Men View Power Body Language Different Than Women – Bodily Feedback Of Making A Fist
Christopher Philip
In a study by Thomas Schubert, University of Jena it was found that when men make a fist it activates the hope for power and positive judgments of assertiveness, but had the reverse effect on women – that is, women, when making a fist, decreased hope for power and reported negative judgments.
As men and women differ in the meaning they attribute to physical and bodily force, the results don’t come as a surprise. Schubert says in his paper that “Men associate bodily force with gaining power, whereas women associate bodily force with expressing
loss of power.”
Taken one step further, it is generally assumed that if a man hits another he does so in hopes that he will comply, whereas when a woman hits another it is generally understood that she feels powerless and wishes to express emotional distress.
Working on the hypothesis that women view bodily force as more expressive while men view it as instrumental, the researchers conducted the following studies.
Experiment #1 – Power is at Stake
In the first experiment, participants were asked to hold a specific hand gesture. Rather than ask the subjects to make a fist, they were instructed to hold “rock” as in the popular game of “rock-paper-scissors.” This avoided them assuming that they were embodying bodily force. They were told to hold the hand gesture for the duration of the experiment.
Next, the subjects were presented with words including a few power words (rule, win, achieve, influence, mighty, authority, powerful, strong, influential) and nine words related to aggression (attack, hate, violence, murder, brutal, hit, aggressive, argument, fight). Participants were then told to press a left or right key. One was for the words appearing in blue and the other for words appearing green. The reaction time to produce correct answers was measured under the various hand positions (“rock” = making a fist; neutral = other hand positions).
The results show that making a forceful gesture, that is, making a fist significantly slowed down color naming for power-related words. Thus, power-related words were “more accessible” for those making a fist over those not making a fist. The results were the same regardless of the gender of the participants. No effect was found with respect to mood and arousal.
Experiment #2 – No Hope for Power
In this experiment subjects were manipulated to hold a fist while observing 14 images of people in various situations coupled with a brief description. The subjects then pressed an associated key to either agree of disagree that the sentence applied to the picture. The sentences were written in such a way as to prime either, power, achievement, or affiliation motive. For example, an item indicating hope of power is “Here one wants to
have influence” and an item indicating hope of achievement is “Here one has trust in one’s success.”
The results showed that women expressed less hope for control while making a fist compared to the neutral gesture. Men, on the other hand, expressed more hope for control when making a fist than the neutral gesture, but the difference was only marginal.
Overall women who made a fist perceived less hope for control than women who did not make a fist. In contrast, men who made a fist were found to have marginally more hope for control than those men who made a neutral gesture.
Experiment #3
As participants either made a fist or a neutral gesture, they read and then rated a story about a fictional character “Frank” on positive and negative adjectives. Importantly, Frank’s behaviour was ambiguous in his action. Traits included in the study were either hostile or were unrelated. The experiment was designed to test whether there was a difference between how men and women viewed the aggressive actions of another while making a fist.
The results showed that men judged Frank as more friendly when they made a fist than when they made a neutral gesture. This was reversed when women made a fist as they rated Frank more hostile while making a fist than when not making a fist.
Thus, making a fist while reading about an ambiguous target affected how that target was perceived – either as hostile or as assertive.
Presumably making a gesture related to bodily force activates women’s cognition about threats and dangers. This implies that for women, making a fist activates a loss of control over their environment.
On the other hand, for men, making a bodily force gesture increases feelings of kindness of ambiguous targets thus indicating that making a fist facilitates thoughts about being assertive and in power.
Discussing The Findings
Generally speaking, men are stronger than women and so can use their physical strength to achieve desirable results. Thus, it should come as no surprise that power body language including body expansiveness, erectness of posture while making a fist activates men’s power differentially than women.
Overall men view the use of bodily force as an activation of power whereas women view it as a loss of control. Thus, men view bodily force as instrumental whereas women do not. Men see bodily force as a means to achieve and reach goals whereas women view it as a lose of control and when implemented as an expression of guilt and repression.
Thus, reading nonverbal communication should take these gender differences into account. Men are more likely to use their bodies to commit crimes whereas women are more likely to use verbal methods to mediate their environments (which may include hiring a hit man!)
Therefore, should one view a man making a fist, we should assume that they have activated desires to dominate and control. For example, during conflict, men may be seen balling the fist in anger. Thus, we understand that he is ready and willing to take a proactive approach to restore what he has lost. While women may also resort to physical confrontation, certain with greater frequency than in the recent past, it is just as likely that a balled fist, when made by a woman actually indicates that she is losing (emotional) control of the situation.
Therefore, while both men and women ball their fist in anger or hostility, they sense these feelings differently. In other words, while men feel more empowered when they make a fist and desire action, when women ball their fist, they feel that they are losing control and will more often then not, withdraw.
Naturally, there are many within gender effects and certainly some men, particularly those weak in dominance who will not view bodily force or making a fist as a source of power, hostility and dominance. Likewise, there will be some women who activate hostility centers much like men and view bodily force as an effective way to achieve and, or maintain dominance. Female boxers, and MMA fighters certainly come to mind when we think of women who may be activated by bodily force primes.
Future Research
The implication of these findings are possibly more reaching than one might expect. Does instructing women to take on dominant body postures provide bodily feedback in a constructive manner?
For example, is it enough to tell women to puff out their chest, hold an erect posture, spread their legs wide, toss an arm over the chair next to them, hold their chins high with arms akimbo actually evoke feelings of power and assertiveness (as it works in men)?
These questions remain to be explored, however, from the research thus far, it seems as though men and women are differentially affected by these nonverbals.
It could very well be that women achieve dominance through activating submissive body language – certainly as likely as it is that men achieve dominance through dominant posture. There is nothing in nature that says that nonverbal communication must affect men and women in the same ways. What matters in nature is not the precise method but rather the precise results. Women have been known to masterfully manipulate the behaviours of others in ways that diverge significantly away from outright dominance.
While it seems clear exactly how men achieve nonverbal dominance and certainly some women may also achieve dominance in this way, it seems less certain that women achieve more consistent long-term influence the same way.
For example, women may achieve power unilaterally from others by crying, cowering, lowering the head and peering upward, titling their head to the side, and otherwise submitting. Through her desire to submit, she is able to effectively manipulate others toward her desires. As recounted by many women, crying, the ultimate in submission, is an effective way to reduce punishment. This has been found in courts as well as in the world generally. Young girls also readily manipulate their fathers with coy glances and pouting which rival any dominance displays or physical manipulation or broadside display of power exhibited by men. It is as if girls are born with a set repertoire to be deployed.
We should always be aware that dominance and submission are effective ways that men and women use to affect the outcome of varied situations. While men typically use dominance displays most effectively to achieve desired results, it’s equally as likely that women use submissive displays in the same vein.
More research is encouraged.
Image Credit: bark
Resources
Schubert, Thomas W. The Power In Your Hand: Gender Differences In Bodily Feedback
From Making a Fist. Society for Personality and Social Psychology. 30(6): 757-769.
DOI: 10.1177/0146167204263780