Gender and gender role differences in smiling and communication consistency

This paper investigates gender and gender role differences in smiling and in communication consistency across verbal and facial channels. College students' conversations about their emotional experiences were analyzed for smiling frequency and duration, and verbal transcripts were rated for degree of positivity. Students also filled out a gender role questionnaire. Women smiled more than men, especially where discussing happy/positive topics compared to sad/negative topics. Masculinity interacted with gender to influence smiling behavior, but gender roles could not account for the gender differences in smiling. Gender differences in communication consistency also appeared; women were more consistent across channels than men were. Gender roles could not account for the gender differences in channel usage. A situational role interpretation is generated for future research.

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