large amount of visual attention toward dominant members of the group, except while the dominant members gaze at them. Dominant members visually monitor other members of the group more freely, but they give much less attention to any one subordinate animal (e.g., Bernstein, 1970; Chance, 1967; Ekman, 1973; Hinde, 1974). In addition, the stare is a central part of the dominance displays of a variety of primate species (Camras, 1980). Chimpanzees (van Hooff, 1967; van Lawick-Goodall, 1968), monkeys (Hall, 1967; Kaufmann, 1967; Struhsaker, 1967), rhesus macaques (Hinde & Rowell, 1962; van Hooff, 1967), langurs (Jay, 1965), baboons (Hall & DeVore, 1965), and gorillas (van Hooff, 1967; Schaller, 1963) all use the stare as part of a threat gesture that can elicit submissive responses from other members of the group. The present chapter focuses on how visual behavior relates to interpersonal power in humans. In particular, we examine how relative percentages of looking while speaking and looking while listening to another interactant in conversation can communicate power, dominance, and status.